In 2009 Niemand( Yivic Fiers, 1981) and Russian Sergej Andreev hung canvasses in the streets for others to take home. Their Kunst Op Straat( art in the street) project evolved towards Collective égoïste, which combined individual canvasses and stencils. Their name refers to their clashing ego's on exhibitions in squatting buildings.
Sergej Andreev is known for using icons to criticize consumerism and politics. He depicts religious images with Gucci glasses and superheroes. His sculptures are composed of relics and self made robots.
As a sixteen year old Yvic Fiers( then using artist name Scum) had his first spray paint experiences with his friend Freddy D. Niemand stands for a fat victim of consumerism.
Since 2012 Niemand and Andreev collaborate in Collective Narcistique, an anarchist, left wing group which focuses on socio-political criticism on topical subjects. Henk De Ruddere and Michel Clair often take part in their street interventions.
Carrots and tape were the main ingredients of their carrot bombs , installed at the door of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ghent and the surrounding park. In the red light district they shared their Love, take as much as you need leaflet.
In 2014 the duo, dressed in white uniforms with nigger written on their backs to denounce a racist tag, installed a large scale version of Malhaize(sickness) at the docks in Ghent. The political piece shows the Belgian right wing political NVA party in combination with the adapted Delhaize logo.
Recurring laser stencils include the sheep Sheepo, skulls, mayor Daniel Termont, the humoristic What would Mac Gyver do? and House(Everybody lies).
B4.DA. $$ is the title of Joey Bada$$' official debut album.
At school he and his Progressive era crew friends engaged in happy music making. In 2012 furore surrounded the video clip of Survival Tactics, featuring Bada$$ and Capital Steez.
DJ Premier, MF Doom and Q tip wanted to work with the old school adept who loves Jay D, Biggie, Nas and A Tribe called Quest.
The young New York mc(1995) goes back to the hip hop of the nineties and its positive rhymes. Joey Bada$$ prefers traditional hip hop, the music which is not (yet)coloured by money. He believes music should have a meaning. Bada$$ sees it as a philosophy to be used for positive ends and keeps on producing music for himself in the first place. No one can object to this kind of intrinsic motivation.
Tracklist 1. Save the Children 2. Greenbax (Interlude) 3. Paper Trail$ 4. Piece of Mind 5. Big Dusty 6. Hazeus View 7. Like Me (met BJ the Chicago Kid) 8. Belly of the Beats (met Chronixx) 9. No. 99 10. Christ Conscious 11. On & On (met Maverick Sabre en Dyemond Lewis) 12. Escape 120 (met Raury) 13. Black Beetles 14. O.C.B. 15. Curry Chicken
Throughout the history of art copying and interpretations play an important role. Artists were honoured to be copied.
Painter Luc Tuymans investigates the position of the image in society. He believes in authentic forging, as originality is no longer possible and he clearly sees painting as a concept. Irony and photographs are essential elements in the making of his faded oeuvre. Many of his pieces are based on self made Polaroids or Iphone photographs of photocopied pictures to neutralize their colour and make them hazy. The paintings based on these images hardly refer to reality. His renowned Der Diagnostische Blick series are based on images in a syndrome manual whilst The Secretary of State, a portrait of Condoleeza Rice, was also based on a photograph.
Controversy arose on A Belgian politician, which symbolizes and parodies politics' decay of power. As always, Tuymans used an adapted picture as a basis for the piece, which was sold to American art collector Eric Lefkofsky. Tuymans' parodied interpretation shows authentic additions and vale colours.
Photographer Katrijn van Giel sued Tuymans because the artwork was based upon one of her newspaper photographs of Jean-Marie Dedecker( De Standaard, 2010). The court of justice concluded the lighting and composition run parallel to the original's and sentenced the painter with a fine of 500 000 euros per reproduction. Notice of appeal has been given. The sentence led to a polarisation between the art of painting and press photography.
In 1992 Jeff Koons experienced a similar trial concerning his String of Puppies sculpture (1988, part of his Banality series), inspired by a photograph by Art Rogers. The Dutch photographer of the picture of Patrice Lumumba's widow felt honoured when Marlene Dumas based her piece The Widow on it.
A clear distinction between plagiarism, interpretation and derivatives should be made. It goes without saying that exact reproductions are not done. But the painterly invention of concepts is allowed to use the frozen photographical moment as a basis. Otherwise problems would arise over a photograph of an art installation, an interpretation of a poem, a sample used in a beat ...
Every artwork tells a different story, functions as a historical document, an adapted form, a personal societal reaction. Dramatic ego's easily feel threatened. Open-mindedness remains the starting point of freedom and innovation.
The sound architect of Amy Winehouse's Rehab album(2006) released the follow-up to Record Collection(2010): Uptown Special(Columbia), a party album with the sound of the funky seventies. Ronson and producer Jeff Bhasker succeeded in delivering a feel good record with the help of Bruno Mars, Mystikal and Stevie Wonder.
Mark Ronson — Uptown Funk
1. Uptown’s First Finale (feat. Stevie Wonder & Andrew Wyatt) 2. Summer Breaking (feat. Kevin Parker) 3. Feel Right (feat. Mystikal) 4. Uptown Funk! (feat. Bruno Mars) 5. I Can’t Lose (feat. Keyone Starr) 6. Daffodils (feat. Kevin Parker) 7. Crack In the Pearl (feat. Andrew Wyatt) 8. In Case of Fire (feat. Kevin Parker) 9. Leaving Los Feliz (feat. Jeff Bhasker) 10. Heavy & Rolling (feat. Andrew Wyatt) 11. Crack In The Pearl II (feat. Stevie Wonder & Jeff Bhasker)
