Just on the heels of my previous post, imagine my surprise when scrolling through my Instagram feed when I saw that the Postman had made a visit to Barcelona. The artist has placed (according to response to my comment) around 30 pieces around the Raval and Born neighborhoods. Because of the heat, and limited time, I was only able to find the ones below, but I’m hoping the others last long enough until my next trip down.
It’s been nearly a month since the last post, as this year I found myself bogged down between playing catch-up after a short trip to NYC, wrapping up two new university courses, and taking on some extra Cambridge examining. The images from this entry are from just that trip, which has become an annual pre- or post- Memorial day trip to New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
These pasteups all come from Freeman alley, a very easy-to-miss hidden gem, just off lower Manhattan’s Bowery.
The pasteups themselves come mostly from well-known artists The Postman (Warhol and Basquiat) and Sacsix (Danny Devito). I’m not sure of the artist of the partially-gone Kurt Cobain, but I’ll be sure to provide an update.
Next time you find yourself in lower Manhattan, I’d recommend you swing by the alley, as it’s always full of some interesting art.
There’s been a bit of radio silence on the blog lately, but between the beginning of course, having fallen down the rabbit hole of blockchain technology, and of course the current political situation, I’ve been neglecting the writing. I’m working on a piece on the Catalonia situation, which changes by the hour, as well as a recap of random shots I’ve taken over the past few months. In the meantime, I leave you with a pasteup I stumbled upon on the 1 of October, the tumultuous referendum day.
Just after the point where my street changes names from Bruniquer to Terol–it actually does so 4 times before finally ending–there is a dead end street/alleyway where you can find a blue doorway which has been decorated, and over-decorated constantly during the time I’ve had this blog. Saturday morning, I noticed that the artist TVboy had pasted up a giant image of Frida Kahlo dressed as a tourist, complete with an I ♥ BCN t-shirt. I snapped a quick photo, but as is often the case in sunny Barcelona, the time of day left a heavy shadow. On my way back home just two hours later, the sun had changed position , and I was hoping to get a better shadow-free shot. It wasn’t to be, however, as someone had come by and sprayed an orange cover over Frida, leaving just her eyes free. While I was a bit dismayed at not having been able to get my photo, I don’t personally see this as an act of destruction. I prefer to see it as part of the natural process, albeit quite accelerated, of what happens to art that is in the street, unprotected by vigilant museum security, alarms, glass casing, or velvet ropes.
Something similar happened to another piece by TvBoy which gained international media attention. The artist had pasted up an image of international football superstars Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo locked in a passionate kiss, just before one of the famous “Clasico” matches that take place between eternal rivals Barça and Real Madrid. It was near Plaça Catalunya, one of the most highly-traversed points in the Catalan capital. I won’t include a photo here, as my personal policy for this blog is that all photos must be taken by me, and in this case, I missed my opportunity, as not only did someone remove the image, but the entire abandoned petrol kiosk which hosted the image was removed. A bit overdramatic, in my opinion. In any case, here is a link to the Ronaldo-Messi photo, and another that was placed in Italy near the Vatican just this week of Pope Francis and US President Donald Trump.
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Barcelona Street Scraps 