! INSPIRE ONE !'s photostream  

www.inspirecollective.blogspot.com"www.inspirecollective.blogspot.com
www.poeticchemistry.blogspot.com
www.telavivstreetart.blogspot.com

ALL WAYS LOVE AND RESPECT...

Listen to your heart...

&

BE GOOD FAMILY!

INSPIRE ONE


The following text is a recent interview (in raw Q&A format) with INSPIRE ONE in London Street Design magazine:

LSD Magazine - Issue 7 - Inspire One - Q&A:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
LSD: We know you have numerous projects on the flickr site alone, what best describes your role within this community?

INSPIRE: First beginning writing INSPIRE as a social message on the streets of Jerusalem, in order to understand my creative perspective I can try to give you a glimpse of the vision that I have. It even extends beyond the world of inspiration…we all have enormous creative potentials. I try to maintain this vision of collective unity that I know we all can achieve and it helps me to see the context of the shows, all the different projects, & everything we do. So that extends to the online world as well. On flickr, we try our best to present authentic high-resolution reflections of our art & curating process. www.inspirecollectiveevents.tk is hosting a lot of our process with loads of photos and videos to properly document...


LSD: You guys are involved in so many projects its hard to know where to start. So take us back to where and when Inspire One began…

INSPIRE: When I first came to this side of the globe (the middle east), and more specifically Israel. I instantly noticed a dramatic contrast between the calmness and serenity of the actual natuarl landscapes and the intensity and violence of the people (for whatever reason) who are inhabiting the land, so I knew I needed to take a step back and really think about what this area of the world is missing and what I could provide… After about 9 months of serious contemplation, meditation, etc. I knew that the answer I had come to wasn’t just about what the local populations here needed but that instead it would be a struggle to show genuine creative inspiration to those who have to be reminded... and so my Middle Eastern mission began. I wrote (and still write) EXODUS, Idiot The Wise, Seven, & INSPIRE among other things…I am always trying to express potential and realized freedom thru art expression and actions and walking the streets of West and East Jerusalem (big differences in populations) I used my painted expression to elevate my consciousness…the goal of each word or image I make is for the betterment of the people as a whole.

LSD: Did you envisage extending into so many areas from the offset or did that evolve over time?

INSPIRE: The many projects that we are involved in past and present have all grown organically from inspiration and self determination. Since my vision of social maturity is fairly broad, it becomes easy from that perspective to match any given social issue with an appropriate art action that both causes awareness about the problem, yet offers a directional solution at the same time. The words and images that come from this thought process end up being a creative process. We’re not just cutting a stencil and simply putting it on the street at random (not that there’s anything particularly wrong with that but that just not us), we are people who have thought about, fought about, debated, and then finally created something in the way of a visual solution or message. So then any medium becomes possible…

LSD: How many people are involved in INSPIRE Collective and how many artists make up the numbers?

INSPIRE: A few months into my painting mission in Jerusalem, I met my wife at a hip-hop open mic some friends and I were organizing. At this point my wife and I are the sole originators of INSPIRE Collective. The numbers of people that we have exhibited here are about 1,000 to date, so at any given time the visual representation of what the collective is showing is organically rotational…but like I said before , we’re not limiting our cooperative abilities, we could be working with any number of new artists that we’re just discovering. We want to extend a global idea that others can do this to…to say to the hopeful person, “You ARE the collective!” … Cooperation is magic…try it sometime; you’ll see. No seriously, try it!

LSD: How big is the street art scene in Israel?

INSPIRE: From top to bottom of the country, there are about 100 motivated people who maintain the visual presence in the streets …but, asking me, personally, I would have to change your question’s terminology a bit…I guess folks would just have to be here as well to know what its like. Having not grown up here, yet seeing the intense oppression, I would say describe myself as a soldier for humanity or some sort of art therapist on a kind of frontline…most places on the planet we confronted with different “cultural” concentration of fascism…Here, we are always confronted with the idea of nationalism and we see how it separates…how it tries to provide you with an ID as a child, before you get a chance to find out what that word means outside of their context…We have a life to live, beyond them…and every time we find our self-determination, we prove it by direct action. This may sound familiar with some of your readers…it simply means that a corrupt system of defaults exists for them to on some level and we all need to rid our lives of oppression in any form…collectively as groups nationalistic environments, for example, once we surround ourselves with walls for any reason whatsoever, we really have to ask: “Are those walls there to keep others out or to keep me in!”. To answer you’re question directly as I can is to call for action! We need help to both destroy and rebuild! The streets here NEED positive change. Get in contact with us: InspireCollective@gmail.com

