| Dirt Don't Hurt Contributor(s): Whystyle (Author) |
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ISBN: 8888493174 ISBN-13: 9788888493176 Publisher: Drago OUR PRICE: $26.10 Product Type: Paperback Published: December 2007 Annotation: In 1997, at the height of Rome's graffiti movement, its protagonists (the artists known as Joe, Pane, Nico, Scarful and Stand) were casting around for a cover for the second issue of their magazine, Hateful. When they decided to tweak the iconic graffiti logo for the early hip hop movie Wild Style and ask "Whystyle," the phrase stuck with them. Several years later, when they were ready to take a break from decorating Rome's building walls and subway cars, they united their efforts under the name Whystyle, an art and design collaborative. Their work still makes environments and characterizes spaces; it exports graffiti's aesthetic to sculptural media such as found objects with a steady, deeply informed critical distance. Over the last five years, Whystyle has curated and organized events in art, design, photography, fashion and urban culture, and taught at the University of Architecture and Design in Venice. This is their first book. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Art | Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions - General - Art | Popular Culture - Art | Graffiti & Street Art |
| Dewey: 709 |
| Physical Information: 0.33" H x 7.2" W x 9.48" (0.67 lbs) 96 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: "Dirt Don't hurt", the contribution by Why Style to the series 36 Chambers, is not necessarily connected with graffiti writing, even if using its language and syntax. The common background of street guys just made them participants, but also observers, in the show of urban universe in actual capitalism. Their art catalogues many of its features from a steady critical distance. In this sense, their creative work will analyze the multicoloured aspects of our society, diving into them like the reporter telling his story from a war zone. Why Style will be a sort of alien entity looking at the world in 2007 with the filter that labeled them all along their artistic path and considering everyday life, the relationship with information, religion and power, from alternative points of view and an unconventional perspective. Why Style gathers the main characters of the roman graffiti movement of the 90s: Joe, Pane, Nico, Scarful and Stand. The idea of the name came up in 1997, while they were working to the second issue of their fanzine Hateful. For the cover, in fact, they thought to disguise the graffiti icon Wild Style and change it into Why Style. It was time to take a break from the world of writing and find new inputs on which to focus their attention. After many years of painting walls and subway cars in Rome, they wanted to keep being productive and nurturing their interest in art and design. So, they united the efforts and continued to work as a group. Since 2001, Why Style has curated and organized many events dealing with art, design, photography, fashion, and urbane culture. The art production by the group has always been meant to make environments and characterize spaces. Their skill, a genetic feature typically Italian, to suit to every situation allows them to use different media and painting tools, such as objects and recycled stuff, and compensate the rawness of means with their creativity. |
Contributor Bio(s): Whystyle, Whystyle: - Why Style was born in 2002, when a bunch of friends coming from years of graffiti life, decided to explore art as a whole, accessing the wider audience of real life, confronting the mainstream way of communicating, trying to push their ideas to the edge. The meaning of Why Style hasn t basically changed in years, they are still searching the possibilities art would give them to communicate ideas, visions without limits to tools and media involved. Why Style has attended several international exhibition, distinguish their visual aesthetic by using the space, not limiting their action to surfaces. Working mainly with recycled material they transformed their space in a playful area where everything could append. The elaboration of this language was natural, is part of their familiar landscape. Piles of trash, as they re left illegally in Rome suburbs became their vocabulary, where they picked up stuff to built installations; old fridges, mattresses, furniture and forgotten objects became part of Why Style s visual elaborations. Why Style embraced the exploding movement of street art from the beginning. They elaborate art languages from a perspective naturally positioned in the core of contemporary, contributing the evolution of the street language forward. Why Style has established collaborations with different creative s, expanding it s own interest to photography, editorial design and illustration; is now become a platform of professionals, skilled to move into the field of graphic and fashion design, books and magazines publishing. Why Style is a network of people operating in different directions of visual art. Why Style components distinguished themselves, s as professional art directors, illustrators, photographers and calligraphers. Today Why Style carries a fresh and passionate spirit for visual arts and encourages you to refer to them as a network of professionals skilled to make ideas into products. |
