Music video by Zion I performing ShadowBoxing. 2013 Live Up.
Filmed inside Endless Canvas’s SPECIAL DELIVERY Bay Area 2012 (Large Scale Mural Exhibit).
Graffiti Art:Curated by Endless Canvas as part of the SPECIAL DELIVERY 2012 Exhibit. Featuring Anemal, Jurne, Rekn, Yoder, Grow, Depht, Enor, Meck, Enero, Ernest Doty, GATS, Jules Muck, Vator, Scez, Just Becauz, Goser, Samri, M4M, Imp, Kure, Logic, Jaut, Omega, Ghost Owl, Plant Trees, Leach, Cops, Swampy, Zame, Yovoy, Pastime (Full List of Artists) Director of Photography: Michael Sato Assistant Director:Nicole Roman Lighting:Dorbyworks Editing:Spencer Groshong for Ineffable Music Location Scout:David Wong for Ineffable Music (About the Location)
This past Saturday (December 1st, 2012), True Modern set up a guerilla cocktail party inside The Carbon Warehouse. The abandoned ink factory housing Endless Canvas‘s SPECIAL DELIVERY Bay Area 2012 Mural Exhibit provided a beautiful contrast to the custom Modernist furniture displayed at the cocktail party. As models served h’orderves, guests were given flash lights and encouraged to explore three stories of the post apocalyptic museum. It was pouring rain and the flooded floors turned into giant mirrors giving new life to the artwork. Water ran through the eyes of murals from floor to floor creating the Bay Area’s own Trevi Fountain. What I thought was going to be a simple furniture shoot turned into one of the most gorgeous things I’ve ever seen.
On Saturday night, September 8, 2012, I and thousands of others witnessed the concrete and steel ruin that is Carbon Warehouse in the old Flint Ink building at 1350 Fourth Street, Berkeley return to technicolor life as a free, underground art gallery.
For hours, we gawked at the fabulous graffiti that covered close to every inch of the building, with music, beer and wine, and an electric atmosphere that should make world art hubs like London, Berlin and Venice blush.
The floor, the walls, the ceiling and sundry nooks and crannies were painted with explosive colors, designs and styles. Many works displayed wit, wildness and undeniable artistry. We gazed upwards to espy the livid ceiling of this crazy, cement Sistine, then we gazed down to follow the lushly sprays of color at our feet. Meanwhile, the building and its inhabitants trembled as the freight trains–many adorned by the same art sheltered now inside the building–roared by below.
This once-abandoned trilevel factory seemed happy to be hosting thousands of equally colorful guests busy drinking in the art in 3D, dancing, flirting, posing, snap-shooting and juggling, all self-regulated, well-behaved and paying close attention to what they saw.
From where I stand, the project as a whole suggests a rare mindfulness and was executed expertly and with foresight. The City of Berkeley and the police seems to have played a welcome role in facilitating this art event by keeping a very low profile and just letting folks do their stuff.
Neither was this an LA-style, Eli Broadish splash for the rich and pretentious, or some rarified and ultimately impotent extravaganza. This was a grassroots, super-collaborative public tryst between artists and their audience, a rare bird in a cynical, corporate art world that should be nurtured.
Sadly, after the event, a tiny handful of uninspired, vandalous fools are reported to have tagged a few buildings in West Berkeley, leaving an unfortunate hair in the mouth of a community that had so enjoyed an otherwise delicious art feast.
Yet, none were among the artists that awed us that night. And none have the right to distract us from thanking everyone that helped artwork blossom before our eyes in this enjoyable, provocative way.
Because, on that night, Berkeley appeared talented, fearless and exciting, and in a humble, inclusive way, a bastion of public art.
For a while we kept running into Tupac at every yard we went to photograph. Then last year, at SPECIAL DELIVERY Portland, Tupac randomly showed up so we made him paint a wall. He came really fresh with a random bucket of purple and a scrap can laying around so we had to make sure he got a wall in this years exhibit. We got a nice time lapse of this piece going up… there is a good chance it will be in the short documentary MAPACHE FILMS is making about Special Delivery 2012.
Last night we released our first ever book! We’ve been printing zines for years but the Special Delivery – Portland 2011 Book marks our first ever perfect bound, full color publication!
To celebrate we threw an art show featuring many of the artists that will be taking part in this years Special Delivery – Bay Area 2012(a large scale graffiti mural exhibit that opens September 8th, 2012).
A diverse crowd of hundreds came through the art show. We’re used to events not really cracking off until 9-10pm in Oakland, but to our surprise there were people waiting at the door before 7pm.
5th Annual Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle in Oakland and San Francisco, CA 2012.
The USA’s only national Writing competition! The four-day long festival is comprised of The Can Film Fest, Pecha Kucha slideshow featuring all women in Art in Public, gallery opening at SMSHBX Gallery, and culminating in the National Finals in de Fremery Park (Little Bobby Hutton Park), Oakland, CA.
Show runs from March 9th through April 12th, 2012.
Paper Trails is a collaborative art show – partnering with the Rock Paper Scissors Collective and Tomas Moniz of Rad Dad Zine. It’s a zine-themed show, encompassing hundreds of zines, many of which are locally-produced.
The opening featured a Zine Variety Show with readings by Tomas Moniz, John Bobst, and Mari Naomi along with music performances by Annah Anti-Palindrome and Jon Barba. DJ Baro added some vinyl flavor to the party.
During the opening party visitors drew pages to be compiled into th Paper Trails Zine. The zine will be printed and distributed by the R.P.S. crew – it will be available for purchase at R.P.S., Actual Cafe, and other art spaces and book outlets when it’s done.
Other featured installations from local zinesters include Endless Canvas, MariNaomi, Jaime Crespo, and others, and tons of other zines on a display designed by Jamie Mayne of RPS.
Genres include Riot Grrrl, Radical Politics, Parenting, Gender & Sexuality, Comics/Art/Photography, DIY Skill-Sharing, and more.
Where:
Actual Cafe (Actual is the name of the cafe)
6334 San Pablo Avenue, Oakland, CA Corner of San Pablo and Alcatraz
Special Delivery was a massive warehouse take over in Portland that featured prolific Bay Area graffiti artists like Swampy, Feral Child, GATS, Bella Ciao, Just Becauz, Dead Eyes, Attica, Pink Eyes, Political Gridlock, ATWA, Old Crow, Doodles, Coyote, Logo, GoreB, Nart, Cuss, Nina and more.
The show was held at the Railyard in Portland, OR July 2011.
(ROUGHLY LEFT TO RIGHT: Ras Terms, Upfuck, Cuss, Jeans, Turnip, Ghost Owl)
(Rusted Paint Can by Bella Ciao)
(FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Broke, Dead Eyes, Nina STM, Attica, Broke, Imp, Safety/Dead Eyes Collab, Irot, GATS)
(FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Pobrecito, Edith, Pobrecito, Edith)
(FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: Ras Terms, Fresh Prince, BVRS, Logo)
