Love Your Street

A scattering of folded paper, and this rusty old wall in London became an instant source of warmth for the London Festival of Architecture 2010, under the theme Love Your Street.

 

This work was commissioned by Squire and Partners for a street party that was being held as a part of the festival. Sheets of paper from the local telephone directory send an eloquent message to all who pass by.

So who is the artist behind this installation? You may remember Anna Garforth. We’ve previously featured her head turning public artworks, and it is great to see that she continues to bring life into public spaces.

Love Your Street via Recyclart

Cardboard Bike Station

Pimp my eco-ride… an exact replica of the Velo public bikes in Lyon, France.

Via Recyclart

What do you see today?

Living in Paris has an interesting effect on some people. And lucky for us, Sandrine Estrade Boulet shares her unique perspective through a series of found material installations and photo manipulations.

Remember when you were a child, lying in the grass watching forms emerge from within the clouds? Sandrine’s work brings this activity forward into her adult life, as she takes a moment to stop and observe; to rediscover and see more than watch. This means taking a lighter approach to the moments in-between, in the belief that people can bring happiness into everyday life if they practice being a little more uninhibited.

…I love the mix of the photographic image (a reflection of reality) and drawing (translation of the imagination). 

Click through to enjoy several galleries containing more happy moments on the streets of Paris and beyond. These playful explorations came to us through Monsieur Bandit.

Poster Pocket Plants

Taking an active role in greening the streets has seen guerilla gardeners become ever more creative.   One of our favourite approaches comes from Canada, and has been featured a few times on Wooster Collective.   With the unique aspect of only bringing in the planted material itself, Sean Martindale and Eric Cheung’s Poster Pocket Plants use the paper from advertising material to form a little cradle that becomes the planter.

Care is taken to scatter the pockets in a staggered pattern, so that water will drain from one plant to the next.   In some neighbourhoods, anonymous members of the community have been observed to adopt the plants.  Watering, trimming, adding new flowers and replacing those that go missing… people are experiencing a shift in awareness and a new appreciation of the public spaces.  

You can find a thorough article about the process at The Torontoist.   Read on to learn how Sean and Eric embarked on a quest to “activate public space,” introducing nature “to the urban environment in ways that might encourage others to do the same, or to at least consider such possibilities.”

It is interesting to note that the pocket planters are only installed on illegally posted advertising material.  In addressing a medium that is unofficial and unregulated, many people find that Sean and Eric’s efforts bring a much appreciated freshness and vibrance to the grit of the city streets.

Poster Pocket Plants are documented in a Picasa Gallery and Blog.

She certainly can

There is waste on the streets.  Thanks to Melbourne artist Jenny Kan, this discarded material is becoming entertaining, poignant and often quite beautiful.   In a quest to bring awareness to the amount of waste that people leave behind, Jenny takes what is seen (or indeed what has been overlooked) as unwanted refuse and returns it to the streets with a whole new context.

Materials contributing to the collection above include wrapping from a shop, a page from a magazine, food packaging, and a discarded poster.   Each creation is returned to the site where the waste was collected.  A truly closed-loop system!

How do we know about Jenny?   Many people ask us where all of the different makedo creations come from.  Not only the ones that are featured in our “I am, I can” collection, but also the incredibly intricate work of stop motion seen in the makedo minimovie.   Jenny is the source of wonder, firing her boundless enthusiasm at the task of making and has been the creator of many of our favourite outcomes. 

Having discovered us at State of Design, Jenny materialised at makedo as an intern for her final year studies. And this week Jenny graduates - CONGRATULATIONS JENNY, WAHOOOO!! Her graduate work is on display in Melbourne as part of the ACU Visual Arts and Design Graduate Exhibition, 26 Brunswick St Fitzroy from 6-14 November. Be sure to check it out.

Junky Projects

They lurk on posts, on fences and on walls.  Waiting patiently to catch the eyes of passers-by… they are Junky Projects and they have an important message to share.    

For several years now, an enterprising young architect has been on a street art crusade in South-Eastern Australia.   He strategically installs sentinels created out of junk to help remind people that if they continue to generate so much waste in their lives, it may one day come back to haunt them.

These engaging critters never fail to bring a smile to the faces of those who spot them.    In several areas, a conversation has begun as other creations emerge to join the Junky Projects in their streetside vigil.  This reciprocal bloom has been particularly gratifying for the artist - 

“…of course that is exciting for me, the dialogue which takes place between street artists is one of the factors that has made it the strongest, most influential and innovative art movement of our time.”

See the full archive, as well as selected stories behind creations and the mysterious new lives they have taken on at Junky Projects.