30 August 2012

Interesting Art



Alexandre Orion – Skulls in Sao Paolo Hailing from Brazil, Alexandre sees his art work as a way of getting an environmental message across to those who ordinarily wouldn’t listen.

In 2006, Orion created Ossário, an intervention in one of São Paulo's road tunnels. Orion spent seventeen days using pieces of cloth to selectively remove the thick layers of car exhaust soot from the sidewalls of the tunnel, creating skull drawings outlined by the years of grime left to accumulate on the walls. The tunnel was transformed into a virtual catacomb with over 3,500 hand-designed skulls reminding people that the same black soot impregnating the tunnel walls was also darkening their lungs and lives.
 
The Brazilian authorities were incensed but couldn’t actually charge him with anything so they instead cleaned the tunnel. At first the cleaned only the parts Alexandre had cleared but after the artist switched to the opposite wall they had to clean that too.

In the end, the authorities decided to wash every tunnel in the city, missing the irony completely, it seems.

11 comments:

  1. I posted this a few years ago.. but it was only open to a few people..so, sorry if you are one of those people who have already read this ... but .. perhaps you have forgotten about it?


    I thought this was a great art form ... but when I got to thinking about it... I wonder what happened to all that filthy water after it had cleared away the pollution fromt he tunnel walls.. if it was not collected and filtered ( which I very much doubt) that means it would have found its way to a water system ( river or sea)

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  2. oh wow , a good point Angie ....the water would be a problem .
    Interesting story .

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  3. Ah ha, which is the worse evil... I'm sure most people driving through just thought it was a bloody nuisance, the art.

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  4. I like the art. It's nice to have a clean tunnel, though. I have to admit, it is a more interesting way to get a tunnel cleaned than by scribbling "WASH ME!" in the soot. I suspect he preferred that the air get cleaned, not the tunnel.

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  5. This is like graffiti with a purpose. Like those inner city areas blighted with graffiti who see a talent in the artists, and invite them to showcase their talents with beautiful art on a wall.

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  6. Really? Dont reckon I can agree with you there. (unless the tunnels were closed to be cleaned and traffic diverted)

    Id say that it would have taken the 'every day hum drum" out of the commute and brightened up what looks like a pretty dreary tunnel.. something different from the norm at least.

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  7. Oh Yes Chris... I really like that description.

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  8. lol Bob.. I dont think that the council would have taken much notice of "Wash Me"

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  9. City governments can be nutty! If a graffiti artist paints a gang symbol of violence it will stay for years ... paint a flower and it's immediately removed! :(

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  10. No, probably not. But a skull, now that's an attention grabber...and lots and lots of skulls gets the power washers sent in.

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