Morten Flyverbom is one of Denmark's best "Green Artists" having created green art for decades. He also happens to be the father of Copenhagen DJ Mikkel Flyverbom, and his name translated means "Flying Boom". All I hope is that his art has a boom, because if green art is the next big thing, he deserved some serious respect.
The City of Philadelphia, who is 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 Transportation Authority) to encourage
Philadelphia’s commuters to ‘Go Green’ with her navigable moss icons
and green walls in the Market East Station’s passenger service area,
ticketing area, and on the exterior of the station building and Transportation Museum.
The initiative is part of SEPTA’s mission to help commuters become more
aware of the positive environmental impact of using mass transit
regularly.
Philly’s effort to ‘Go Green’ via ‘moss
transit’ will hopefully make the random commuter think of how goos it is that they actually use public transportation, instead of a their car. The ticket prices of a train ticket does not hurt as much everyday, as it does when pumping your tank full of black blood. I found a great post on inhabitat.com. Read on!
In a recent interview with Edina,
the artist described that the ‘Go Green’ project took approximately one
month of materials preparation. The installation’s opening coincided
with the Philadelphia Flower Show,
a popular time for increased traffic to and from the city. The artist
and her collaborator, Jozsef Valyi-Toth, used “100% natural sheet
moss”, turf-like plant matter grown explicitly for decoration and
design purposes.
The actual installation of the moss icons and signage took one week
of working non-stop, around the clock. This included creating
custom-fitted moss inserts for 32 SEPTA posters (10 inches by 10
inches) and 40 pieces that fit into the SEPTA logos throughout the
site. Edina and Jozsef also made two ‘Go Green’ signs with each letter
measuring 2 feet by 3 feet. Red Tettemer, the very hip advertising agency, also lent a hand in the communication design details for the project (check out the very cute video of the project’s installation process on their website).
The ‘Go Green’ project seems to already have won over the hearts and
minds of day-to-day commuters at Market East Station. According to SEPTA,
the feedback thus far has been extremely positive with Tokodi’s moss
icons being one of the most creative projects they have helped sponsor
in a very long time. It might be a while before we are able to grow
vertical gardens and vegetable walls ala Patrick Blanc
in ‘the underground’ or along the train tracks so to speak, but
eco-minded public works are here to stay, and there may soon come a
time when being on the ‘go-green-go’ may be one of the most-energy
efficient and civic minded activities that we can collectively
participate in.
+ Mosstika - Edina Tokodi
+ Urban Moss Graffiti by Edina Tokodi
+ SEPTA’s ‘Go Green’ in the Philadelphis Inquirer
Personally, I think the "Go Green" concept could have been done a little more organic and interactive, but as long as it works and Philly's people goes green, its all good!