Many thanks to Gerry for pointing out the work of Dan Perjovschi — a Romanian cartoonist who draws on walls for his huge installations. He just had a show at MOMA that has website with all kinds of goodies, including videos of him creating. You can read Gerry’s interview with Dan and his wife, here.
I’ve been doing some research lately into visiting Romania — especially the town of Alba Julia in Transylvania, where my ancestors are from. (Here is a gorgeous Flickr set of Transylvania by a man named Daniel Wellman.)
Anyways, if anyone knows of some good books on Romanian art, history, travel, etc., I’m all ears.
I got to see that giant work at the MOMA a couple months ago, and have to say I wasn’t too enamored with it. I thought it was good for a chuckle, but my subjective opinion is… eh.
I’m not sure exactly what bothered me. Part of it is that I don’t really enjoy cheap-shot political art, even if I happen to agree. Maybe it was also that it seemed so scattered, sort of improvisatory–as Perjovschi described it, a “melange.” And it seemed like a letdown for such a great opportunity–free reign over humongous walls in the atrium (!)… and we get 99% whitespace with some scribbles from a Black Sanford. Dang.
But he also said, “People enjoy, that’s enough.” And it is. I’ll get over it.
Don’t know much about Romania, other than brilliant composer/performer George Enescu came out of there. Might help you “set the mood” if you dig that style of music.
What attracts me is the combination of cartooning, graffiti, and public installation (I usually HATE installation art — but I can dig on this).
Maybe this is one of those things that succeeds better as an idea than an execution. Or maybe it was just your taste.
:-D