Greta Thunberg, activism on a mural in San Francisco

Collater.al Contributors · 3 years ago · Art

Imagine being in San Francisco on a classic autumn day and, as you walk through the streets of the city, you come across a mega mural with a giant Greta Thunberg drawing.
Definitely an unusual situation but one that makes you talk, and a lot.

A few days ago, the young Swedish activist nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, fixed the pedestrians who travel Mason Steet near Union Square.
This is because the Argentine artist Andrés Iglesias, known as cobre and famous for his hyperrealistic portraits, has created a huge mural in the heart of the American city.

The work was unveiled after 10 days of work with the appearance of the signature of the author’s stage name. The idea for this environmental-themed initiative is from the NGO One atmosphere, which hired the artist after seeing a previous mural depicting the deceased actor Robin Williams. Cobre was also helped to obtain the various permits to make it and to cover the cost of the paint.

The reason why Greta Thunberg was chosen is based on the activist movement that has developed over the last year. Thanks to her and her perseverance, thousands of young people have sided with the cause, striking and demonstrating against all those who impact primarily on global pollution, on climate change and, if we want to put it bluntly, on the self-destruction of the planet.

The mural aims to pay homage to Greta but at the same time to remind people that the problem of climate change is true and current and that it also affects us closely.
The feedback from people who have seen it live or through the media has been so positive that the photos taken at the mural have been shared by the local and global media. The intention was precisely this, to spread the message more and more widely and to raise awareness, involve and inform as many people as possible.

This is not the first time that Greta Thunberg has been represented on murals. It has already happened in Istanbul, in the Kadikoy district, where a portrait was made by Portuguese artists Dheo and Pariz One. In addition, a work about the activist also appeared in Bristol. This is proof of how art is able to communicate positive messages and raise people’s awareness of the cause.

Text by Anna Cardaci

Tags street art

Art

Greta Thunberg, activism on a mural in San Francisco

1 · 3

2 · 3

3 · 3

Collater.al & Brillo. Together in the name of the love of illustration

Giulia Guido · 5 days ago · Art

We need new imagery, created in pencil, pen, black and white or colour, drawn on a sheet of paper or digitally. We also need a place where we can admire and immerse ourselves in these imaginaries. And what if this place were actually two?
Collater.al and Brillo have joined forces to give even greater prominence to illustrators who are ready to take us into their world.

Over the next few months, the Instagram profiles of @collater.al and @brillo_magazine will feature the work of these young talents, who promptly responded to the open call launched by the two magazines, and which you can always review here.

DANIELE MORGANTI

LORENA SPURIO aka WABISABI

SOFIA ROMAGNOLO aka AZZURROSCURO

MARIANNA POGGIONI

CHARLOTTE LE BLEU

BERTRAND AZNAR

ANTONIO COLOMBONI aka SCOMBINATO

SHUT UP CLAUDIA

EDOARDO MARCONI aka RADIOCOMANDERO

Cover by Carlotte Le Bleu

Tags illustration

Art

Collater.al & Brillo. Together in the name of the love of illustration

1 · 1

“Okja” in ten frames

Giulia Guido · 4 days ago · Art

“Okja” is a 2017 film directed by Bong Joon-ho. Although it did not rake in awards like the subsequent “Parasite“, “Okja” ranks among the South Korean director’s best works and features an ensemble cast that includes Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, and Jake Gyllenhaal.

The film tells the story of a young girl who for most of her life has raised a genetically modified “super pig,” building a bond of mutual affection with him. But their lives are set to change drastically as the industry that actually created the animal must take it back to begin the slaughtering process.
This is an exposing film against the mistreatment of animals within the meat industry that manages to deal with the topic by focusing on empathy and friendship. For this very reason in 2019 it was named one of the most influential films of the decade by the New York Times.

In “Okja,” the state of mind of the protagonist and her animal are reflected in the colors of the sets and the choices related to the cinematography, curated by Darius Khondji (Seven, Midnight in Paris, Uncut Gems), which manage to completely capture the viewer.

Tags pop corn

Art

“Okja” in ten frames

1 · 11

2 · 11

3 · 11

4 · 11

5 · 11

6 · 11

7 · 11

8 · 11

9 · 11

10 · 11

11 · 11

The illusion of calm in the illustrations of Kento IIDA

Tommaso Berra · 4 days ago · Art

You know the sky on certain summer days, when you couldn’t find a cloud miles away and everything above our heads is a delicate blue, the color of the sweetest of spun sugars? Illustrator Kento IIDA finds in this atmosphere of calm the inspiration for his works, images of tranquil landscapes but leaving an atmosphere of suspicion, as if something unforeseen will happen soon, or as if something unforeseen has just happened, far from the eyes of possible witnesses.
In these vignettes there are always elements or signs that suggest a movement that breaks the calm, sometimes the movement has already happened or is in progress, as in the case of cars launching from bridges or space missiles lifting angular clouds to the sky like marble sculptures.

Kento IIDA (who is based in Tokyo) incorporates elements of Japanese tradition in his illustrations, thus traditional buildings and views of snow-capped peaks that hint at Mount Fuji appear in these ambiguous scenes, as well as baseball players, a national sport in Japan and probably the artist’s favorite.
There are not only clear skies in the views, however; poetry is also provided by clouds, often single and isolated, or by gloomy skies that sound like an omen, in an increasingly suspended and uncertain time.

Tags art

Art

The illusion of calm in the illustrations of Kento IIDA

1 · 9

2 · 9

3 · 9

4 · 9

5 · 9

6 · 9

7 · 9

8 · 9

9 · 9

Vickie Vainionpää’s code-generated works

Tommaso Berra · 1 day ago · Art

Artistic expression is now no longer bound only to manual gesture, and in some cases not even to the artist’s choice. Vickie Vainionpää‘s works in fact follow that artistic strand in which works are the result of codes, of an algorithm that creates unpredictable solutions by reworking basic information. The Montreal-based artist creates his works through a generative code, which traces a certain number of points placed in a Cartesian plane.
The result is that of twisted shapes like guts or extraterrestrial organic creatures, in which even the color and shades are dictated by the generative code.

The forms are then the basis for oil paintings on canvas, in which the digital forms acquire a presence and matter through the texture of the support, the shadows and the layering of color. Some of these canvases are recently on display in New York at The Hole NYC gallery for the artist’s solo exhibition entitled “Software.”
In Vickie Vainionpää’s works, the relationship between man and machine merges, the physical and virtual experience become interconnected to the point of blurring the genesis of everything. Who creates? Who is created by whom? A series of questions that help read and complicate the present.