After disembarking the ferry that carried my fellow hip-hop
music lovers and me from Centraal Station, we arrived at a re-purposed shipyard
for the Encore Hip Hop Music Festival. I was excited to see some of the musical
performances by Kid Ink and other mainstream hip-hop artists, but I was also
intrigued by the art present at the festival. Now, it’s no Coachella or Burning
Man (festivals where the artwork is especially notable and prominent), but I saw several pieces that deserve a shout-out and analysis.
EXHIBIT A: THE COMBUSTIBLE TREE
While we were making our way to
other parts of the festival, we passed by a piece of art that I call “The
Combustible Tree”. The piece is made completely of rusty, brown wire with a
tall pillar as the center yet with an array of sticks protruding out in an
astounding amount of different directions and angles in the middle of the
pillar. This piece stood out – not just in the literal sense since it is one of
the tallest objects at the festival – but also in the abstract sense. While
everything around it was seemingly ordinary and normal, this art piece was
disturbingly neurotic.
While the center of this piece (the
pillar) is stoic and unperturbed, its middle is chaos personified. It looks as
if the pillar itself was split open and thousands of little worms came
sprawling out (like a dead corpse). Although it looks somewhat frightening and
bizarre, the context of this piece softens it considerably. Right next to this
piece is a group of people selling “Love is in the air” tote bags.
Additionally, there was a table where they were selling other charming trinkets
and jewelry. I don’t know if the organizers of the festival intentionally
juxtaposed the charming sales table of objects with this outlandish art piece,
but I think the two works blend together nicely. By looking at the words “love
is in the air”, I can’t help but think of this art piece in a more positive
way. Instead of viewing this piece as messy and ugly, one could imagine that
this tree is so full of love and positive emotion that it’s inside was split
open to express that happiness and joy. Yet what about the materials? Rusty,
brown wire does not evoke a feeling of happiness or joy initially. Yet, when I
looked at the piece a while longer, I thought about the symbolism of rust. Rust
implies neglect or loss. Perhaps, this tree was created from pieces of lost,
rusty materials that someone found in a garbage heap but gave them new purpose
within this art piece. While these pieces were once thrown away and forgotten,
they were given new life thanks to a resourceful artist.
Although this piece may not be the
prettiest or most aesthetically pleasing, it provides an interesting
juxtaposition of materials amidst the hustle and bustle of the festival.
EXHIBIT B: SNOWDEN?
What immediately caught my eye when
I walked by this piece was the bold statement declared by the sign. “Paul
Snowden is the best designer in the world” is quite a bold claim. This piece
also brought to mind an array of questions: Who
is Paul Snowden*? (I have to admit, I first thought they were talking about
hacker-who-is-changing-the-world-in-how-it-talks-about-surveillance Snowden but
that was not the case). What kind of
designer is he? Why is the sign in English at a festival where most of the
attendees speak only Dutch? Upon further inspection, I realized the high
design quality in the very structure of the advertisement.
In
a place where there was a lot of activity and color, this ad stood out very
well because of its monochromatic qualities. Black and white may seem like very
bland colors, but the stark contrast between the two makes the work that much
more noticeable and bolder. The size of the font also contributes to its
eye-catching quality. Its very clean, san-serif font minimizes distractions and
increases the flow and ease of reading the ad. The repetition of the poster
also encourages readers to not only read the text but also remember the name.
If this poster were only iterated once, it would not have as much impact. Yet,
with multiple advertisements side by side, its repetitiveness ensures that the
reader will have that name imprinted in their mind for much longer.
*After googling Paul Snowden, it turns out he runs a design
agency in Berlin that makes some pretty awesome stuff. Maybe he really is the
best designer in the world. Check him out at www.snowden.de.
EXHIBIT C: SIGNS ON SIGNS ON SIGNS
I particularly liked this work of
signs on a pole because of its whimsical qualities. Again, the pole is made of
dark, rusty wire (perhaps scavenged and re-purposed by another resourceful
artist?) but the signs pointing in various directions are what give this piece
its charm. The signs are pointing to places outside of the festival (such as
Nieuw en Meer which is 9.5 km away and OT301 which is 4 km away) so it wasn’t
particularly useful in the context of the festival (Except maybe the park
sign). The pointers all have different borders – some of them are wavy and
jagged while others were perfectly smooth and straight. They also all have different
end points – some have a hand, others have uniquely designed arrows, and some
were predictable trapezoids. Additionally, they all come in different color
combination and typography. There are no two signs that look exactly the same
but they all seem to work within the same palette and tone.
Usually,
signs are all uniform and predictable, yet this pole carries signs with all
different kinds of designs. However, they still work together and are
utilitarian in that people will know where to go. Interestingly enough, all the
pointers have the same beginning. They all have two screws going into this very
long rusty pole. This common factor grounds this work immensely, contributing a
strong foundation to parts of the work that are very different in style.
EXHIBIT D: PROVERBIAL GRAFFITI
“Make art, not euro” is an
interesting statement, especially for graffiti art on the side of an old
shipyard building. The hip-hop festival is the personification of art combined
with commerce. Many of the artists who performed make an astounding amount of
money for making their art. In fact, many artists encouraged the audience to
yell “Do it for the euro” during their sets. However, I like how this graffiti
art encourages its viewer to focus on art making rather than the value of the
art itself. Graffiti art is a great example of art with no direct correlation
with monetary value. I especially liked the orange color, a great color to stand
out from a bland brown building. I have no idea if the flamingo on the side is part of the work or not but I think it's a beautiful addition nonetheless.
Overall, I immensely enjoyed the festival. The musical
artists were fantastic, but the artwork gave the event a nice, visual, and
authentic touch.
No comments:
Post a Comment