BOOK A STREET ARTIST MAGAZINE ISSUE 7 / OCTOBER 2015
BOOK A STREET ARTIST MAGAZINE ISSUE 7 / OCTOBER 2015 EDITORS IN CHIEF Guille Lasarte & Charlotte Specht guille@pantamagazine.com charlotte@bookastreetartist.com ART DIRECTOR Guille Lasarte MARKETING DIRECTOR Mario Rueda mario@bookastreetartist.com CONTRIBUTORS Suthipa Kamyam, Pepper Levain, Mademoiselle Maurice, Janielle Williams, Michael Mann, Sister Fa, Lee Camp, CS Muncy, Tribal Baroque (Lila’Angelique & S.K. Thoth), Sandra Zegarra Patow, Dan Rubin, Luiz Henrique Ferreira, JOS*, Pau Quintanajornet, PROJECT WALLFLOWERS, illopetals (Leon Sparks & Deborah Brogden), Katharina Finke, Dies Irae SPECIAL THANKS TO Daniel Rode www.pantamagazine.com panta@bookastreetartist.com FOUNDERS OF BOOK A STREET ARTIST Charlotte Specht Mario Rueda www.bookastreetartist.com
Cover photograph by Luiz Henrique Ferreira
LETTER FROM THE EDITORS With this seventh issue of PANTA, we are celebrating the magazine’s second birthday! It all started out as a vague idea from three friends and colleagues who love art, indie magazines and creativity in general. Back then, we didn’t know exactly where to start, so we created most of the content for the first issue ourselves, interviewing whoever would answer our questions, photographing whoever would pose for us and working with the first few collaborators who believed in our vision. Although we still have much to learn and PANTA still has a lot of growing up to do, we’ve seen this magazine evolve over the last two years from an amateur DIY magazine to an established publication with a strong character and opinion. If there’s one thing we’ve learnt from this endeavor that encourages us to carry on is that art hardly ever has no impact. A first glance is never enough, and the stories and dreams of our contributors continue to inspire us to dig deeper into the influence that art can have on an individual, a group, a community, a society and ultimately the world. More than 4 million visits online show us that you can hear us, so we plan on continuing to collect and showcase inspiring work by influential artists from around the world. Thank you for being a part of PANTA.
ISSUE 7 / CONTENTS
ILLUSTRATION
creatures from her imagination Text by Guille Lasarte Illustrations by Suthipa Kamyam www.suthipakamyam.com
Although it may not seem like it when we see her illustrations, Suthipa hasn’t been sketching as far back as she could hold a pencil. She actually only began drawing a little over four years ago – a surprising achievement considering the technical mastery exhibited in her work. Originally from Bangkok, Thailand, Suthipa’s background is in graphic design and she only got into illustration when she was pursuing her MFA from the School of Design and Crafts (HDK) at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. “I was very inspired by the nature there, which is completely different from where I grew up. So I started to turn those impressions into drawings,” says Suthipa. Suthipa is currently based in her hometown of Bangkok, where she believes there are increasing opportunities for young artists. “People are taking more and more of an interest in contemporary art. Over the last few years, there have been many small independent galleries and art spaces opening up all over Bangkok.”
