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street art in Havana

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Back in June 2015 I spent a week in Havana.   The street art that I saw there ranged from scribbles on walls to elaborate murals and pictures.  The following photographs cover almost all the street art that I saw.

mural on a wall of a group of people, stylized slightly, obviously cuban

below: A young boy by 5 Stars

a painting by 5 stars of a young boy seated, in a sleeveless white top, black curly hair

street art, large eyes staring straight ahead

below: A variation on a slogan, “just do it”

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below: yellow faces, holding up a portrait

a small person with a yellow head holds up a large yellow square which in turn is a yellow head

below: Charlie Chaplin and the kid

black and white street art piece of Charlie Chaplin looking around the edge of a door - the door is real. A young boy is with Charlie Chaplin

below: A fish out of water, swimming down the street

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While I was in Havana, the Duodecima Bienal de La Habana was also on and some of what I saw on the streets, including the photo below, probably belonged to that.  The Bienal De La Habana is an art festival that occurs every three years (yes, three years even though bienal means every two years!).  The next festival will be in November 2018.

below: The little blue signs says “Gabinete del imaginario” which translates to Cabinet of the Imaginary.

a rough wooden cover covers a window, a wall used to be orange and blue but most of the paint has peeled off. On the wall a picture has been mounted. It is a beach scene, two people sitting on an orange beach with orange sky and blue water.

below: Oops I did it again, scribbles on the wall.

scribbled graffiti on a wall, a silly drawing of a boy with the words oops I did it again, some exclamation marks

below: Black and white portraits overlooking the street

a man and a woman talking on a street corner. Beside them is a wall with three black and white murals painted on it. A middle ages woman with a head band and hands on her hips, an older man's head in a white hat and looking upward and last, a man in a white uniform holding a box under his arm.

below: “…no quiero mas el queso” or, I don’t want more cheese.   It is signed as Cuba Ecuador 2015 as well as Ratador.  So far I haven’t been able to find any information on this artist.

two street art pieces, one is a large rat with a piece of cheese and the words No quiero mas el queso. On the right is a black and white image of a man's head with a number below him. N I 8908202623.

below: “A las almas”  To the souls, on one side of the door while a woman rides her bike on top of the world on the other side of the door.

an old green wood door on a building. on one side is a red poster with a black silhouette of the upper part of a man with one arm reaching to the clouds as well as the words a las almas, on the other side of the door is a painting in pinks and bieges of a winged woman on bike riding on top of the globe

below: An eye over number 156

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below: Waves of hair, waves of water

a street art picture of a young woman's head and face, she is looking slightly back over her shoulder. Blue abstract beside her

below: Calling Seth

the word Seth in a word bubble, with the top part of a man's head as he pokes his head around a wall.

face of a man drawn in black, with dabs of yellow, green, and red added to the picture

 

a wooden cart in poor shape is parked next to a mural of a woman lying on her side. It looks like she is lying on the sidewalk. She is topless.

photos on the wall

There are also a number of political pieces.  I suspect that some state are sponsored and some are not.

below: CDR #8 refers to Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (Spanish: Comités de Defensa de la Revolución) which is a network of neighbourhood committees across Cuba.  Their purpose depends on what side of the fence you are on.  They promote social welfare and report on counter-revolutionary activity or they are a secret police organization.  Take your pick.

mural cdr number, portraits of three men wearing green, Che Guevera, Castro and

below: This is the symbol of the Young Communist League in Cuba.  In Spanish it’s  Unión de Jóvenes Comunistas or UJC. Estudio, Trabajo, Fusil = Study, Work, Rifle.   The symbol shows the faces of Julio Antonio Mella, Camilo Cienfuegos and Che Guevera.  Mella was a founder of the Cuban Communist Party while Cienfuegos and Guevera were major figures in the Cuban Revolution.

