When Statues Become Fathers: Creative Street Art on Equal Parenting
What happens when male statues become fathers for a day? A creative campaign in Sweden is challenging traditional norms about parenting roles.
Imagine a bronze statue of a stoic leader, now wearing a bright pink baby sling with a doll nestled inside. On International Men’s Day, November 19th, male statues across Sweden were adorned with baby slings and carriers as part of a unique campaign to spotlight unequal parenting responsibilities.
Traditionally representing power, labor, or other masculine attributes, these statues were reimagined to symbolize fathers as caregivers. The campaign, organized by the think tank Arena Idé, is part of the #kvantitetstidspappan initiative, aimed at encouraging fathers to spend more time with their children and urging employers to play a larger role in enabling this.
Despite Sweden’s globally recognized parental leave policies, significant disparities remain. Swedish fathers take only 30.9% of parental leave days and 38% of sick leave to care for children.
A recent Novus survey, conducted in collaboration with Make Equal, further reveals that expectations around parental leave remain unequal in Swedish workplaces. Through this campaign, Arena Idé hopes to challenge these norms and has proposed an employer bonus for workplaces that encourage an equal division of parental leave.
The statues involved in the campaign—such as Standing Man in Umeå, Det svenska tungsinnet in Malmö, and Hjalmar Branting in Stockholm—were decorated with dolls in baby slings and carriers.
This created a contrast between the statues’ traditional symbolism and the modern role of engaged fathers.
The initiative draws inspiration from the UK-based group The Dad Shift, which earlier this year launched a similar campaign highlighting gaps in Britain’s parental leave policies.
Vilgot Österlund, a statistician at Arena Idé, emphasizes the importance of changing workplace norms: “When discussing gender equality in workplaces, the focus is often on women and the negative consequences of inequality for them. But here, we see that men are also losing out on something invaluable—time with their children. Through the statue campaign, the new statistics, and our proposals, we hope to make this clearer!”
Read more about the campaign and the proposed reforms in the original article by Arena Idé: Link to the original article.
More statues: 30 Sculptures You (probably) Didn’t Know Existed
How do you perceive the use of public art to challenge parenting norms? Can such initiatives drive societal change? We invite you to share your perspectives in the comments below.
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NYC Fans: Invitation to Meet the Artists Behind the Toy Art at MEET
To all our NYC fans, our sister company, MEET, is launching The Lamp Art Series. Join us Tuesday July 19th at 6:30pm as we welcome three very special toy art designers to curate our lamps at MEET on Chrystie.
Meet the artists behind our curated lamps. If you've ever visited our MEET on Chrystie location, you've probably noticed our much-talked-about Favorite Things Lamps. Our beautiful pendant lamps showcase MEET's eclectic treasured objects.
This summer, we have partnered with three incredible illustrators and sculptors who are curating the lamps with unique toy art: Justin Alan Volpe, kaNO, and Brent Nolasco. Enjoy an evening of wine and discussion with the artists.
We're keeping our promise to find exciting ways to include art and design at the heart of the types of projects we support.
All pieces will be available for purchase.
We hope to catch you there.
Location: 195 1/2 Chrystie Street Suite 200 New York, NY 10002
Date: Tuesday April 19th, 2016
Time: 6:30pm
Here's a special sneak peek at the works:
Brent Nolasco
Justin Alan Volpe
kaNO
Pennsylvania’s colorful ‘Graffiti Highway’ is being shut down for good
Erasing the ‘Graffiti Highway’: Abandoned stretch of road near Pennsylvania’s infamous ghost town, Centralia – that has been on fire for 58 years – is covered up with dirt and shut down after visitors swarm the site during coronavirus lockdown
A dump truck unloads a pile of dirt onto ‘Graffiti Highway’ outside the ghost town of Centralia, Pennsylvania in an effort to curb the spike in
#AmajorMinority “A Major Minority” Group Exhibition Recap at Mirus Gallery San Francisco
It’s been awhile since I have blogged or curated an exhibition. I took a little bit over a year off due to many issues, mainly my lack of enthusiasm for how the scene was going and headed. What once was a passion for me felt more like daily struggle to keep myself interested in what was going on. The oversaturation of mural festivals, lack of actual collectors buying into the culture other than superficial murals and corporate installations it seemed like a good time to take a break and get some perspective. After what seemed like forever I started to check instagram again, look at the scene again after unplugging. Not much has changed but being unplugged did allow me to recharge a little and get ready for the next chapter of graffuturism. This leads is to today, 3 months ago I was offered a position at Mirus Gallery San Francisco as Director which after contemplating for some time I decided to take. Selling artwork in a gallery wasn’t what I thought I wanted to do, especially when we are a bit ahead of the curve and people are yet to understand what we are doing. Yet I took the challenge to engage this issue directly instead of complaining about it. I have not been impressed with the general direction of commercial galleries and artists in general who have regressed instead of progressed in the past 3-4 years. What was fresh has staled in many ways, but there is hope and I do see valid inspiration still in the scene. This is why I am here and hoping to reengage those who are also stuck in this same dilemma.
