The Wooster Collective talks to Neozoon about their furry installations, and what they mean for how we view animals.

Neozoon’s work is both amusing and arresting. Seeing the playful animals in city centers and on monuments makes us smile. But the subsequent realization that these are actual animal pelts (made from discarded fur coats) creates a feeling of uneasiness.  For sure, their message does not go unnoticed.

WOOSTER: How do you choose the specific placements?

NEOZOON: Finding a place to release the Neozoons always depends on several criteria, the most important one being the animal itself. We try to find the right place for each one: where it feels at home, where it finds the attention it needs, were it finds fellow kind—like the bears in Berlin, who were close to the Berlin heraldic bears in their undeserving bear pit—or where it walks on historic trails, like the flock of lambs on their way to La Villette in Paris, once one of the largest slaughterhouses in Europe.

W: What do you think your piece adds to or subtracts from to the community?

N: At best, it raises questions, like: “Where have all those animals gone in my environment” or “oops—was this piece of shrink wrapped supermarket meat really once alive and kicking?” We take discarded fur coats and reintroduce them to the environment by returning them to their former shape, making it “live,” to let people perceive [that] this used to be a living animal. Then it was just an animal skin, with a human inside, and now it has returned as an animal. Maybe it also adds something wild to our civilized urban surrounding.

W: What type of reaction did you get from the community?

N: Overall the reactions are positive, both on the streets and via the internet. Often people encourage us, when they “catch“ us working, although, to be honest, some are also disgusted.

W: Is there a story about putting it up?

N: The starting point of our work is the material, which we get in masses for free because it is otherwise discarded and destroyed. It is a simple recycling process by which we can diversify urban space without being merely decorative.

W: Why did you choose the subject matter you did?

N: Our concern is the animal and its environment. We question the relationship of people and animals in a Western urban surrounding. You could really describe it as schizophrenic. On one hand, tons of meat: thousands of animals slaughtered every hour outside the cities and sold in clean plastic with expiration dates, and preferably not to be recognized as such. And on the other hand pets: insanely bred toys and overloaded with emotions. Its just interesting to see, how we perceive animals and how they seem to differ in value, just depending on what fits us best.

W: What is inspiring to you now?

There are a lot of interesting debates and weird stuff going on in transgenetic research, politics, economy, sociology, and it is all connected to the question of what separates human beings from animals and what connects them. And it is inspiring to reinvent our social, environmental, and natural surroundings.

To see more of Neozoon’s work, visit their website. To see more great street art, visit the Wooster Collective.

Top photo by Daniel Dick.

The Wooster Collective talks to Bumblebee about narrative, bee-based street installations.

What is it about Bumblebee’s work that we find so interesting? First, he focuses on bees, the ever important—yet disappearing—insect that is so essential to human existence. Second, his “street furniture” of choice are the plastic newspaper boxes and abandoned phone booths once seen as important to our daily lives. Finally, he integrates the internet to add an online narrative to his work (the pictures of his work on Flickr are annotated to tell a story). We hope you enjoy discovering these urban beehives as much as we have.

WOOSTER: Why did you choose the specific placement?

BUMBLEBEE: The “newspaper stand” is fast becoming a forgotten way to communicate with the public. With more online news subscriptions being made, newspaper companies are leaving these structures abandoned. I want to use this endangered species as a way to communicate with the public once more. This is achieved using the concept of “site specific” in the real world as well as the online world, and also by introducing a different concept: “time specific.” This technique helps to create a story on the street as well as the webpage in which the images are added to. Each newspaper stand represents a single page in the story called: “The Story of How Things Came to Bee.” Once the newspaper stand is placed back in the location from which it was originally borrowed, a picture is taken at the exact time in which the story takes place. Adding the images to the webpage, allows for a narrative to be created by using “notes”(these are viewed by scrolling over the image) which can not bee seen on the street. Lastly, a map showing the locations of the newspaper stand is on the site as well, allowing the online viewer to travel to each location and view these scenes in real life.

W: What do you think your piece adds to subtracts or subtracts from the community?

B: My pieces add new life and purpose. It subtracts the unloved and forgotten.

W: What is inspiring to you now?

B: Vintage story book and old board game illustrations.

To read “The Story of How Things Came To Bee” and see more of Bumblebee’s work, check out his Flickr page. To see more great street art, visit The Wooster Collective.

The Wooster Collective talks to Ji Lee about turning video billboards into glowing art pieces.

Ji Lee is one of New York City’s most prolific street artists. Lee’s day job is in advertising, and his art is a reaction to the prolific and uncreative advertising on our streets. He is most well know for the “Bubble Project,” where he placed empty speech bubbles on outdoor advertisements and allowed the city to fill them in. Here, we’re highlighting the Abstractor Project an easy way to adjust digital billboards in your neighborhood, and turn them into them art.

WOOSTER: Why did you choose the specific placement?

JI LEE: The Abstractor can be installed in any digital billboards. It literally takes about 3 minutes to install once you have the boards ready.

