Italy // Catania: #DEMETRIODIGRADO

"I like good strong words that mean something..." - Louisa May Alcott

Demetrio Di Grado - CONSUMANDO
la selezione dei ricordi

It was on a December day that Franca was strolling around Catania and she suddenly found herself in a small street full of paper and words.

I love words

I love that a word + a word make a compound

Some people use them in unproper ways, some others make poetry, some others again illusions...

This time it was ART -

Poster Art

Franca took out her notepad and noted down #DemetrioDiGrado.

Demetrio Di Grado - Errore Psicologico

It was a particular perception. She was standing hypnotized in front of those posters. It was a kind of journey between consciousness and instinct.

She was chosen by those characters.

At home, always with that perception in her head, she looked for some information about the artist.

#DemetrioDiGrado was born in Palermo (M.Y. 1976), after some time spent in the Hip Hop culture, in 2012 he founded ManSourcing [the promotion of art in all its possible variations] and from here the collage/poster art.

#vintagepop, he defines his works.

“A survey done at the Louvre found that the average person spends 15 seconds looking at the “MonaLisa”

That was the time that Franca had more or less in front of the “ERRORE PSICOLOGICO”.

I love words

I love that a word + a neswpaper cutting 
make a sense

Demetrio Di Grado - Senza Parole

The scenes that Demetrio represents in his works – she went on reading – recall the years of the War. Men, women, children…each of them carries a message and leads us to our present contradiction.

And finally a sentence on the eyes to close the meaning, to provoke, to urge us to think.

And Franca felt that urgency.









#tobecontinued

Chapter 2, part 1 - Newtown (#Gawaa #SteertArt)

---- First draft, 15th May '15 ----


Today we are in another verly lively suburb of Sydney, Newtown.

ARTISTIC

VINTAGE

RECYCLING

GRAFFITI

URBAN

STREET

ART

MULTICULTURAL

VIBE

UNKNOWN

INSTALLATIONS

ALTERNATIVE

These are just few of the words that pop into my mind while thinking of Newtown.

Actually, I discovered this area quite at the end of my stay in Sydney (it was in May), accidently from a bus. It was so full of lights, people, sounds, traffic and I had simply realized...

I didn't know all that :) 

I went back a week after to explore the place and take some notes for my journal. So here I am :)

"ThAnk YoU tO the South WeSt GoBi deSEerT wINd aNd itS bLuE Sky, My BiRThPlaCe", #Gawaa

Newtown - Sydney, #toomanythingstodonotenoughtime, Gawaa

This poster, "too many things to do, not enough time", belongs to the so-called Goddard Street Gallery, which is a sort of open-air art gallery.

It has been realized by a Mongolian ARTIST, Gawaa, who moved to Brisbane and then to Sydney a while ago.

His work is mainly based on experience as a Mongolian living in Western Society and he creates that by RECYCLING materials he gets from the STREETS.

This is not the only artist active in the area and unfortunately I was not able to collect info for all the GRAFFITI I saw there, but I've recently found a very interesting page on facebook which gives a clearer picture of the suburb.


"Good shoes take you good places"

Just a few steps later on the main street I met a "shoes pole". It's a massive INSTALLATION completely covered by shoes, which for me was really impressive.

UNKNOWN artist, at least to me. If any of you knows something more about it, just please let me know. I'd really appreciate that.

Newtown will surprise you from every point of view. It's a mix of everything ALTERNATIVE you can imagine. It's the home and hangout of a huge population of students, artists, musicians, backpackers, local and foreign, giving the area a MULTICULTURAL taste.

I'll come back soon with another chapter, aware of the fact it will not be enough for NEWTOWN :)

Good VIBES to all of you :)
VaL

Newtown - Sydney, Goddard Street Gallery

Newtown - Sydney

Newtown - Sydney

Chapter 1, part 2 - ChinaTown (Street Art)

Me as #citytraveller

Good evening there! Cold day spent under the blanket, trying to nip my cold in the bud, but it doesn't seem to work that much :)

I wanted to talk about a new chapter of this amazing city, but first I feel like giving a few more curiosities and pics on this area of Sydney.

Here you have a view on how the Paddy's markets look like from the inside. Basically it's a huge warehouse with many stands offering mostly Australian souvenirs, but as I said in my previous post, you can also find all sorts of things.

Paddy's Markets 

Such as maneki-neko (the welcoming cat we usually see in the Chinese restaurants, even though it belongs to the Japanese tradition), katana, bags of all kinds, t-shirts, hi-techs tools and so on.

A stand @ Paddy's Markets

"In Between Two Worlds" by Jason Wing

Strolling the streets I ended up in a small lane full of angels. At that time I didn't know what it was and I was not even that much interested in that. It was a hidden world. It reminded me of another installation I saw a year before on a picture of a friend of mine. I didn't know it was in Sydney but I was already somehow captured.

"In BetweenTwo Worlds" by Jason Wing

Only recently I have discovered it was created by Jason Wing, who was born to Aboriginal and Chinese parents. This laneway art is titled "In Between Two Worlds", it' s a reflection of the unique ancestry of the artist by making references
to both Chinese and Aboriginal motifs.

It consists of three main components:
- wall murals
- floor murals
- and 30 suspended illuminated "spirit" figures.

It was a project commissioned by the Council of Sydney in order to create high quality public places in the City.

For further details click here.

Well, that's all for now about ChinaTown. I hope to come back soon for more updatings.

Cheers!