As for inspiration, Suthipa draws it from “memories and stories I’m interested in, usually stories of nature and folktales. When I start a big project, I usually think of these stories and connect them into a bigger story.” Whatever she’s doing, she’s doing it right – her illustrations have appeared in multiple magazines, including Wallpaper* and Grafik. She’s shown her work in a number of exhibitions across Europe, North America and Asia and has also been published in a number of international book publications. Suthipa’s distinct style is characterized by fine detail, a remarkabale understanding of texture and a generally grayscale color palette – a style that she developed while working as an assistant to artists Nina Gorfer and Sarah Cooper back in Sweden. Now, Suthipa works as a freelancer, taking on clients from a variety of fields while simultaneously developing her own personal projects. Watch out for this talent on the rise! ◆
7
10 ILLUSTRATION
SUTHIPA KAMYAM 11
Joko Koma, Berlin
PHOTOGRAPHY
under ground Photography by Pepper Levain
Pepper's photographic endeavors were supported by
PEPPER LEVAIN 17
After studying and working as a video and live performance artist in Brighton, UK, Pepper started developing characters for an experimental film in 2014. Supported by her current art school (Academy of Media Arts Cologne), the young artist traveled to New York to begin a visual and cultural research journey. Using a Polaroid and Yashica camera, she photographed drag queens, clubkids, transsexuals, cross dressers and any unique figures of underground nightlife, art and fashion that she could find. Her photographic impressions juxtapose personified artificiality with radical authenticity. While holding a strong visual approach, the project’s content opens a contemporary dialogue relating to gender, AIDS history, gay rights and mainstream vs. underground. It offers a visual landscape that moves away from documenting subcultures as a form of victimization. Instead, it captures the strength and empowerment inherent of a highly diverse scene which may be regarded as a symbolic statement for freedom of selfexpression, creativity and an act of social emancipation above all. Meanwhile the project was continued in Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. It continuously generates a growing archive of footage. Currently, Pepper is photographically exploring the everyday work routines of dominatrixes. While her photography rapidly developed an own dynamic and became an independent project, the film is still being written. Most of the images in this feature are works from Pepper’s last exhibition, “Divine Daughters: Beasts of Revolution 2014/15” (Kartell Kollektiv, Düsseldorf, June 2015). ◆ www.pepperlevain.com Opposite page: Top: Ruby Wednesday, London Bottom: Tarren Johnson, Berlin This page: Top: Onehalf Nelson, New York Bottom: The artist herself, Pepper Levain
18 PHOTOGRAPHY
Crystal Osbourne & Neil Gogoi, New York
PEPPER LEVAIN 19
Amanda Lepore, New York
24 PHOTOGRAPHY
This page: Top: Jarrett Edward & Zac Weiss, New York Bottom: Kenny Kenny, New York Opposite page: ReveRso, Berlin
PEPPER LEVAIN 25
MUSIC
SISTER FA Text by Janielle Williams Photos by Michael Mann
Fatou Mandiang Diatta, also known as Sister Fa, was in her teens when she started making music in her hometown Dakar. Women weren’t common, let alone supported, in the music industry. They were expected to seek husbands and become caretakers of children and households. Sister Fa encountered disparagement from her own father, a teacher by profession who preferred her to become a pharmacist or a lawyer to becoming a rapper. She still chased her calling, most of the time evading household duties to pursue her music. At only nineteen years old, Sister Fa rapped alongside some of today’s most famous hip hop artists at the Senegalese Hip Hop Awards. Shortly after, her presence became internationally known. She has since performed on ten separate compilation albums and produced two solo albums, Hip Hop Ya La Fal (2005) and Sarabah (2009) and is in the process of making a third.
41
42 MUSIC
SISTER FA 43
“I PREFER ACTION OVER DISCUSSION,” SHE SAID, WITH A GRIN SPREAD ACROSS HER FACE. AND HER SUCCESSES SPEAK FOR THAT CALL TO ACTION. A FLAME OF INTEREST IN MUSICAL EXPRESSION BLAZED INTO A CAREER OF HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM.
I
t was a surprise to be greeted by a soft-spoken voice, given the commanding quality of Sister Fa’s rapping tone and the candid nature of her lyrics. Between global conferences and concurrent projects, she had time to discuss two of her passions – music and activism – and how they’re evolving together in her career. As her musical career began to grow, Sister Fa realized that the work of female artists is not to achieve the same as men in the music industry. The task is to create a unique space for themselves and demonstrate that they have “something to give and say.” The lyrics of many of Senegal’s songs are rich with social and political commentary. Youssou N’Dour, the legendary Senegalese singer and one of the earliest artists of the famed Senegalese mbalax style of music, has sung of and triggered change on a host of sociopolitical issues. When Sister Fa started her musical career in the early 2000s, the two decade long rebellion in southern Senegal was still underway and provided constant fuel for political discourse. Sister Fa wished to bridge the love of music with a desire to be an agent of change, particularly for the living conditions of women in Senegal. Women work difficult jobs without respite to feed their children. The majority of women work in the informal sector, which often excludes the possibility that basic rights will be ensured. They often work long hours under substandard or even dangerous working conditions. Those who work in rural areas run the ongoing risk of being raped. At home, they may be victims of domestic abuse. Sister Fa asked herself at a young age why such an unjust establishment allowed itself to be perpetuated in Senegal, and how this cycle of inheritance
from one generation of women to the next could be stopped. She found the means not through traditional Senegalese music, but through hip hop. Once, in an interview, she called hip hop “protest music,” a phrase that captures the particular power of hip hop in demanding attention and forcing listeners to reflect on social issues. “I prefer action over discussion,” she said, with a grin spread across her face. And her successes speak for that call to action. A flame of interest in musical expression blazed into a career of human rights activism. Female genital cutting (FGC) has been at the forefront of the issues for which Sister Fa campaigns. FGC is practiced in regions of Africa, a few countries in the Middle East, and among some communities in South America. The most recent initiative is Senegal Free FGC 2017. She aims to eradicate the practice of cutting within three years. It’s a project that Sister Fa created independently and has since managed to rally the support of various NGOs, the Ministry of Education and Health, as well as medical professionals. According to United Nations Human Rights Council reports, a quarter of women between ages 15 and 49 are victims of FGC around the world. Girls from birth to age 10 are often forced to undergo the procedure. Physical and psychological trauma and even death can result from the mutilation. Sister Fa spoke of three seventeen-day old babies of the Chami community in Colombia who died as a result of FGC in 2007. She’s fighting to prevent FGC and other traditional practices that are adverse to women’s well-being from becoming a “destiny” for her own young daughter and for all women.