W: What do you think your piece adds to or subtracts from the community?

JL: It instantly transforms the intrusive digital billboards into soothing and beautiful public art pieces.

W: What type of reaction did you get from the community?

JL: A few weeks after the launch of the Abstractor online, other forms of “Abstractors” started to be created by artists like Jason Eppink, Poster Child, and Steve Lambert. That’s when I realized people were enjoying the project. It’s the most rewarding feeling when a project serves as a platform for other new projects. In terms of passersby, not everyone notices the piece, as it can be rather subtle. Once people see it, though, they really stare at it for while with a sense of wonder and joy.

W: Is there a story about putting it up?

JL: I started the Bubble Project about six years ago, where I placed 60,000 speech-bubble stickers on top of ads on the streets of New York. A few years ago, I noticed the digital billboards were popping up everywhere in the city. I very much disliked them and wanted to find ways to transform them. The bubble stickers were not going to work,  so I had to think about a new way. I had been installing the Abstractor on my TV for a while, so I started to install it on digital billboards. I also wanted to make an instructional video so others could do it themselves.

Click To Play

W: Why did you choose the subject matter you did?

JL: I’ve been working in an advertising agency at the time. I believe advertising is like money. It’s not good, nor bad on it’s own. You can do great things with it, or you can create boring, insensitive junk which is the 99 percent of the case. When I saw the insensitive ads invading every inch of the street, I felt partially guilty for being part of the industry that created such ads. At the same time, as a citizen, I felt violated for being forced to look at them everyday. So, I’m very sensitive to advertising in the public realm and I always think about ways to transform them.

W: What is inspiring to you now?

JL: There are lots of things which inspire me. One of biggest sources of inspiration to me is New York City, a constantly changing, always surprising, global melting pot.

To see more of Ji Lee’s work, visit his website. To see more great street art, visit the Wooster Collective.

The Wooster Collective talks to Specter about his depictions of the New York City’s unheralded workers.

Specter is one of the few artists today who is putting up large hand-made pieces in New York. Focusing his art on those the city often ignores, his goal is to bring attention to the people who keep the city “alive.” We love the attention to detail Specter’s pieces have and how they often look so real that you look twice, thinking they are actual people.

WOOSTER: Why did you choose the specific placement?

SPECTER: The characteristics of certain neighborhoods such as architecture, signage, local businesses, and socio-economic classes are factors in that influence. This particular location was chosen because it draws a parallel between the disappearance of Brooklyn’s industrial spaces and its workers, [and comments] on the transformation of these work spaces into residential units.

W: What do you think your piece adds to the community?

S: I feel this work adds a connection to the past for the long-term residents. A nostalgic glimpse of their quickly vanishing community and a homage to the marginalized workforce in our city.

W: What type of reaction did you get from the community?

S: A lot of puzzled expressions!

W: Is there a story about putting it up?

S: I put the work up on the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hoshanah. While I was putting up the work, a friend of the owner of the building came up and asked me what I was doing. I said: “Public art.” He looked at me and sighed because he knew he could do nothing. Rosh Hashanah is day where you must refrain from work, so he just walked away.

W: Why did you choose the subject matter you did?

S: I often deal with socially marginalized people and places in my work. I felt there are a lot of individuals working very hard but not getting any acknowledgment or proper compensation for their effort. So, in a way, this is how I say I care and thank you for all your hard work.

W: What is inspiring to you now?

S: My creativity is influenced by my environment. I am inspired by people I meet everyday. Their compassion, work ethic, character, and overall openness toward others. Most recently, I am inspired by the ingenuity involved in collecting scrap recyclables and the effort afforded in the search for these discarded items.

To see more work by Specter, visit his website. To see more excellent street art, visit the Wooster Collective site.

The Wooster Collective talks to C215 about his new piece in Paris and how his art can improve a community.

The Paris-based artist C215 focuses on the streets and their inhabitants. In the last year, C215 has come into his own by traveling the globe putting his stencils of the downtrodden in the roughest corners of the world. We have fallen in love with his beautiful and spirited images. We asked him about his latest work—like this cat he painted in Paris—and about his views of public art and community.

WOOSTER: Why did you choose this specific location?

C215: I am placing my stencils in the streets to add meaning to the design I am painting, and to help people to have a complete understanding of my idea. I am painting for myself and street art addicts, and for everybody.

W: What do you think your piece adds to the community?

C215: I hope that painting a nice cat in a gloomy building entrance will bring joy to the kids living here, without annoying anybody. There is also a pet hospital a few meters away. Everybody will be happy.

W: What type of reaction did you get?

C215: A mother called her child to come down and see the finished piece, then proposed that I paint something in the hall, because an old mural was completely destroyed for a long time without restoration. So I quickly made a portrait to replace it.

W: Why did you choose the subject matter you did?

C215: Cats bring joy to the kids, and many people like them. They bring poetry and emotion to everyone. Emotion is my focus, more than politics. Painting in my district without authorization is already making a strong political statement. Painting outdoors for me is being an active and responsible citizen.

