Finally, in Rome, the first Free Art Friday, March 17, 2018 from 17.00 / 18.00 Via Emilio Morosini in Trastevere, with the arrival in Rome of the inventor the British artist My Dog Sighs. The day is dedicated to the global art movement that promotes street art in a free and free way. Not to be confused with Street Art.
This movement was born in London in 2006 by a group on Flickr. It is a monthly event during which passersby come across randomly into works of art that artists who participate in it leave on the street for free and in some cases, they can be taken away. The artists who adhere to the day realize works of any kind and genre such as paintings, installations, ceramics, sculptures, handicrafts … born from the satisfaction of being able to create an art free from imposed and non-imposed posts, to give voice to an idea or to a political message, or simply to surprise and amuse and to give new life to corners, in this case of the city of Rome in a state of neglect. On 17 March the British artist will finish his intervention on the external wall of the Nuovo Regina Margherita structure of ASL Roma 1.
Short interview to My Dog Sighs… talk about you.. Nonconformist, anticonsumist and always surprising…
1 – How does all the artistic activity start and where do you get your inspiration?
Inspiration comes from my last painting. Every time I paint I experience highs and lows. There are elements of my painting they make my heart sing and elements that frustrate me. It is both of Jesé emotions that drive me on to make my next piece. To constantly strive to improve and try to get closer to the unattainable goal of perfection.
2 -Who is your ispiration artist?
It is much like music. My mood changes by the hour but always in my top ten are Herakut, Julian Kimmings, Bom.k and the lie. All these artists are able to marry elements of perfection with the freedom of loose mark making. They constantly remind me to try and loosen up.
3 -How is the exhibition project in Rome born? The urban for the Forgotten project?
I’m am not really sure. Like many projects it cake from a random email from the forgotten team. I really like the consideration behind the project. To involve the community to highlight an issue is very powerful and to do that woth streeet art is doubly so.
4-How do you choose a place to work?
It very much depends on what I’m doing. For my smaller street work I try and choose the hidden spaces in a city. I like the idea that the viewer will stumble across he work unexpectedly. When the wall is 30meters like this one then the discovery is less personal. It’s more of a huge exclamation. That puts pressure on me as an artists. The interaction is more than just one viewer and a small piece of work.
5 -Do you describe how you create a work?
How much do you use to make a work? Do you make a draft first?
My work is made after many many hours of thought. I tend not to create a draft first. I agonise over process and ideas then attack the wall with those thoughts as my weapon. The surface (wall, discarded food can or canvas) often fights back and it is within that struggle that the art appears. Each painting is a different battle. I don’t know how easy or hard it will be until I start. This makes approaching each piece exciting and scary.
6 – Your works give a sense of freedom you enter the soul, a magical realism …
Thankyou. I like to add layers within my work. Multilayered clues of narrative that the viewer has to build themselves to gain their own understanding of the piece.
7- How is Free Art Friday born in England? And why?
It is many things for many people. For me it was a way to engage with a truly public audience without causing criminal damage. It was a way of connecting to the heart of a stranger without asking anything in return. The stories in my head of where and how the art is found is the exciting bit.
8 – What emotions do you want to leave for your audience?
I am a big fan of melancholy. In the art I like, the music I listen to and the art I create. It is an emotion that is very powerful and I like to use that.
9 – How important is the story for you?
Artists from all over the world create and leave art in the streets, an art of all and for all !!! but nobody has it only for the general public !! When I leave a work I do not stay and follow its journey. It is gone. There is a little sadness that I have worked so hard and made a connection with it but I am fascinated at the thought it might change someones perspective on life. In that way I can guess and dream the story but ultimately only the work itself and the viewer really knows what it does.
10 – What is your last work?
I have recently returned from a very cold trip in Chicago USA wjere I had an exhibition and worked on two small walls.
11 – future exhibitions projects?
The summer will be full of paint festivals. But I hope, between those, I can get back in the studio and work on a new body of work.
12 – the suggestion to exhibit in Rome where great masters of the past worked that effect makes you?
The wall is so big and the time is so short that I feel I may fail to visit so many of. E works I would love to gain a relationship with. Of course knowing I have to produce work in such close proximity scares the shit out of me. But I will fight hard and pour my soul into every drop of paint that rests on the wall.
- I highlight this last words by My Dog Sighs because it struck me and makes the idea !!!!- SMZ
This Friday, if you walk through the narrow streets around Piazza San Cosimato you will find a work of art, you can take it home without any cost! During your walk do not forget to go to Via Morosini to meet the English artist My Dog Sighs, invited by Forgotten Project to the second edition, which involves three other British artists such as: Dan Kitchener, Lucy McLauchlan, Phlegm, who will work on some hospital facilities that are undergoing
https://www.facebook.com/FreeArtFriday/
www.flickr.com/groups/freeartfriday
MY DOG SIGHS Through his FreeArtFriday Project, My Dog Sighs carries an anti-materialistic and anti-conspiratorial message. A further similarity could also be noted here, between urban and social waste. Born from the desire to interact with the urban landscape and its inhabitants, whilst wanting to avoid anything with too great an impact, his work creates a story based on an intensity that resonates only with those who have the opportunity and the attention to read it. More info about My Dog Sighs: http://mydogsighs.co.uk/
Forgotten Project was born in 2015 to enhance Rome’s contemporary architecture through urban art.There are some typologies of buildings that are at risk of being forgotten by those residents that don’t see anymore their social, cultural and urban centrality. The project aims at bringing attention back to these buildings, which still have a high – yet neglected – potential, though urban art and a series of events that actively involve people.
She is an independent curator, art advisor and international marketing management consultant. For more than 20 years, he has been a cultural designer of events related to contemporary art with particular attention to unusual spaces and interactions with other arts.