The first of two murals created by MOMO for the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program’s Open Source project in the Fishtown neighborhood at 1831 Frankford Avenue.
(Photos by Steve Weinik for the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program)
Philadelphia artists Billy and Steven Dufala are known for their unusual creations made from unusual, mostly recycled, materials.
Like the 14 tricycles made out of repurposed toilets for a race that was part of the 2005 Fringe Festival, and the cardboard tank
they rolled through the city one afternoon in 2004. (That tank is not to be confused with their ice cream truck tank, via which they served treats in 2006.)
Their project for October's Open Source series will see them using aluminum to make functional pieces, like numbers to indicate home addresses.
What's more important for this project, they said, is the process: The brothers will be collecting scrap metal every Saturday in the former Edward Bok
Vocational School in South Philadelphia, where they will melt it and recast it.
Mural Arts artist helps addicts tell their stories
"This is about seeing the life cycle of a natural material, which means it's in limited supply and will run out some day. Usually," Steven Dufala said, "no one witnesses that."
Open Source, presented by the City of Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program, features 14 public-art projects done by 16 artists. October will feature a myriad of free and low-cost
events, including hands-on demonstrations, talks and panels by artists and experts, gallery showings, and guided tours.
(For more details,
(visit opensource.muralarts.org.)
While Mural Arts has traditionally addressed social change through painting, it doesn't want to be limited to one method, said Jane Golden, executive director of Mural
Arts Program."People hear the name of our organization and think murals, but really, our program has become about community-based public art making," she said.
"We're working in many others ways. What's important is that we move the needle, that there's an impact and transformation through art-making."
The name Open Source has multiple meanings for the series, but the primary one is the focus on exchange, collaboration, and partnership.
The first project, skateable sculptures, was unveiled last month. Jonathan Monk was inspired by two concrete works by Sol LeWitt in the Philadelphia Museum of
Art's sculpture garden. His interpretations, in Paine's Park on North 24th Street, look like a pyramid and a set of steps, but they're made of Satellite, which is often
used on skateboard ramps, and have angle irons in place to allow for better shredding, according to Open Source curator Pedro Alonzo said.
some clips
https://youtu.be/6co-cCBPg94
https://youtu.be/cmwUTeSOeBc
"If there's something for skateboarders," Alonzo said, "you know there's something for everyone."
Other works that went public early include local artist/activist Michelle Angela Ortiz's 17-foot mural Familias
Separadas that has covered the center courtyard of City Hall all month. The title means separated families.
Ortiz worked with an immigrant-rights organization on the design.
In July, French photographer/muralist JR unveiled his 20-story mural pasted to the side of the Graham Building at 15th and Chestnut Streets.
It is a photo of a Pakistani immigrant named Ibrahim who lives in Philadelphia. JR talked to the man, who works two jobs, about his journey
to the United States and about how many Americans don't notice him. The Graham Building was the chosen mural location because the image
couldn't be easily seen from some angles, playing up the idea that immigrants are hiding in plain sight.
https://youtu.be/iRVuPATe4K4
None of the pieces is intended to be permanent - some will be removed after a few months or a few years. Others will be allowed to fade.
New Orleans artist MOMO spent months in the city earlier this year sharing his use of practical geometry in creating art with area teenagers.
The practice is still sometimes used by masons and carpenters, but has largely been replaced by computers. He and some of his students will
hold public workshops in October to teach others the practice.
"I'm trying to capture anyone's curiosity and introduce them to the most immediate aspects of this subject matter that dates back to antiquity," he said.
"This is taking the idea of public art for a public audience to enjoy and taking it a step forward. The public takes possession of what we've created.
We pass something on to them. It's meant to be a deeper interaction."
The Dufala brothers see deeper symbolism in working at Bok. Generations of Philadelphians attended the vocational school until its closure in 2013.
"There's something about making something in a building that once taught using your hands to create," Billy Dufala said, noting, "The building itself is
being recycled in a sense," as current owners plan to turn the Art Deco structure into a "makers space" for craftspeople.
The brothers will operate their DIY foundry in the school's former mechanics' shop, with high ceilings and large roll-up doors that once let cars enter.
They want to showcase the clear transition from being trash to being something new and useful.
"Everything in our lives has already been reclaimed, you just don't know it yet," Steven Dufala said. "It's cyclical. This art is us trying to showcase that."
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