INTERVIEW
LAUGHTER & POLITICS: LEE CAMP Interview by Mario Rueda Photos by CS Muncy
Lee, are you an activist who started using comedy to raise awareness about current social and political problems or are you a comedian who realized that humor could be a great tool to send across a meaningful message? Which one came first? I am a humanist who got trapped in an opium den of laughter. I am a comedian at heart. I wanted to be a comedian since age 12 – jotting down comedic ideas in the deep recesses of my bedroom while other kids were kissing girls. Lucky for me, no girls showed such interest – leaving me countless hours to write comedy. I started performing live at 17. For the first five years of my comedy career, I did not say anything that one would consider “political,” unless you think that vending machines failing to produce the candy you paid for counts as a civil rights issue. Then my material became increasingly political. I grew as an activist offstage as well. One fine day I was part of a handful of activists who saved a death row prisoner’s life in Texas. I screamed with joy when I found out he would live. Then I screamed the horror of a man realizing one person (or a handful) can save a life. Why horror? Because it means every action matters. Every moment matters. Up until that point in my life I had thought I “kinda” mattered. After that moment I felt wrong for every time I got on a stage and didn’t talk about the harshest realities of our times. This doesn’t mean that my words have made that much difference. I can’t calculate that. BUT it means I have to try. I can’t bare an existence in which I don’t even try.
You cover very serious topics in your shows. Who are you trying to reach or what are you trying to achieve? Are you human? Then I’m trying to reach you. Are you conscious? Then I’m trying to impact you. Do you see suffering around the world and wonder what we can do about it? Then I’m trying to make you take the next step. And then I also tell fart jokes. They help the medicine go down. How do you know you are taken seriously by your audience when their natural reaction is to laugh about the jokes you make? How do any of us know we’re taken seriously? Maybe we’re not. Maybe it’s all a cosmic joke at our expense. But also people e-mail me and tell me they take me seriously. It really depends on how a joke is presented. A joke can be written/delivered in a way that makes it clear the comedian is “just kidding” and that everything they’ve just said is nonsense. Then there’s a way to have a joke that simply lightens the mood and entertains while the point is still made – in a very serious sense. People know when Jon Stewart is joking and when he truly feels something needs to change or needs to be said. Then there are other comedians where every word they say is meant to be laughed at. They are telling you not to take them seriously in the slightest. I’m not one of those comedians (though that doesn’t mean they aren’t funny and talented).