Coming full circle I decided to bring back one of the first large exhibitions I ever curated “A Major Minority”. This time instead of large group of artists I wanted to decrease the list of artists. This is the way I currently see things, the cliché Less is more makes more sense to me today as I have had the opportunity to gain some perspective. What I’ve learned is that by focusing my attention on smaller samples I can relate a clearer message and have greater impact. So for this exhibition I was able to create a dynamic group of artists with great range in mediums, subject matter, and aesthetics while still keeping to my original exhibition concept and essay which you can read in full length here. I hope you can appreciate this exhibition as much as I did. I plan to keep this blog updated when its important and continue to curate and engage in todays conversation about other contemporary urban art. I stand behind my work and hope you take time to reread the essay linked above, I curated this show based on that essay not some catchy art phrase like New Contemporary art which really means nothing. #fucknewcontemporary I hope you appreciate this post and I challenge all the curators out there to stop being lazy and stand behind some art catchphrase, write about what you are doing, do your artists a service and help them progress to new elevations.
GF
A Major Minority is an international exhibition consisting of urban artists from around the world. The concept and title of the show were developed by graffiti artist, Poesia, who is also the editor of Graffuturism.com and the cultural instigator at the center of the growing interest in abstract, progressive and hybrid Graffiti art forms. This will be the 3rd installment of A Major Minority and a much more intimate exhibition than previous ones, which incorporated hundreds of works of art. Poesia elected to exhibit this smaller quantity and particular group of artists in order to display a more condensed spectrum of progressive hybrid aesthetics within the Othercontemporary Urban Art community. This intensive and extensive sampling of stylistic specimens illustrates a broad continuum of approaches and aesthetics that fall under the purview of this art form, without focusing on any one sub-genre exclusively. The exhibition is free and open to the public for viewing through September 9, 2017.
Featured Artists:
Alex Kuznetsov
Augustine Kofie
Cain Caser
Carlos Mare
Chad Hasagawa
Christopher Derek Bruno
Demsky
Fillipo Minelli
Gris 1
Jan Kalab
Jaybo Monk
N.O.Madski
Sabio Mazza
Seikon
West Rubenstein
Zeser
JONONE DESIGNS RUM BOTTLE
Is this Banksy?: An Intimate BBC Interview Reveals More Than Just a Name
For decades, Banksy has captivated the world with provocative street art that is both enigmatic and insightful.
A BBC Radio 4 special titled “The Banksy Story” unveiled a rare audio interview with the artist, originally recorded in 2003. In this enlightening conversation, Banksy may have hinted at his true identity with a simple, yet intriguing answer – “Robbie.”
This interview delves deep into Banksy’s early exhibition, “Turf War” which became notable for its audacious display of graffitied police vehicles and a uniquely defaced portrait of Winston Churchill. Through his candid discussion, Banksy reflects on the philosophies that shape his art, emphasizing its transitory nature and his indifferent stance towards the commercial art market.
The blog post further explores Banksy’s perspective on graffiti as a form of art and vandalism, his critique of the ‘Brit Art’ movement, and his surprising reaction to his artworks’ high auction prices. Through these insights, Banksy continues to challenge societal norms and provoke thought, remaining an influential figure in both art and culture.
For a deeper exploration of Banksy’s rare interview and his impact on the art world, visit the full article here.
Artworks from the exhibition “Turf War”:
Bird and Grenade
Crude Oil Jerry
Drip Dinner
More: 24 artworks by Banksy: Who Is The Visionary of Street Art
Would you rather know Banksy’s identity or anonymously enjoy a lifetime of his art?
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Pejac is DOWNSIDE UP
Pejac is an artist best known for his elusive creation of socially and environmentally-charged work, such as his recent series in a Palestinian and Syrian refugee camp in Jordan.
He will open his first ever major exhibition at the London Newcastle Project Space from July 22-31st; in the lead up to this, he has created an installation, DOWNSIDE UP, on three locations in Shoreditch, London (Redchurch Street, Shacklewell Street and Granby Street).
Check it out.
Cheers.
The 50 Biggest Street Art & Graffiti Arrests (pt. 1/2)
The war between street artists and the law shows no sign of abating. If anything, it’s intensifying. The vandal squad’s genuine love of catching writers is a well known phenomenon in the graffiti world. Likewise, any artist with his heart in the right place will tell you that without the illegal aspect, it just wouldn’t be the same. It seems even as security measures grow tighter and legal