So Fresh and So Green | Madam Toussaint on Going Green, Art, Hip Hop, and Politics

The first time Gigi Bio showed me her work she said, “See, this is what it looks like in my head”. So what’s in her head are photos from multiple views, images of New York City’s urban landscape, herself, and those she meets in her travels. Each image layered upon each other is unique like the snowflakes that come together to blanket her adopted city in the middle of winter.

The single image formed can show anything from hard angles in architecture softened in a layered, loose, curvilinear composition or a reflection of the ever shifting energy of urban life swirling around a singular figure simply waiting for a walk signal on a street corner.

I told her my first thoughts were of cubism, specifically Marcel Duchamp’s cubist inspired “Nude Descending A Staircase No. 2″ pictured left, which depicts a woman at multiple moments while in motion through still images, abstract lines and planes presented all as one image. Gigi shut down that label with the quickness!

I set out to find out what the stuff in Gigi’s head is, how it got there and what she intends to do with it next. Oh yeah, and why she doesn’t want to be called a cubist! (more…)

Happy New Year and Happy Independence Day to All the Haitians out there. We here at sofreshandsogreen.com we are excited about this new year. So here’s a look back at last year’s greatest hits just before we jump into what’s in store for 2010.

Homelessness Sucks: Carteret Island Climate Change Refugees
Victims of climate change make it a not so abstract concept in this post full of images to illustrate the point.

Hello World! Welcome To So Fresh And So Green.com
There’s a nice intro to the site in this post.

An Interview With DJ C-Reality: He’s Not Just A DJ, He’s A Hip Hop Purist Part 1 and Part 2
One of my favorite interviews with one of my favorite DJs.

An Interview With Josh Goldstein- Artist and NYC Bodega Enthusiast
Part 1 and Part 2
Here’s 2 for the price off 1. It’s been a big 2009 for Josh Goldstein and it was a pleasure to have a Q&A with him.

Is Cookie Monster Now Veggie Monster?
One of our most popular posts attempts to answer the question once and for all: Is Cookie Monster Now Veggie Monster?

Here’s a few honorable mention posts:

Graffiti Taxonomy Project

My confession about where my commitment to nature comes from: Madam Toussaint as a Treehugger

Special thanks to Marthalicia for her participation in Marthalicia Matarrita On Being An Artist In The Military

What does Ghostface have to do with overfishing? Find out in Overfishing Slows In Some Areas But Continues In Others

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sofreshandsogreen.com helps the young and the urban learn more about the environment through Hip Hop, art, information and ideas. Come for The Fresh, stay for The Green!

Graffiti Taxonomy Print – ‘E’: Lower East Side, NYC by Evan Roth

Evan Roth (aka fi5e) is an artist who is obviously pretty brainy and likes graffiti…maybe that’s an understatement. At Parsons School The New School for Design Roth developed a project called Graffiti Taxonomy and thesis project called Graffiti Analysis. In Roth’s Graffiti Taxonomy project he “presents isolated letters from various graffiti tags, reproduced in similar scales and at close proximity. The intent of these studies is to show the diversity of styles as expressed in a single character.”

Over 4 days in April Roth photographed 2,400 graffiti tags in Paris’s 20 districts. 18 tags were used to express the diversity in character of the letters A,E,I,K,N,O,R,S,T and U “ranging from upper case to lowercase, simple to complex and legible to cryptic”. ~woostercollective.com

This summer Roth’s project will be on display at Fondation Cartier’s Born In The Streets – Graffiti exhibition in Paris which will be up until November 29, 2009.

Anything that shows the creativity and intelligence behind graffiti and anything related to Hip Hop is aces with me. A cosign from the Wooster Collective doesn’t hurt either.

Buy his prints at factory.ni9e.com

FUN FACT: “The main [Fondation Cartier] gallery space and garden have been filled with pieces and other graffiti-inspired works by artists including SEEN, JONONE, Barry McGee, Evan Roth, QUICK, and PHASE2.” ~animalnewyork.com

Related: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOSH GOLDSTEIN- ARTIST AND NYC BODEGA ENTHUSIAST PART 1 and 2

Gigi Bio’s “PRISMS ON BUSHWICK” From the album: “PHOTO JUXTAPOSITIONS” reminds me of my environment, the city I love. The hard angles remind me of the urban landscape while the curve and flow flow recall the dynamic and energy of the city that never sleeps. Gotta love the graffiti too.

As a Black person from New York City I take issue with a lot of green marketing and I guess what I would call “green imagery”. It seems like a lot of “going green” is supposed to be geared towards white folks that live in Seattle. That’s fine and all but it isn’t only their responsibility to get involved and they certainly would not be the only ones to benefit from everyone being more environmentally conscious.

It bothers me that in sifting through images for this blog the majority of the “green images” I saw were of white adults and children in lush fields of green, green grass. You’ve seen those images. Maybe there are a few puffy white clouds in the blue-green afternoon sky. Oh yeah, with lots and lots of sunlight drenching everything. No beginning, no end, no context, just holy awesomeness as God intended! Maybe some strawberry blonde haired little girl is picking daisies and running around, whatever. I’m not going to take issue with the lack of non white persons in this imagery right now, but instead I’d like to discuss the lush, green field.

I grew up in New York City and I have a problem with imagery that leads one to believe lush green fields are worth being more conscious for and saving while implying cities aren’t and the hood isn’t. (more…)

“Vectorized” Josh Goldstein by Madam Toussaint

Here’s part 2 of my interview with Josh Goldstein. If you missed the first part you can click on AN INTERVIEW WITH JOSH GOLDSTEIN- ARTIST AND NYC BODEGA ENTHUSIAST PART 1. In this last half of Josh’s interview we learn how the dynamic artist feels about the graffiti scene, Chinese food take out menus and his own “Happy Family”. We also discuss the color purple (not the movie) and how he feels about the color green (the color and the environment).

MT: What kind of gear do you use to take your photos?

JG: Trade secret…ok fine, a Canon Power Shot.

Supermarket Chain (2003), photo on russian baltic birch multi-ply plywood, 48″x8″, private collection, Brooklyn, New York

MT: When I see your work I can see Hip Hop has clearly been an influence on you. Were you ever on the graffiti scene? Who are your favorite graffiti artists? If want to see dope graffiti in NYC where should I visit?

JG: Damn, I wish I could say I was, but the truth is I was too busy collecting baseball cards in Indiana. Favorite graf/street artists – Doze Green, Banksy of course, Swoon, Lee Quinones, Taki 183, and the guy who wrote “gang mafia” on the wall of the bodega on my corner.

Best place to see dope graffiti? 5 Pointz in Long Island City for sure – best seen out of the left side of a Flushing-bound 7 train. Also check out the piece on (more…)