Here’s a selection of ‘out of the ordinary’ urban art that should tickle your fancy. There’s a lot of weirdness out there these days, maybe it’s something in the air, nevertheless be it a governmental conspiracy to poison half the population, paranoia from living in a global police state, or just plain old imagination, I like it. Graffiti and street art maybe breaking the boundaries as far as the old and staid gallery system goes, but you can only look at so many tags and stencils before your eyes start to glaze over. So without further a due, let’s take a look at some of the most bizarre low brow urban art out there at the moment.

Guerilla art usually has a rather rough and ready image, politically charged, social commentary out in the field of urban warfare, but here’s a distinct exception to the norm from Knit The City. This Phonebox Cosy just down the road from the Houses of Parliament caused quite a stir when the knitting mad members of this rather unique collective managed to wrap a public call box in a multi-coloured woolly jumper.

As it happens the perpetrators were caught in the act of wrapping this up, however the women involved managed to charm their way out of an arrest and came away with nothing more than a ‘Stop and Search’ warning.

Read the whole story known as the Phonebox Cosy Tale here.

On a far smaller scale, in fact an almost microscopic scale, let’s turn to the world of the Little People. This has to be the tiniest street art project in the world, and Slinkachu the artist behind the work, also known for his Inner City Snail project has turned the perception of urban art on its head with this unique representation of everyday life on a miniature scale. Most of the works can be found around London, but as you’d expect many of them only last a very short while, be it from the actions of over zealous street cleaners or general spoil sports with an inclination for nabbing anything that looks worth nicking. Still you’ll be glad to know that Slinkachu has a book available – Little People in the City – just in case you want your fill of this strangely beguiling artist’s portfolio of minuscule art. I was rather impressed that Slinkacu had managed to get the foreword written by none other than British novelist, critic and columnist Will Self. Still name dropping asides the works stand up triumphantly by themselves, no matter how minute the stature.

Antscape by Slinkachu

Tunnel 228 by Slinkachu

They’re Not Pets Susan by Slinkachu

Finally, last but certainly not least Austrian artists Christoph Steinbrenner and Rainer Demp have taken a very original outlook on an age old problem, the environment, or rather man’s detrimental effect on the ecology of our planet. Their now infamous installation at Schönbrunn Zoo helps raise public consciousness in regards to the socio-political question of exactly how are we going to save the earth, and is too late? Their installation entitled ‘Trouble in Paradise’ is probably one of the most effective ecological art installations ever made.

Toxic Waste in Aquarium

Car In Rhino Compound

Using the Duchampian medium of the ready-made within the familiar controlled environment of a zoo, this inspired project brings the audience out of their proverbial comfort zone with short, sharp, shock tactics aimed at bringing the question of ecological decimation to the forefront of public opinion. In essence one cannot have one’s cake and eat it. If you want to fill the world with machinery, pollute the air with noxious gasses and lay concrete wherever green space can be found, don’t expect the rest of the world’s animal population to survive our ambitions. It is said by Einstein that should all honey bees die, the earth would surely follow within just 4 years. Without pollination there would be no plant life, and without plant life no food or oxygen, something without which no species of mammal can survive, including the most primitive of them all, man.

Back to de-rusting the print dryer, I will of course be featuring my latest work Outta Space at http://paulbaines.co.uk in the next few days, however it is available now in limited edition digital print at Imagekind.com.

Tags: art, knit the city, little people, low brow, ready-made, slinkachu, steinbrener dempf, street art, urban art

Related posts

• Turn, Turn, Turn (0)
• I DNRH2 U (0)
• Black Christ by Paul Baines (23)
• A Teaser (0)
• UK Government Turns Art Critic (7)

• linked fromhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/paulbaines/~3/E8GRxDwYugk/