 |
| Faile, work on wood |
FAILE(1999) is the Brooklyn-based artistic collaboration between Patrick McNeil (b. 1975, Edmonton, CA) and Patrick Miller (b. 1976, Minneapolis, MN). The two friends met in high school and later on kept in touch whilst attending art school.
The duo created A Life in collaboration with Japanese filmmaker Aiko Nakagawa who left FAILE in 2006. A Life expresses the interaction with its environment, the deterioration of artwork caused by exposure to the elements. The detritus of the city wall was a constant inspiration …
They changed their artist name into Faile, an anagram of A Life. The trio started focusing on street art by means of large-scale screen prints, wheat pasting and stenciling recognizable pop culture images. During the early years of their career Faile’s artwork was marked by assemblage and dynamic experiments in public urban spaces.
Street art was only featured in a few galleries in New York, in spite of its history of graffiti and its status of the city of contemporary art.
Faile’s style and characteristic culture-driven iconographical language make their work very recognizable. Socio-political themes, criticism on society, consumerism and mass culture in addition to both sacred and profane cultural influences (the use of religious artifacts) are depicted in their projects.
FAILE’s recent work is marked by the consistent juxtaposition of dualities (love/hate, violence/beauty, peace/war), recurring themes which are represented by recognizable visual elements.
Their work is characterized by a certain ambiguity which allows the viewer’s open interpretation in order to be able to relate to the work. Their creations’ meaning is open and emphasizes the audience’s interactive experience.
In addition to the common street art media, they chose a wide array of media ea sculpture, architecture, multimedia, music, design and books in limited edition.
Faile and twenty one other internationally renowned artists such as Banksy, Shepard Fairey and Takashi Murakami were invited to show their work at the Spank the Monkey exhibition (2007, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art). This show was crucial contribution towards the institutional acceptance of street art.
A year later Street Art(Tate Modern, 2008), a group exhibition featuring street artists Blu, Sixeart, JR, Nunca and Os Gomeos included Faile’s work. Thanks to this exhibition Faile was able to reach a large public. Their work increasingly received more media attention.
Street art embraces hip-hop aesthetics, fixes its eye upon to the masses expression in an attempt to regain and embellish the urban environment. Contemporary art shouldn’t be restricted to museums and galleries but be available on every corner of the street.
Article written by Ann Timmermans
More information and pics:
faile@faile.net
http://www.faile.net/
No comments:
Post a Comment