LSD: Tell us a little on the concept of your annual Inspiration Art Festival…

INSPIRE: Well, simply put, it’s about publicly sharing inspiration in a creative way. Even though we now live and paint in Tel Aviv, the Inspiration Art Festival was originally called the Inspiration Art Exhibition and began in Jerusalem. We’re non sponsored independent people doing this because we live and love it. The public response was really encouraging and the amount of people participating in workshops, etc, during the month were reason enough to do it again. From there the show continued to gain inertia and public artists from around the world provided strong support for what we are doing. Our open call for art is never really over, we are always accepting work, putting things on the street, and organizing shows. Now that the show has blossomed into an annual art festival, our plans only get bigger! www.InspirationArtFestival.tk

LSD: How often are artists painting walls in Tel Aviv and is there a particular area that most artists paint?

INSPIRE: If I was to estimate there are about 50 people in Tel Aviv actively painting in the streets. There is no particular area with any more history than the other, work disappears and goes up all the time no matter where you are in the city. The Middle East sun exposure fades work fast, so even the most ‘historic’ walls become unrecognizable. Graffiti seems to be sprinkled through the city, so we are still building towards total coverage.

LSD: The city appears to be attracting arrests from around the planet, how do local artist respond to the presence of Banksy or JR for example?

INSPIRE: Not many artists when they get started in the streets here realize there is a larger movement and history to the visuals that inspired them. So for example they would appreciate the work from well known artists that they see but perhaps be more blinded by the ‘name and fame’ game than the actual social message that the artist most likely intended. I’m not sure why this is but it is a reality that happens here. We think it’s pretty obvious that, more often than not, public art IS the social message.

LSD: The internet has inspired artists across the globe, do you think its’ helped improve the actual quality of street art or has it remained consistent throughout its inception?

INSPIRE: The photos you see on the internet are a mere percentage of the actual work in public space. Anybody who’s already involved in a creative process or progression will learn from other similar minds and progressions by default. So ya, I think its’ helped tremendously. Whether we admit it or not, if we are involved in the public art movement, at any level, we have all been influenced by each other in one way or another. Anyway, we think the internet is a great witness and testimony to the ever-growing strength and power of this movement.

LSD: We've stopped counting the number of Flickr groups you've created, before you speak about your more recent Inspired Lives Project, name some of your other groups…

INSPIRE: Ok, so if you can follow me for a minute, ill see if I can do a short list of projects and descriptions for you:

The Constructing Co-Existence Project began with a stencil portrait of Gandhi painted in Jerusalem originally at a construction site where “immigrant” workers are usually slaving to build W.Jerusalem…on the wings of their applause, we began to spray and poster the Constructing CoExistence portrait of Gandhi as many places as we could…It didn’t take long to get the idea in flickr group form: people could easily spread a little coexistence imagery of their own wherever they were in the world by downloading our stencil-ized portrait of Gandhi to cut, paste, and paint. We wanted to convey the idea of cultural acceptance and existence with one single iconic portrait and see how far we could spread a much needed social value.

The next project I’ll mention is the ReUse Project. Presently an annual show we curate exhibits ways to re-think and reuse public space. We work with almost strictly reuse mediums in our art for years, so the project becomes a kind of focus or concentration of reusing. We tend to take over neglected or abandoned space to exhibit works from around the world on reused materials. This year, the fourth annual ReUse Project: ReUse & RESIST, is presently in the works! Check out the site here: www.ReUseAndResist.tk

Like all of our shows, you can see photo sets of them on the INSPIRE Collective flickr photostream: www.flickr.com/IdiotTheWise


Some of our other online projects include the INSPIRE Collective blog which shows public inspiration from around the world: www.InspireCollective.blogspot.com

, the Tel Aviv Street Art blog which reflects the streets here in Tel Aviv: www.TelAvivStreetArt.blogspot.com

, and the INSPIRE ONE (Idiot The Wise) blog, which focus on my individual work: www.PoeticChemistry.blogspot.com

We are also keeping record of all of our shows on the Inspire Collective Events site: www.InspireCollectiveEvents.tk

LSD: Now shed some light on your Inspired Lives Flickr projects and reasons for creating them…

INSPIRE: The INSPIRE Collective group on Flickr has the url www.Flickr.com/groups/InspiredLives
With about 5,000 members to date, we ask the world ‘What Inspires You?’ It’s a huge question, but if answered authentically (and visually) the result is amazing… just trying to give people a positive platform to express themselves.