47
48 INTERVIEW
Why do you think there is still many comedymakers out there making “commercial comedy” and not making “impact comedy”? You just answered your own question. “Commercial comedy.” Commercial equals advertising. Advertising equals money. Money equals happiness. You didn’t know that? Money equals happiness. The Koch Brothers are a billion times happier than you and I. Seriously though, I think that the reason most artists – be it comedians or singers or actors – don’t talk about politics much is that they A) don’t care or B) don’t want to lose their careers. What I do is not generally acceptable for corporate interests. I have had a fluke career in which I now have my own TV show even though I say everything that every major media conglomerate hates. It’s like trying to earn a living by being a splinter. “If I can just find the corporation
he could no longer be associated with Nike because he can’t accept their horrible labor practices. It would be a massive scandal. Would the team drop him? Who knows, but I’d love to watch it! I really wish there was more of that. But on the other hand, I don’t believe comedy should only be about politics. I love a lot of apolitical comedians – from Mitch Hedberg to Louis C.K. – there is great comedy out there that is not politically based. You are very aware of current international affairs. Were you always interested in politics and society or did you have a certain “awakening”? My mind and my passion for activism blew open after I graduated college and moved to NYC. We started bombing a country of brown people – can’t remember which one because we do it too often (it was Iraq.)
I THINK THAT THE REASONS MOST ARTISTS – BE IT COMEDIANS OR SINGERS OR ACTORS – DON'T TALK ABOUT POLITICS MUCH IS THAT THEY A) DON'T CARE OR B) DON'T WANT TO LOSE THEIR CAREERS.
that WANTS a splinter, I'll have it made.” I’m happy that this has happened, but it’s a true outlier. Almost no comedy careers work like that, even though it’s incredibly rewarding. If you want widespread acclaim and spots on late night shows, don’t do what I’m doing (turns into camera). Hear that kids?! Don’t follow my example if you want to co-star in the next Adam Sandler vehicle! In general, do you approve of artists who make art only for commercial purposes or would you say every artist has an obligation to use the channels given to them and help improve our world? No, I don’t want to put my desires and motivations on others. I wish a great many other artists spoke out. I can’t imagine what it would be like if some huge athlete like Peyton Manning or Tom Brady or something said
And I finally thought, “Why the fuck are we doing this? What did Iraq do to us?” This realization is called becoming an adult. Many people never make it. Many people remain children, turning on the news and going, “Oh, I guess Iraq is dangerous. We better bomb them.” They never question the reality we’re fed by people who think they own the world, people who think they have the right to murder a child in Iraq because it helps the stock price of the oil company they have money in. I also got my real education after college. That’s when it’s time to actually read the important books and watch the real news – such as DemocracyNow. You have a vast followership on social media and beyond – a great opportunity to bring your message to many people. What is your secret for building such a community? g
LEE CAMP 49
58
PHOTOGRAPHY
THE GRIO PROJECT Photography by Luiz Henrique Ferreira Models: Alessandra Cardoso, Danielle Morais, Nadine Pazini, Lua Soares & Vanessa Oliveira
Luiz Henrique Ferreira is a young photographer from Brasília. His work focuses on the representation of peripheral youth through a gender approach. Luiz has been taking photographs for three years now and aims to represent what he considers misrepresented black youth through a series entitled “The Griô Project”. This project analyzes the representation of black ghetto youth in the Federal District of Brazil. As a member of this youth, he aims to deconstruct the poetry of his people, break stereotypes and challenge mainstream standards of beauty, which he considers “white and Eurocentric”. Ghettos, he says, are colorful, happy and the youth in them create an original sense of aesthetics. “Girls empower themselves though their hair pieces, their braids, the flowers in their hair. I am a part of this. I empower myself by taking photos of my brothers and sisters; an artistic act of resistance,” says Luiz. ◆
59
LUIZ HENRIQUE FERREIRA 61
62 PHOTOGRAPHY
LUIZ HENRIQUE FERREIRA 63
64 PHOTOGRAPHY
LUIZ HENRIQUE FERREIRA 65
66 PHOTOGRAPHY
LUIZ HENRIQUE FERREIRA 67
72 ART & COMMUNITY
PROJECT WALLFLOWERS 73
78 ARTISTS
ILLOPETALS 79
80 ARTISTS
ILLOPETALS 81
INTERVIEW
84
reclaiming public space Interview by Katharina Finke Photos courtesy of Dies Irae A lot of people had mixed feelings about Jerry Seinfeld’s Clio acceptance speech last year. Perhaps the ad execs didn’t take too well to his comment of them having “phony careers and meaningless lives.” But what he said, whether he said it simply for the sake of ironic comedy or not, is a sad truth of our capitalist existence. We convince ourselves that this is the way the system works and that if we don’t like it, we should consider that the alternatives aren’t so pretty either. But the fact of the matter is that we do buy a bunch of crap we don’t need because there are so many talented people using their energy exclusively to, in Seinfeld’s words, “dupe innocent people out of hard-won earnings to buy useless, low quality, misrepresented items and services”. So, every now and then, we need to be awakened from our moral compromise, at least to ease ourselves of the anxiety of feeling this uncontainable need to buy the new iPhone model the second it comes out, even if our current phone works just fine. And that’s why we increasingly value artists that engage in ad busting or subvertising – a practice that a rising amount of street artists are getting into, which involves ridiculing or parodying corporate and political advertisements in public spaces by intervening directly on the ads themselves. The German street artist known as Dies Irae has come to form part of this scene by transforming corporate ads into political messages. The thirty-year old freelancer has been doing this – with a little help from his friends – for two years now. He recently gained a lot of attention with his “Refugees Welcome” posters in Freital, Germany, which encouraged him to continue doing this kind of work. But, due to its illegal circumstances, he can’t reveal his real identity.
