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Posts Tagged ‘Bombs’

Still Life with Smoke Bombs: Artist Live-Paints Berkeley Protest Violence

19 Apr

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

This past Saturday, Trump supporters and counter-protesters from the left clashed violently in liberal Berkeley, all while one intrepid street painter captured the scene live on canvas. As reporters filmed and photographed the chaos, John Paul Marcelo biked his mobile painting station into place.

The alt-right rally organizers and their opponents arrived ready for a brawl, variously equipped with shields, helmets, wooden poles, pepper spray and other weapons. “By mid-afternoon,” reports Blake Montgomery, “the dueling protesters were screaming insults at each other over a flaming pile of trash and using a dumpster as a battering ram.” In the end, dozens were arrested on both sides.

But in the midst of the mayhem (or at least: slightly off to one side) was perhaps the most unexpected sight of all — Bay Area street artist John Paul Marcelo standing his ground and calmly painting the chaotic scene as it unfolded before him.

Marcelo is a fixtures of the San Francisco community, a fifteen-year resident who can be found painting ordinary street scenes as well as timely and tragic still lifes, like: a building just after a fire, burnt out and abandoned.

His artistic gear collapses on demand, folding neatly for transportation by bike to events unfolding in around the Bay or calmer, more everyday still-life subjects (below: Morning on Broadway and Telegraph in Oakland as seen in Cafe 817).

John Paul Marcelo studied graphic design and advertising, then started painting the urban decay of Chicago streets and decided to “reject modern technological mediums” and “paint exclusively en plein air, and migrate to the majestic California coastline.” And although he reports being “very content with painting existing idyllic scenes like Big Sur and Marin, past expeditions have brought him to places like post Katrina New Orleans and Cabrini Green housing projects.” His influences “include Claude Monet, James Nachtwey, and Ai Wei Wei.” (Images via AP, SfGate & KQED)

Blacking Out BLU: World-Famous Berlin Mural Erased in Protest

A huge multi-building work of art has been painted over in the Kreuzberg neighborhood of Berlin, reportedly at the behest of the artist BLU himself as a reaction to the clearing of an adjacent …

Balancing Act: Artist Paints Seaside Murals from a Surfboard

Painting a hyper-realistic mural outdoors is challenging enough on its own, and artist Sean Yoro not only pulls off incredible portraits, he does it all while balancing on his surfboard. Known as …

Beyond Beautification: Brazil Art Project Paints All the Things

Brazil is no stranger to paint-based urban interventions, of  whichRio de Janeiro is frequently the focus, but the scope and scale of this project in particular truly boggles the …

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Built of Bombs: Unexploded Ordinance Turned Into Boats & Homes

16 Oct

[ By WebUrbanist in Culture & History & Travel. ]

A legacy of living in the most-bombed country per capita in world history, Laotian citizens have spent decades since the Vietnam War dealing with close to 100 million undetonated objects of local destruction.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the US covertly dropped hundreds of millions of bombs on the country, at an average rate of one bomb per eight minutes. Today, converted bomb remnants are visible across the country, used virtually intact to loft houses above flood planes, hollowed out and turned into watercraft or containers, or stripped down for scrap.

bomb architecture scrap lift

An entire (now shrinking) nationwide industry has grown up around finding, stripping and transforming cluster bombs into metal pieces and parts deconstructed or refit for various new uses. In many villages, bombshells are visible throughout the built environment.

Photographer Mark Watson took a cross-country bike trip and documented these remarkable cases of reuse. “Scrap from such widespread bombing has been utilized in people’s homes and villages,” Watson said, “for everything from house foundations to planter boxes to buckets, cups and cowbells.”

bomb boat riverfront

While it may sound at first like an uplifting story of turning swords into ploughshares, there is a dark side to this tale. To this day, over 100 people die annually from accidental detonations, either from bombs still loose in the countryside or in attempts to deactivate or convert found ordinance.

Non-profit organizations working to clear the country of this danger estimate it may yet take another century to complete the cleanup process (via Inhabitat and Mark Watson of Highlux Photography).

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Throw a Bouquet: Guerrilla Seed Bombs & Flower Grenades

Filling shotgun shells with flower seeds is just the latest (and loudest) in a long line of designs for guerrilla gardeners. If you are looking for a little …
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Yarn Bombs! 51 Victims of Knitted Graffiti

Yarn bombing is graffiti that grandmothers approve of! They consist of quickly knitted additions to street objects and sculptures. Why? Because it’s fun!
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Modern Trolls: 10 Bridges Turned to Homes & Mini-Cities

Inhabited bridges were once very common all across Europe and other parts of the world. Today, not many remain, but will they make a resurgence in the future?
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Throw a Bouquet: Guerrilla Seed Bombs & Flower Grenades

21 Jan

[ By WebUrbanist in Art & Street Art & Graffiti. ]

seed bomb guerrilla gardening

Filling shotgun shells with flower seeds is just the latest (and loudest) in a long line of designs for guerrilla gardeners. If you are looking for a little less bang for your buck than seed-swapped buckshot, you may wan to try a seed ball, bomb or grenade instead, all a bit more stealthy despite their loud-sounding names.

seed bomb flower grenade

One throw-and-grow option for the concrete jungle is this compostable-shelled Flower Grenade packed with ryegrass, buttercups and poppies. This hardy custom-tailored mix is designed to flower in sequence for a multi-week, time-delay effect well beyond the ten seconds or so of their traditional wartime relatives.

seed bomb machine dispenser

Another cleverly-titled approach comes from Greenaid, a group intent on seeding the urban landscape with converted gumball machines rejigged to dispense seed bombs instead of sweets. Put in a quarter and receive a ball made of clay, compost and seeds to help you compact dull gray vacant lots and faded green parking medians.

These Greenaid creations are uniquely tailored to provide local wildflowers native to the areas in which they are deployed – in LA, for instance, they contain White Yarrow, California Poppy, Lupine and Blue Flax.

seed bombs region specific

There are lots of other options, too, from region-oriented seed balls for sale on sites like Etsy to do-it-yourself instructions or kits to help you build your own. When it comes to guerrilla gardening, the real trick is understanding your environment and purpose, then strategically finding a solution for that particular context.

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Guerrilla Gardening: Shotgun Shells Filled with Flower Seeds

Seed bombs have long been a (non-violent) weapon of choice for guerrilla gardeners, but Flower Shells now aim to make your 12-gauge shotgun a key part of your …
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Gone to Seed: 9 Green Plant-Sprouting Product Designs

These products all have one thing in common: they were designed to be reincarnated as blooming flowers, fragrant herbs or delicious vegetables.
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Guerrilla Art & Guerrilla Advertising: What’s the Difference?

Will the already-faint lines between the two one day become completely transparent? Read on and find out for yourself.
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Babylon Bombs Liberation(NEW VIDEO 2009)

02 Aug

Here’s the new video from the swedish hard rockers Babylon Bombs. Get it on iTunes here itunes.apple.com Liberation is taken from the new album “Babylon’s Burning”, due 23 October. Pre-order here babylonbombs.net Director: Rick-y & Fabes Production info: Shot vid Nikon D90
Video Rating: 4 / 5

 
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Posted in Nikon Videos