Directed & Filmed by: Candice House and Brian Smith
Edited & Produced by: Vincent Aricco and Michael Matassa
Sound design by: Jimmy Guthrie
Special thanks to: Hense, Ironlak, Mai Phung, Lexi Aricco, Sever, Michael Ouweleen, Johnny Colt
Find out more at: hensethename.com and knowngallery.com/hense
Peep out the new TheSeventhLetter.com site just launched today! Special thanks to Didier Cohen.
Find out more at: knowngallery.com/risky
Salt Lake Building Gets Mural Makeover
November 16, 2009, By Anne Forester,
SALT LAKE CITY -- Over the weekend two artists began spray painting the side of an old downtown Salt Lake City building. It's not vandalism, but a work of art. When it's done, a religious mural will grace the side of the building.
The side of the building at 160 E. 200 South is getting a face-lift. The wall was once covered by the old Gutherie sign, now something new covers the aged bricks.
"In the beginning a lot of people don't know what we're doing. Are we doing vandalism? Graffiti? They see the spray paint," says artist Retna.
Two artists, El Mac and Retna, are creating a mural of the Virgin Mary in their own style.
"It's kind of done in a modern way. Hopefully people--a lot of people--can enjoy it from all different backgrounds," Retna says.
It takes more than 80 cans of spray and acrylic paint to bring to life the artists' detailed vision. Surrounding the Virgin Mary are words in Latin.
"It's actually the Hail Mary, but it's just done in the Latin version, so it says Ava Maria," Retna explains.
The two artists haven't always created religious artwork; one artist started off a little bit differently.
"[I] started off doing graffiti, tagging, all the stuff you do as a rebellious youth," Retna says.
He says he always kept his eye on doing something more than just graffiti. He wanted to do work that had meaning.
The owner of Fice Gallery and Urban Boutique, Cory Bullough, hopes the mural will be a landmark piece for the city.
"Pretty much everybody who walks by stops for a couple minutes and tells us that it's looking good. It's not even halfway there, so it's coming along," Bullough says.
The artists say it's their way of giving back. They hope people in Salt Lake don't find it controversial, but instead enjoy the mural.
Saber recently participated in Organizing For America’s Health Care Reform Video Challenge, a contest to create a 30 second video ad in support of reforming America’s health care system. His entry depicted him painting an interpretation of the American flag being overwhelmed by the language of his personal struggle with our country’s system of medical care. “Basically the video is a visual metaphor of my battle with epilepsy.”
Saber’s entry, subsequently featured as one of the top 20 finalists, attracted a lot of negative attention by right-wing conservative media for what they called its defacing of the American flag. According to Saber “It was never my intention to insult or disrespect anyone. The decision to paint the flag was to show it as a living, breathing, changing organism, that represents me as an American trying to manage this lifelong disease without heath care”
Fox “opin-u-tainment” Network aired portions of the video, even reediting it so that it appears the video ends with the flag being painted all black, which was indeed not the case, for in Saber’s version the flag comes back to life.
We call Fox “opin-u-tainment” for several reasons. First because we think it was disingenuous to reedit the video (come on guys, it’s was only 30 seconds long!). And secondly because we were under the impression that a “fair and balanced” news network would not have devoted that much time, money, and energy to any news story without contacting the individual in question for their statement. The conservative media’s coverage of Saber’s video entry would lead people to believe Sabers intentions were ego and/or politically driven, instead of the truth, that they are grounded in the frustration, pain, and fear of having no access to a Dr. or hospital.
For the record, Saber is a registered Independent and not part of the Democratic Party. He isn’t even on the OFA’s mailing list. It was his fiancée who is on that list and was contacted when the contest was announced. The bottom line for Saber’s decision to become involved is simple: “Like many of my fellow Americans I don’t want to have to declare bankruptcy on the back of my medical debt, and more importantly I don’t want to die young because I have no care. I don’t understand why as it stands, this country is only concerned about the state of your health if you are under18 or over 65. What about the rest of us? And why isn’t every citizen 65 or older fighting for us all to be able to share in that security?”
*On Nov 17 2009 the winner, was announced. We would like to send our congratulations to the producer of that clip.
“The American flag is a very powerful symbol of unity. It’s time to come together and fight for those of us who are too sick to fight for themselves.” –SABER
Peep out REVOK's Hall of Game picks for this year at: HALL OF GAME
Find out more: REVOK, Keegan Gibbs & Charles Hamilton
Both the SILVER EDITION and GOLD EDITION available at: knowngallerystore.com
ATLANTA STREET ARTIST HENSE PRESENTS “SURFACE STRENGTH,” FEATURING NEW WORKS ON PAPER, CANVAS AND WOOD,
AT THE HISTORIC 1920s RAIL YARD BUILDING IN SOUTHWEST ATLANTA, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13
Courtesy of Sandler Hudson Gallery
ATLANTA (October 10, 2009) - Atlanta-based artist HENSE will present an independently - produced solo exhibition entitled "Surface Strength," Friday, November 13, at the historic Rail Yard building 448 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd. Atlanta, Ga 30312. The opening night exhibition will be Friday, November 13th from 7pm-12am. The work will remain on display through November.
The exhibition will include new works on paper, canvas and wood as well as a limited series of hand silkscreened prints. There will also be a premier of a short independent film entitled "The Seventh Day Project"
HENSE "SURFACE STRENGTH"
Opening reception Friday November 13th
7-12am
The Rail Yard
448 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd.
Atlanta, Ga 30312
www.hensethename.com
www.sandlerhudson.com
Photos: TACKZ AM7 TSL
With the release and signing of The Seventh Letter x VOX Shoe Series this Saturday, we bring you a sneak peek at the The Seventh Letter x SURU collection a day before the release. The limited edition collaboration tees were designed by members of the world famous Seventh Letter crew: Bert Krak, Reyes and Rime.
Find out more at: WeAreSupervision.com, kcortizphoto.com, lordsofapathy.blogspot.com and Ironlak.com
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