Art and culture Archives - Page 7 of 15

Photo Post: You must be mine

20/03/2013/10 Comments/in Art and culture

When the sun comes out in Rio, things get very hot! If you have to stay out on the street for any amount of time, you’ll find yourself looking for some shade before long. This particular street in Copacabana has the shade situation pretty well covered.

This tunnel of trees in Copacabana ensures that you won’t have to worry about finding a shady spot.

Does anyone recognise this street? Here’s a clue: It was named after a Brazilian revolutionary heroine who was born in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina and who died in Italy.

Her future husband’s first words to her were “You must be mine” (I imagine he growled this while fixing her with his best look of smouldering desire…).

Toz and The Seller of Happiness

18/03/2013/7 Comments/in Art and culture

During my first 6 months in Rio, my journey to work took me past the long wall that runs opposite Jardim Botânico. This wall is covered with some of Rio’s finest graffiti and because I passed it every day I was soon familiar with every piece on the wall.

As well as recognising the individual works, after a while I started to recognise the characters and styles of the different artists too. One of my favourites was a guy called Toz (real name Tomaz Viana) and the collective he was part of, the Fleshbeck Crew.

Toz calls these colourful characters “Shimu”. Their cheerful, mischievous faces pop up all over Rio.

Toz (sounds like ‘Toyzh’) has been in the news a lot recently – his enormous work in the port area of Rio deservedly gained a lot of attention.

But I wanted to tell you about another piece of Toz’s work. I was wandering through Gávea about 6 months ago when I saw this:

Rio’s Lost Paradise

05/03/2013/27 Comments/in Art and culture

The caretaker, sometimes armed, is on the lookout for intruders. Twice a day he climbs the 37 stories of the residential building he guards. He doesn’t greet anyone as he makes his rounds and no one greets him because despite the fact that it is over 40 years old, the building is empty and no one has ever officially lived there.

The building that I’m talking about is in Barra da Tijuca and was once called Torre Abraham Lincoln – today it is usually referred to simply as Torre H (‘Torre’ means tower). Alongside this abandoned building sits its inhabited and fully functional identical twin, Torre Charles de Gaulle. They make a strange looking pair and immediately caught my eye when I started working nearby.

What’s wrong with this picture? Torre Charles de Gaulle on the left is a fully functioning building complete with satellite dishes and a/c units. Torre H, on the right, is a windowless abandoned shell.

When I first saw Torre H I had no idea how old it was – I thought maybe there was just a short delay in the construction work. As time passed I noticed that there were no windows being put in, no builders, in fact no activity whatsoever.

Street Art Adding Colour to Rio

28/02/2013/11 Comments/in Art and culture

Regular readers will know that I have a soft-spot for street art. I know it’s not to everyone’s liking and some people even have quite strong objections to what they see as ugly vandalism, but I like it. Having said that, I definitely have more trouble with the pixação so common in São Paulo – while street art (in my eyes at least) makes places less ugly and more interesting, pixação seems to do the opposite.

Today I wanted to illustrate the positive effects of street art in Rio. Praça Quinze de Novembro is a large open square in Rio’s Centro (downtown) neighbourhood. Running straight through the middle of Praça Quinze is the Elevado da Perimetral, an overpass or flyover. Take a look at the scene back in February 2012, taken from Google Maps Street View:

Dark and imposing – the Elevado Perimetral running through the middle of Praça Quinze. Photo from Google Maps Street View

Carnival Costumes

13/02/2013/4 Comments/in Art and culture

One of the things I like most about Carnaval de Rua (the free street carnival, as opposed to the paid procession at the Sambadrome) is the dressing up. And from the looks of it, I’m not the only one! Of course there are the classic costumes that show up every year (about 50% of all carnival photos will contain at least one pirate), but some people really go to town.

Today I thought I’d show you a few of the fantasias (way cooler then the English term I grew up with, ‘fancy dress’) that caught my eye this year. Let’s start off with Watermelon Man! Sure, anyone can put a watermelon on their head, but the shirt, cape and arm ‘protectors’ take this outfit up a level.

Simple, effective and, well, a bit mushy on the head I guess.

Next we get a bit naughty!

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