DIES IRAE 85
86 INTERVIEW
What is your regular job? Ideally, I would like to see myself as a fulltime activist. Realistically, I’m working on a freelance basis and I’m earning money through two things. One is campaigning and giving workshops on political education and other related topics. The second is selling consumer electronics. This allows me to work for approximately two months and then I have time for activism for three to four months. It’s kind of a balance, which is fine with me. How did you get involved in ad busting? When I was studying business and management, I had some marketing classes and I always had this feeling that it’s not right to convince people to buy things they don’t need and possibly didn’t even know exist – hence the role of marketing in the creation of need. I learnt about the practice of ad busting on the Internet started doing it too. When and why? That was two years ago. Well, there are many interesting ways to get your message across in order to get people thinking about important issues, such as social injustice, economic inequality and environmental issues. And I found that ad busting is a really good way to do that. Why did you choose Dies Irae as your pseudonym? It’s a very powerful sequence in Verdi’s Requiem, which is about the doomsday. When I heard it in a church it gave me the chills. It means “day of anger” and as I feel so angry about so many issues, I chose it for my articulation of it, which is the ad-busting. So you start ad busting when you feel angry about something? Yes, usually I see an advertisement, do some research on the issue – for example, bad working conditions in the textile industry – and see what NGOs and critical journalists wrote about it. Then I take the poster, add this information on it, and put it back. But in Freital you put completely new posters saying, for example, “Refugees welcome”. That was different, true. My urge to do something against these right-wing people increased so much that I did something even without an already existing advertisement. But I used the power of it. I went to Freital and as it’s a small place I thought putting up around twenty posters would have an impact and it did. “The new Coca-Cola Greenwashing. With Stevia-Extract. Now with only 11 cubes of sugar!”
DIES IRAE 87
“The garbage monster”
88 INTERVIEW
What impact did it have? Good question. As a political activist of course you want to make a significant impact, but it’s hard to tell. Online you can use the number of likes and shares as indicators, but what it changes in reality, you never know.
own public space. They could vote if they want to use certain walls for street art, political messages or simply information that’s useful for them, like opening hours of a public swimming pool or community center, new neighborhood initiatives, etc.
What do you generally want to achieve with ad busting then? Two things. First, I want to create awareness specific social issues, like working conditions in the clothing industry, climate change, income inequality, lobbyism, animal exploitation and so on. And the other thing I want to achieve is to challenge the meaning of public space in contemporary Western societies.
Do you think advertisers are already using street art for their own interests? Unfortunately they are. And some companies are also using techniques of ad busting to sell their product. For example, Sony advertised a new phone with a battery that’s supposed to last longer and added cocaine lines on the phone’s screen, as if someone had ‘busted’ the ad.
Why? Public space belongs to the people. I don’t think it's legitimate that corporations and the state are the only entities allowed to shape public space. It’s not a democratic process. So what do you suggest? Instead of so many advertisements everywhere, we should be getting people involved in creating their
What do you wish for the future of ad busting? I encourage more people start doing it in order to express whatever they think deserves to be spoken about, whatever issues they’re concerned about, be it social, economic, political, etc. and articulate these messages in your public space, because it belongs to you. Also, I hope people join the next No-Ad Day, at the end of November (www.noadday.org), an initiative that asks participants to refrain from purchasing goods for a period of 24 hours. ◆
89