Finally, my essay about the globalisation of graffiti is published in the Very Nearly Almost magazine.
Thanks a lot to Roly for realising it.
Please read it here: http://verynearlyalmost.com/dev/2016/01/nicholas-ganz-global-graffiti-the-globalisation-of-an-artform/#more-30345
Traveller graffiti by Leonardo at Ramesseum temple. – Luxor-Egypt_2014
All City Queens book by Syrup
Books about female graffiti writers are still very rare. I did my own work almost 10 years ago with Graffiti Woman, but this book is meanwhile after such a long time pretty outdated.
Now, Syrup from England added her own contribution to celebrate female graffiti art. A female graffiti writer herself, gives the book a true insight and you know what she is talking about. It took her two years to finalise this massive project and she spent a lot of heartbeat and money into this lovely project. But the result is worth seeing and all the hard work was fruitful and I am proud of her, that she realised this despite all the difficulties. I know from my own experience how hard it is to put books like this together.
The outcome is stunning and massive. Pure graffiti writing with a few figurative elements, but mostly name writing is shown here. A 200 pages thick softcover book, filled with many great names we already know like Lady Pink, Mickey, Claw and Miss17, Queen Andrea and Akit. Next to it we also find a great amount of unknown writers such as Ferkl (what a great name!!), Winkstyles, Kwim, Mymo, Tyles and many many more. Each artist is introduced with a little text and there are short interviews with heroines such as Claw, Lady Pink and Mickey.
Luisa Fernanda Hernández Herse contributed a good insight to the female graffiti movement in Mexico, that gave me some backgrounds I did not know as well.
Mostly individual artists find their way on the pages, but also international crews or projects such as the two team Illegally Blonde, the crews Stick Up Girls or Female Soul, the blog Gurls Love Vandal or the Few and Far projects are highlighted.
Sometimes I was surprised why the designer put not very good quality images on a two-page spread, which resulted in pretty blurry images that where blown up to two pages. This did not serve the quality and I personally would have made a rather different choice.
At the end I was missing some further information like websites, where to learn more about the artists or their websites, books or magazines that also deal with the subject of spray-painting women.
Overall a great book about street writing with many great influential graffiti writers from all over the world and finally someone took over this duty to go on, where I began almost 10 years ago and celebrates the amazing women in the graffiti movement. Thanks a lot Syrup for all your hard work.
You can get your copy here: http://www.allcityqueens.bigcartel.com/
All City Queens book by Syrup
All City Queens book by Syrup
All City Queens book by Syrup
After last night’s show, I woke up early today to go to one of the legal walls in my town to paint a picture.
I had prepared the stencils during the last days and now the time was right to go out and paint them. Due to my work as autor or writer, I had to make a decision, if I shall paint or write. I decided for the latter one and wish I had more time (and financial support) to do both.
I am neither a calligraphy artist, nor a calligraffiti artist, but I love the shape of the ornamentic lettering and occasionly use them in my work. I do not follow any of the rules of calligraphy, so please don’t mind the mistakes.
During my time in Burma/Myanmar, when I made my research about the effects of the military dictatorship on the people and the civil war against the ethnic minorities, I surely came across the Kayan people. Their women – the so-called „long-neck women“ are wearing metal rings around their neck, so that their chest is pushed down and the imagination of a longer neck is created. In past times, this tradition was used to protect the women against tiger bites or to prevent them to marry with men from other tribes along with other myths. These brass rings can weigh up to 10kg and the tribe is meanwhile trying to end this tradition, because it can cause health problems to the women.
I took the photo of the lady in one of the refugee villages of the Kayan people in Thailand at the border to Burma in 2006 and her portrait was published in my book „Burma – an alternative guide“ in 2009.
Keinom – Learn from Culture – Essen, Germany – 20.12.15
Keinom – Learn from Culture – Essen, Germany – 20.12.15
Nicholas Ganz 