LSD: Do you mind naming some of the artists currently painting walls in Tel Aviv?

INSPIRE: LEGACY, NOA, Mashka, SORIE420, GUEST, JOIST, The Drip Up, ActiveStills Collective, CHYK, and KNOW HOPE are some names, and there’s countless anonymous people in the middle of the night.

LSD: Given you all see an incredible amount of street art, do you have personal preferences on the type of work placed on the streets and what would you like to see more of in the future?

INSPIRE: We would like to see exterior art challenge interior artists more…mixed media works that are thought out, and more sizeable collaborations are what we always appreciate.

LSD: We hear your working very hard on the 4th ReUse Project: REUSE & RESIST!, and we're thinking where do you get the time, tell us about this exciting project.

INSPIRE: Because I do my best to constantly free my time and energy from anything not of my choice, it allows me time enough to practically consider all these creative efforts. We’re fully dedicated people. The ReUse Project is always a challenge to everyone involved, ourselves included. Every year for the past 4 years, we have taken over an abandoned building or two in order to exhibit about 100 artists each show. With this kind of inertia behind it, this years’ REUSE & RESIST! entries are already filling up our place. We love it! It’s like we’re a walking art weapon, and all we have to do is put a building in our sights…look out! www.ReUseAndResist.tk

LSD: I know there's much we have left out, but is there anything else you'd like to share with our readers for now, as we're sure to be hearing more of you in the future?

INSPIRE: Much love and respect to all self-determined creators...

----------------------------------------------------------------

PUBLIC ART in the Middle East NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT!!!
INSPIRE Collective and its projects are non-profit public adventures & funded only by people who genuinely love art and people...Help support the collective here in the middle east...write us about supporting a project or making a donation. Public art in the middle east is worth it! Please write to us: inspirecollective@gmail.com

Or, by regular mail, send good energy , art , etc. to:

ITW
PO BOX 4917
Tel Aviv, Israel 61049

www.inspirecollective.blogspot.com
inspirecollective@gmail.com

Read another interview with INSPIRE ONE here: www.razorcake.org/site/modules.php?name=news&file=art...

PS. Below you will find some additional press & interview links for me, the INSPIRE COLLECTIVE, and a few of the social action art exhibitions that we have curated. To purchase art works you've seen here online, or to place a commission request, I can be contacted by email here :
inspirecollective@gmail.com or to:
idiotthewise@gmail.com

www.jpost.com/servlet/satellite?pagename=jpost/jparticle/...

bombit-themovie.com/blog/category/places/tel-aviv/

www.razorcake.org/site/modules.php?name=news&file=art...

www.cultcase.com/2008/03/international-street-artists-add...

idiotthewise.artician.com/blog/2008/07/INSPIRE-Interview-...

www.barbur.org/?page_id=222

www.flickr.com/photos/idiotthewise/sets/

========================================

IDIOT THE WISE aka. INSPIRE

Watch ITW and INSPIRE COLLECTIVE videos here:
www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=idiotthewise


Here are some websites and flickr groups I've began and help sustain:

INSPIRE COLLECTIVE:
www.inspirecollective.blogspot.com
www.flickr.com/groups/inspiredlives

Middle East Graffiti, Street Art, and Public Activism:
www.flickr.com/groups/middleeaststreetart/

Tel Aviv Graffiti / Street Art:
www.telavivstreetart.blogspot.com
www.flickr.com/groups/telavivstreetart/

Global Urban Art:
www.flickr.com/groups/urbanartelite/

Constructing Co-Existence: A Global Street Movement
www.flickr.com/groups/constructingcoexistence/