W: What is inspiring to you now?

C215: A lot of street artists impress me and give me inspiration (JR, Logan Hicks, M-City, Chris Stain, etc.), but I have my own vision, that I call “Renaissance:” a town where artists are allowed to express themselves, with a community providing as many spots and walls they need, where people can every week watch graphic designers, fine arts painters, and stencil artists place art in the street for free, so that people can find a new sociability.

To see more work by C125, visit his MySpace page. To see more excellent street art, visit the Wooster Collective site.

Elbow-Toe turns children’s literature into urban art.

Elbow-Toe is an active New York City street artist who places large linocuts across lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. Often these pieces are one-of-a-kind works that draw from literary sources and interact with the environment in which they’re placed. Elbow-Toe walks the city identifying special places for his “people” to live, resulting in images that are powerful and as emotionally torn as their surrounding neighborhoods.

WOOSTER: Why did you choose the specific placement?

ELBOW-TOE: I have been particularly interested, with my past few linocuts, in creating whole scenes that work in space. In this piece her laundry line is tacked into a wall. I was driving around and came across a person who had done brick wall stencils, and it was placed so perfectly as to delineate a vertical plane off of the rest of the concrete wall. This gives the illusion, when the image is applied, that it is existing in an environment with depth. I also loved all the little bits of garbage that were scattered around because it blurred the line between the art and the environment.

W: What do you think your piece adds or subtracts to the community?

E-T: With my most recent work, I have been using animals and nature and making them at their life size scale. My aim is to have the work exist on the periphery of sight, so that most people—those who are getting from point A to point B—would not see it. And for those that do see it to have an “ah-ha” sort of experience. My aim with these pieces if for them to integrate with their environment.

W: Why did you choose the subject matter you did?

E-T: This summer, I became interested in using the mythology of children’s literature as a point of departure. I have recontextualized the imagery to my own ends. I find the reference is generally recognizable enough that the viewer can at least be hooked in to hopefully explore the image more fully. On the surface, this particular image is very bright and sweet: lots of color, a cute little hedgehog woman doing her laundry. This is probably all that the casual observer would see in the piece. If you look deeper you begin to realize that the woman is homeless, that she lives in a box, that she is carting items like a hypodermic needle around, and that she has cleaned a pair of girl’s panties. The image is loosely derived from a story called the “Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle” by Beatrix Potter. In the original story the girl loses some linens, I believe her handkerchiefs. In my version someone has symbolically lost their cherry (panties) and the homeless woman has dealt with it, cleaned things up. My symbolism is generally obtuse; for myself at least the piece has come to symbolize the the pitfalls of growing up too quickly. But I am happy for those that come across the image to see what they want in it.

W: What is inspiring to you now?

E-T: As I mentioned, I am interested in the mythology of children’s literature. I have been researching stories from other cultures that I would like to play off of. I am also very keen on items from the antiquities collection at the Met. I have also been quite moved recently by Francis Bacon, just in his visceral display of inner strife.

To see more Elbow-Toe works, go here. To see more excellent street art, visit the Wooster Collective site.

The Wooster Collective talks to the New York-based street artist Martin Sobey about his work.

This is the first installment of a new weekly series in which our friends at the Wooster Collective will be bringing some of their favorite street art to GOOD, along with interviews with the artists behind the work. We hope you enjoy it.

About a year ago, we started to notice that the drab drain pipes and scaffolding poles were coming to life with vibrant, energizing colorful wraps.  These are the work of Martin Sobey, an artist whose studio in NoHo is near many of the places he has brought to life. We believe that these small acts of creativity make New York a special city.  Passersby know the city is alive and that the human element prevails—even in a construction zone. We caught up with Sobey to ask him about his most recent work.

WOOSTER: Why do you choose where you put your pieces?

MARTIN SOBEY: My placement depends on a variety of things- initially the piece of architecture or environment that strikes me- and is applicable to my type of work- secondarily the location—can I make this thing happen?

W: How does your work contribute to the community?

MS: My work adds to my community on many levels—it introduces work not of a typical nature, with a greater impact and a stronger aesthetic than the surrounding environment. It also comes down when I deem it done—understanding its impermanence is crucial to the piece. Also: pride—my community has a large number of artists and I strive to maintain a public face of this. Represent, baby! While installing I usually come into contact with people and I get the chance to open a dialogue with neighbors and visitors, a great way to introduce people to my art, public art, and art in general.

W: How do people react to the work?

MS: Ninety nine percent of the people I encounter overwhelmingly support it, but really most people don’t even see it.

W: Why did you choose the subject matter you did?

MS: I am a photographer—I just went thataway, instead of thisaway with my art

W: What is inspiring to you now?

MS:  Inspiration—aside from the infinite universe. Losing my studio if I don’t start making some money.

To see more of Sobey’s art, visit beaconart.blogspot.co. To see more excellent street art, visit the Wooster Collective site.