Wednesday 12 October 2011

Of Sheep and Men


Two new creations have appeared in the street in which I live - one by a relatively well-known artist, and one that will perhaps always remain anonymous!

According to a fascinating interview in Street Tease magazine, Michael Beerens changed artistic tack following a serious motorbike accident in 2007. Previously he'd just concentrated on graffiti, but during his 6 months in hospital, he decided that he'd like to bring his art more into the public domain and concentrate on animals, a subject that had always fascinated him.

"J’utilise les animaux car ils permettent de dresser un parallèle avec l’homme sans qu’il se sente montré du doigt. Ce qui me permet de traiter différents sujet sans notion de jugement. Un peu comme une fable, le lecteur y voit ce qu’il veut y voir" (I use animals because they enable me to draw a parallel to man, without anyone feeling singled out. It allows me to treat different subjects without a notion of judgement. Like a tale, readers see what they want to see)


This project, a creation produced in association with Les 3 Murs, is amusing and crisply painted (in a lovely blue!), and the sheep in wolf's clothing is a nice twist. For more details on the artist, see his official website: http://www.michaelbeerens.fr/works/accueil.html

The second creation is more of a guerilla production. I'm not sure if there are more of these busy little men around Paris or not, but this is the only one I have seen so far. Something tells me though that we may be in for an invasion soon, but who knows what other tricks they have planned for unsuspecting drivers?

8 comments:

Virginia said...

Love the sheep. Hope I can find it my next trip. You just never know what you'll find in Paris. That's why I return over and over.
V

Stephen said...

Saw one waiting by the champ de mars before the 20k sunday

Adam said...

Virginia: It's on the Rue du Faubourg du Temple in the 10th, just north of Goncourt.

Stephen: I hope he wished you good luck!

Sébastien said...

Paris is actually under an invasion of these busy little men. It began in the Marais neighboorhood in august.
Want to know more about the street artist? CLET is French, lives in Italy and here is his facebook page .

Adam said...

Thanks for the info Sébastien. Following that link leads to further links, including a page on the artist's other work. It's difficult to see a link between his paintings and drawings and these little men..

Anonymous said...

the guerilla one is all over london too!

Nathalie said...

Thanks for bringing to my attention the fact that the top character in the first photo is a sheep in wolf skin, I had mistakenly seen a real wolf. I think it's a great image and I hope it stays there for a long while. Thanks for the photo and the interview, both wonderful.

The second I'd already come across as an image on the internet (it comes out if you do a 'funny sign' search on Google I think). I'd love to see them spread out in Paris, I think they're great fun and contrary to other graffiti they don't affect the sign itself, which remains perfectly "readable".

Nathalie said...

Oh, I hadn't read Sebastien's input. Well there you are. Go CLET!

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