Eco-minded street artist Edina Tokodi is putting a new spin on green guerilla tactics in the trendy art enclave of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Tokodi’s site-specific moss installations of prancing animal figures and camouflage outgrowths are the talk of a local urban neighborhood typically accustomed to gallery hype and commercial real estate take-overs. Unlike the market-driven art featured in sterile, white box galleries, the work of Tokodi is meant to be touched, felt, and in turn touch you in the playful ways that her animated installations call to mind a more familiar, environmentally friendly state in the barren patches of urban existence.
Tokodi believes strongly that the reactions of passersby (or the lack of any reaction at all) is really an indicator of a deeper malaise that we need to pay attention to and reseed with “mentally healthy garden states” and direct interactive engagement.
The artist states:
“I think that our distance from nature is already a cliché. City dwellers often have no relationship with animals or greenery. As a public artist I feel a sense of duty to draw attention to deficiencies in our everyday life. As a cultivator of eco-urban sensitivity, I usually go back to the sites to visit my “plants” or “moss”, sometimes to repair them a bit, but nothing more generally as they tend to get enough water from the air, condensation, and rain – especially in certain seasons. I also like to let them live by themselves. From the moment I put them on the street they start to have their own life. For me, the reaction of life on the street is also very important. I am curious about how people receive them, if they just leave them alone, or if they want to, take care of them or dismantle them. This is what makes my work similar to graffiti, although I am searching for a deeper social meaning and a dialogue with memories of the animals and gardens of my past in a small town in Central Europe. I believe that if everyone had a garden of their own to cultivate, we would have a much more balanced relation to our territories. Of course, a garden can be many things.”
Edina Tokodi studied graphic art and design at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts and also completed urban design course work in Milan, Italy. Her work can be seen on the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn and in unexpected outcroppings on a street near you.
I would love to see this on a Hummer.
Tokodi seems to be removing the mosses and lichens from elsewhere, shaping them, and then installing them.
There’s an easier “paintable” way to do moss graffiti:
http://www.heavypetal.ca/archives/2007/04/operation_moss_graffiti.html
[...] source: inhabitat [...]
[...] Over here [...]
Hello, come back to Hungary, East-europe is the best place for the PAARTYYYYYYYY!
party party party!
[...] each day, it’s nice to see green making a comeback. If you want to know more Inhabitat has an article about Edina’s [...]
This is incredible stuff, I can’t imagine not having greenery around me. I’ve been to Hungary, those beautiful green landscapes Tokodi speaks about…Bravo and congratulations Brooklyn
[...] procurando gerar um certo estranhamento. Vejam mais fotos e leiam mais sobre o trabalho dela aqui no Inhabitat (em [...]
you do some very interesting and cool works….hope to find that in a street near me!
this is a great idea, iv’e had similar ideas in the past but never started them. keep it up
very good works! / nagyon jó munkák!
cheers
If this moss continues to live and breathe in its new format, this is some lovely work. If the moss dies off in a few days, this work is contradictory and laughable. Anyone have the answer?
mIe
wonderful to see this and let make more specially at our metropolitan city, they really need it!
Lovely idea, we need more green!
Genuin work, really good stuff. Glad it has so much attention. Cities would look so much nicer wit art like this. And it is totally green, too!
kivallo munka, igazan egyedi. Orulok, hogy ilyen nagy nyilvanossagot kapott. Csak igy tovabb!
L
@ My Ego
Agreed, I too would like to know if the plantlife actually survives after she relocates it. She is doing a big disservice if they die.
[...] ecológico, que no [...]
[...] Desde las calles de Brooklyn: Edina Tokodi.Más de ella aquí. [...]
yeah if she’s uprooting moss from one place and putting it elsewhere, only to have it die, thats totally wrong. how would you like to uprooted from where you live and then be put somewhere else completely different? we have to stop thinking that we can push all living things around because all living things FEEL. moss lives too and it is wrong to just push it around where we want it, we should live WITH the moss, and all other plant life because one day they might decide to start pushing US around.
[...] GO Green, GO! Green Graffiti. [...]
[...] Grafik und Design an der ungarischen Akademie der Bildenden Künste. Nun kann man einige seiner gra(ss)fiti in der trendigen Kunst Enklave Williamsburg, Brooklyn sehen. Er arbeitet mit Moos Installationen, [...]
[...] GREEN GRAFFITI by Artist Edina Tokodi – Eco-minded street artist Edina Tokodi is putting a new spin on green guerilla tactics in the trendy art enclave of Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Moss animals by Edina Tokodi [...]
