What is faith? Reality based inspiration, hope in things not seen? Or perhaps active participation in it’s unfolding. Any way you slice it, the latest work of South African based artist Faith47 paints Mother Nature’s man-made landscape with an unmistakably passionate reminder of the beautiful power of the human heart. With breathtaking potency the elixir of faith in action via the heart, mind and hand, is captured in the artist’s series of panoramic photographs of word, art and life in the South African landscape. The series, The Restless Debt of Third World Beauty, documents Faith47’s large scale graffiti/mural (a.k.a. public art) work on shanty walls and reaches a volume of intensity, when viewed in a global south landscape, that immediately invokes memories of the old school rumble of full train burners in New York City - taking the beautiful struggle to the next level.

(Faith47, a silent nation, location: gugulethu, cape town, south africa, 23×135cm)

A one woman army wicked in style and execution, Faith47 describes her project as, “my personal exploration into parts of the South African landscape that juxtapose beauty and strength with hardship and neglect.”  She goes on to describe the genesis of the work in these terms:

both the female and the third world have been oppressed and raped. 
despite this they are powerfully resilient and form the backbone of strength in society.
their voices silenced in the media with its strong western male gaze.
there is frustration and resistance that result from this situation.
and this restless debt is what i am looking at.
the resilience and strength
the angry calm
silent shouts
something humble and bulletproof in a violent world.

(Faith47, it’s a beautiful world will someone repair its broken heart, location: khayalitsha, cape town, south africa, 23×140cm)

The Restless Debt of Third World Beauty will be on view in June, 2008, at the Womb Gallery, as part of The Bass Festival in Birmingham, England, and in August, 2008, at the ATM Gallery in Berlin, Germany….View the series (PDF format). Watch The Restless Debt of Third World Beauty VIDEO.

Faith47 website

“Welcome to the Terrordome”, Media Commentator Chuck D brought it to consciousness in the hip hop zeitgeist of 1990, and artist Amir H. Fallah looped it again in his public art piece Terradome (bottom left image) at Art Dubai 2008.  The piece calls into question the manufacturing of middle-east-phobia by western mass media and, perhaps, functions as a metaphor for the construction and de-construction of perception — the Terradome was built at Art Dubai and was only up for about 5 days. 

(Left to Right: Amir H. Fallah, Terradome, 2008, found materials, 8′x8′x14′. Amir H. Fallah, Ben Jackel (Fort Series) 2007, found materials, 20″x20″, archival c-print.)

The interior design of Terradome, laced with local plants, pottery, wood veneer walls with Middle Eastern patterns and a domed mosque-like ceiling, reflects a sense of home and spirit that suggests the individual’s complicity in shaping what is cultivated on one’s interior. This work and Amir’s other photographed fort installations (above right image) also call into question the relationship between the construction of terror (or not) in private homes, the media and the public mind. 

WATCH Amir at work in Dubai building the Terradome…

Amir is also Founder/Creative Director of Beautiful/Decay Magazine.

(Delphine Fawundu-Buford, 9th Ward Remains, New Orleans, 2006)

View more images of New Orleans on photographer Delphine Fawundu-Buford’s website…

What is the value of an “art biennial”? For Dan Cameron, Founding Director and Chief Curator of US Biennial, Inc. and Prospect.1 New Orleans, it’s a twofold opportunity. Firstly, to bring the world together through the largest international exhibition of contemporary art ever presented in the United States, and secondly, through that action, to foster an idealized view of the world via an imposed harmony.  Although the goal sounds like a beautiful bouquet of flowers, the process reveals the blood, sweat and tears required to pull it off as of October 2008.  At the most basic level the artistic inspiration imbued in the land and people of New Orleans, Louisiana (both the ancestors and the living), represent the projects foundation.  Next up comes Dan Cameron’s 20+ year romance with the city, the devastation of hurricane Katrina and his longing to give something back to a place where his soul found its peace. And finally, this trajectory has culminated in the birth of the idea, concept and manifestation of Prospect.1.  Known for Jazz, Creole life, Blues and Mardi Gras to most of the world, New Orleans has a deeper layer of rich and intricate popular local culture that is being re-built one brick and heart at a time post-Katrina.  According to Cameron, ”New Orleans is our Venice,” and is to this day under-recognized as one of the United State’s most valuable artistic treasures.  Prospect.1 New Orleans is Cameron’s way of making a contribution not only to the re-building of one of America’s sacred cities, but to a new chapter in the identity of the country as a whole and the establishment of New Orleans as a major center of contemporary visual art exhibitions.