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below: A UJC mural, “fieles a nuestra historia ” or Faithful to our History.
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below: Che Guevera on his own.

a black stencil of Che Guevera's head

many poster of Che Guevera

The next three pictures are of a mural on Callejon de Hamel (callejon is a lane)

colouful mural on a blue building in havana cuba

colouful mural on a blue building in havana cuba

below: A woman looks out the window above the mural.  The words on the beige part say “Puedo esperar mas que tu, porque soy el tiempo.” This translates to, “I can wait more than you because I am time. ”   On the red section the words are “Salvador 26 to 95”.

colouful mural on a blue building in havana cuba - a woman looks out from a window above the mural

below: And last, a picture that was definitely a part of the Bienal.  ‘Identidad ‘ by Julio Cesar Garcia  It is part of a series of photos called Resistencia.  The words that accompany it are given below along with a translation – not the best but with my beginner Spanish and the limitations of google translate, you get what you get!

a black and white photo of a man's head and shoulders, wearing a white hat, older man, large picture, on a wall outside

Identidad da inicio a una serie titulada Resistencia.  Apelando al uso del lenguaje y el concepto de arte callejero, la serie esta compuesta por retratos de gran formato ubicados, a largo plazo, en varias ciudades del pais.   La intention es intervenir muros, edificos, aceras y calles de la ciudad con gigantografias concebidas en forma de mosaico sobre cartulina cromada.  Las obras, en relaction directa con todo tipo de publico desede el proceso mismo de su instalacion, tendran un caracter efimero.  Resistencia sera una consigna, una actitud, un modo de vida y de hacer el arte.

 

Identidad is the first in a series titled Resistencia.  Appealing to the use of language and the concept of street art, the series is composed of large format portraits located, in the long term, in several cities of the country.   The intention is to intervene on walls, buildings, sidewalks and streets of the city with large photos made in the form of mosaics on chrome paperboard. The works [In direct relation with all types of public from the process itself of its installation]  will have an ephemeral character.  Resistance will be a slogan, an attitude, a way of life and making art.

artist paper paste-ups

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Paste-ups seen on Artist Lane, Windsor (Melbourne) this past weekend.

Artist Lane runs parallel to Chapel St. between Green and Union streets, just north of Windsor station.   It has the highest concentration of good street art that I have seen yet in Melbourne.  I have too many pictures for one blog post.  As a result, have divided it up into sections, paste-ups (paper), stencils, and paintings.  Here are the paste-ups.

below: It’s twenty seconds into 11:50 somewhere in the world.
I wonder what time the alarm is set for?

paste-up paper of an old fashioned round red alarm clock with two gold ringers on the top. The face of the clock has a map on it. the time is 11:50

below: A perfect afternoon to sit and watch the world go by.

on a red brick wall, at second storey level, a large paste-up of a white wood bench with a person sitting on it. The person is wearing white trousers and shoes and a pink shirt.

below: Cans inside of cans inside of cans. Tin Babushka dolls.

small black drawing on white paper paste up of many cans inside each other, each can slightly smaller than the one before it.

below: Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing

A red typewriter stencil by wrdsmith over a poster for False Idols paste-up on a wall. A picture of a man is on the poster along with the words "Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing. But inwardly they are ferocious wolves " A tiny giraffe head is in the top right corner.

below: Spraying on a happy face.

Two paste-ups on a pole, a pink hand on a spray paint can, aiming at a white happy face. Graffiti on walls in the background

below: Flying away.  Spraying only where eagles dare.

three paste ups on a wall with striped spray paint, white, black, red and gold. Small T-shirt, an eagle in flight, and a pink hand holding onto a spray paint can. It looks like the spray is aimed at the eagle.

below: In case of emergency, smile. Put on a happy face.

paste-up in a Melbourne lane of a flat piece of metal screwed to a post with 4 screws, one in each corner and a large round emergency stop button in the middle. The round button has been turned into a yellowish happy face

below: Many words. Many bent and leaning columns at the tipping point.

Many paste-ups on a part of a wall that has been painted orange.

below: Hammer and sickly cover the globe.

Paste-up of two pink hands, one holding a large hammer and one holding a large sickle. A blue globe (map of the world) is behind the hammer and sickle

below: This one is signed, by barek

small cutesy drawing of girl, abstracted a bit.

below: Every T-shirt tells a story, of sailing ships and volcanoes about to blow.

High on a pole, a paste-up of a white T-shirt on which there is a large black and white a detailed bdrawing

below: Watching paint dry, or maybe just thinking about it.

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below: The snail is printed on scrap paper?  or is there significance to the fact that the original purpose of the paper was information about Julius Baer, a Swiss private financial company, and EMA Partners, a company that matches executives with international companies, also based in Switzerland.

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below: with a sigh and a shrug.

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below: Stop on red signal.  If you look closely, you’ll see that there is more to it than that.

A skateboard shaped white paste-up with a drawing of bin Laden overlayed with the words An Eye for An eye blinds us both.

A lot of the above art was done by Phoenix, a Melbourne street artist.
More information about him can be found on his website