[...] arte de rua. O graffiti é visto muitas vezes como sujeira ou pixação, vandalismo etc. A artista Edina Tokodi propõe repensar o ambiente urbano de forma ecologicamente correta usando gramas para desenhar nas [...]
It’s just a plant people. Who cares if it dies when she stops watering it. But it would still be ironic.
[...] to mind a more familiar, environmentally friendly state in the barren patches of urban existence. [+] Explore posts in the same categories: moss, street art, [...]
You don’t have to go into the forest for a few moss. Anybody can get some real moss sheets from the decoration stores.
Big up Edina!!!
Szeretlek nagyon!!!
I had a pony. My sister had pony, my cousin had pony. Why would anybody come
hre if they had a pony? Who leaves a country packed with ponies to come to a non-pony country? It doesn’t make sense.. am I wrong?
[...] people for using spray paint? Well switch up ya’ style and use grass to get the job done. Edina is on her job, what about you?? You can peep the work over in the art enclave of Williamsburg, [...]
[...] Pour plus d’infos, c’est par ICI. [...]
Yes it looks lovely but I do hope the moss is from a store not from the forests.
Even more GREEN one!
Még több ZÖLDET!
[...] are some cool images of moss being used as street art at Inhabitat. We don’t like to toot our own horn, but you can find our version in Craftivity (published [...]
[...] L’artista americana Edina Tokodi, di base a San Francisco, usa la natura al posto della vernice: nasce così la eco street art. Per vedere altre immagini dei suoi lavori andate su Inhabitat. [...]
[...] La artista Edina Tokodi ha inventado el eco-graffiti. Arte urbano en verde. [...]
[...] artist Edina Tokodi makes green graffiti out of moss. Her work is featured on Inhabitat today. Check it out- its rad. Tagged:cool [...]
[...] Green Graffiti [...]
[...] : InHabitat via Eco-friendly [...]
We’re working on a green campaign for our client, SEPTA (South Eastern Public Transportation Association) who will be launching hybrid buses in the upcoming year. While doing research we discovered Edina’s moss art and quickly became inspired. We are interested in contacting the artist and collaborating with her to find out more of her technique so that we can possibly replicate the moss art around our region in forms as they relate to SEPTA. (The campaign is not yet approved and is one of three being presented.)
I have visited your site 980-times
[...] the greenery of the countryside to the city with her installations, many of which you can see at Inhabitat. “City dwellers often have no relationship with animals or greenery”, says Tokodi: [...]
Is there contact information out there for her? Will she do installations?
You can reach her through Inhabitat. Yes, she`s doing installation and hopefully the website`s coming soon…
wow!!! Your work makes me vibrate and says to me that not everything is lost.
Appreciate for your comments, special thanks to the Inhabitat crew and all the best in 2008!
My website’s coming soon. pls check the http://www.mosstika.com
[...] For more visit Inhabitat [...]
[...] First read about it at: Inhabitat [...]
[...] (during daylight hours) for neighborhood improvement and local food security. Whether as collective green graffiti or as an attempt to reclaim the neighborhood and make improvements for all, guerrilla gardening is [...]
[...] of our favorite green public artists, Edina Tokodi, is at it once again with her shape-shifting moss graffiti and urban guerrilla tactics. Tokodi was recently commissioned by SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) to [...]
[...] of our favorite green public artists, Edina Tokodi, is at it once again with her shape-shifting moss graffiti and urban guerrilla tactics. Tokodi was recently commissioned by SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) to [...]
[...] of our favorite green public artists, Edina Tokodi, is at it once again with her shape-shifting moss graffiti and urban guerrilla [...]
[...] known to support street art, grafitti, murals and public art has lately had Edina Tokodi doing her moss graffiti and urban guerrilla tactics in the city of brotherly love. Tokodi was commissioned by SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania [...]
I am a blogger for a website dedicated solely to living the Green Lifestyle. I am extremely interested in contacting Edina Tokodi for an interview.Is it possible for me to get some sort of contact information for her? I’m in love with her work. I work in reproducing all household items after their “first life”, and her work has truely inspired me in my own.
Please contact me if at all possible to share her information. It would be great publicity for her, and I think our readers would love to hear about her art.
Thanks!
[...] Edina Tokodi is greening her neighborhood by adding live art installations throughout Brooklyn. She adds plants and moss, shaped like animals or abstract art, to bare walls in her urban landscape. She believes that “if everyone had a garden of their own to cultivate, we would have a much more balanced relation to our territories.” Check out some of her green guerrilla work at Inhabitat. [...]
Green Art on the go! Never heard of installation art you had to water, that’s great!
Witty and wonderful. Makes me feel like a kid again!