(Left to right: Dan Cameron, Founding Director and Chief Curator of US Biennial, Inc. and Prospect.1 New Orleans. Mark Bradford, photographed by Juan Carlos Avendano.)

Mark Bradford, one of seventy-five artists invited to participate in Prospect.1 New Orleans, speaks of a very thoughtful and challenging process when it comes to the development of his work for the project.  His initial open-ended exploration of the Lower 9th Ward led to a working relationship with a couple, Keith and Chandra, and their organization L-9, the only non-profit in the area, as well as an organic unfolding of experience and artistic inquiry.  Recognizing that all biennials have a different context, Bradford immediately felt the “heavy” context of the Lower 9th Ward, while simultaneously watching a truth unfold - life exists after devastation.  This experience not only tested his resolve, but made Bradford realize, “I had to believe that what I do has value.”  One way Bradford’s cultural capital revealed its value was through a fundraiser for L-9 that raised enough money for the organization to really get up and running. Now several other artists are also creating projects in the Lower 9th Ward for Prospect.1 with L-9 acting as a cultural hub in the neighborhood.  Both Bradford’s and Cameron’s non-object oriented collaboration with L-9 and the city of New Orleans respectively, reflect the possibilities of art and artists as tools in the economic and cultural recovery of communities. 

(L-9 Center for the Arts, Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans, Louisiana.)

In a city that deals with disaster through celebration and resilience, Prospect.1’s use of art and creativity as a tool of empowerment suggests a new direction for a red hot art market.  And, as Bradford is careful to note, the possibility (not the responsibility) for artists to pick up the conversation that pulsates beneath the surface of Prospect.1 as a biennial, is ripe for consideration. 

(Mark Bradford, 1 Cat Seen, Ark Project, 9th Ward, New Orleans, 2008, poster)

Other artists who will exhibit work at Prospect.1 New Orleans,  in addition to Mark Bradford, include: Wangechi Mutu, Julie Mehretu, Gajin Fujita, Sanford Biggers, Fred Tomaselli, William Kentridge, Cai Guo Qiang and many more…Prospect.1 New Orleans will open to the public on November 1, 2008 and run until January 18, 2009.

Get off the corner, the couch and the passenger seat of your best friend’s car, there’s a new sheriff in town, Barnabus Shakur, founder of Project Re-Generation (PR-G) in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn.  On a mission to eliminate teenage after-school idleness through educational programs, PR-G has been empowering youth through physical fitness, financial literacy, job skills and mental calisthenics for the last 7 years.  Through community partnerships with local homeowners, volunteer educators and corporate entities like the New York Knicks, PR-G’s commitment to creating a college bound culture within the urban community has reached over 500 teens and 3,000 Bed Stuy residents.

Fundamental to the program’s philosophy is a commitment to the development of personal integrity and knowledge of self.  To this end PR-G engages young people in the study of Urban Contemporary Jujitsu under Grand Master Bill McCloud and the mantra, “The art of 360 -Perfecting every aspect of your being!”  The regimen includes Urban Contemporary Jujitsu, Aikido, Yoga, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Cardio Kickboxing.

Other PR-G programs consist of the NY Knicks Poetry Jam Sessions (an 8 week poetry program with performance opportunities), Foot Soldiers (a money management, job readiness and community service initiative) and Rites of Passage (a program designed to support personal development, community care and hard work).  Commitment like Shakur’s, to structure, guidance and community, lead to the optimal functioning of young people and represents the possibilities of what can happen when private citizens take public action!  Join PR-G for their 6th Annual Community Pride Day at Von King Park in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn on July 12th, 2008.