Zef to Def: Die Antwood x FIFTY24SF

For one night only - Weds 22nd February - Cape Town's Die Antwoord are at Upper Playground's FIFTY24SF gallery.

Die Antwoord

If you're lucky enough to be in San Francisco then you'll experience a special art installation to promote their new album,TEN$ION, as they kick off their Cali tour dates. If you're a fan you'll also wanna be collecting their collector’s vinyl toy called Evil Boy.

Who is Evil Boy? Is it Ninja's prison-inspired tattoo of a baby with a huge weiner? Yes. And is it the name of the Diplo produced tune? Yes, again! (I hear a few of these toys will be individually customized by Ninja himself.) See below for an excerpt of an interview in GQ (yes, Die Antwoord are mainstream now!?)

GQ: They were really cute—you had a giraffe, a little bat, a panda...and now you're making this toy you call Evil Boy, who has really huge dong. What happened? Ninja: [laughs] All that stuff we did before Die Antwoord was experimental. It was cool, but you're a human and then you make this art, and people have a relationship with the art. And all the other stuff I did before was like, Oh that's cool, and then I'd get bored of it in two seconds, and then I didn't have a connection with anything. I think that's why we called it Die Antwoord—The Answer—because this is the hottest thing; we want to do this forever, I love this. And that's the difference. Everything else kind of died away. So Evil boy's our first mascot. He our first toy, and I'm proud of it. It's from a prison tattoo that I saw on someone, drawn a little more retarded than this.
Yo-landi: It was drawn like shit.
Ninja: It was drawn like fucking shit. This toy's really fucking cute. It took a long time to get it like this [picks up toy and waves its penis around] Like, "Hey, what's up!" It's friendly. We're really working with this fine-tuned, Japanese company called Good Smile. They make toys that take two years to come out, because they're so psycho... They're really good sculptors. Evil Boy's our mascot forever. 

GQ: What makes Evil Boy evil?
Ninja: I don't know, he's got a secret... This one [points to a white prototype of the toy] glows in the dark. When you switch off the light at night, he looks after you while you go to sleep to have a nice dream. 

GQ: What got you interested in toys in the first place? Yo-landi: 'Cuz they're cool!
Ninja: We were into toys full-force. Funnily enough, I think Ninja and Yo-landi almost came out as toys in our mind. We wanted to make super versions of ourselves. This guy Dave Choe, he connected us with the toy company, and he was like, "Yeah, they're going to fucking love you guys. You look like toys anyway." 

GQ: Right, previously you've said you thought of Ninja and Yo-landi as manga characters who have all these imaginary adventures. Ninja: It's not really imagined, it's just our lives. South Africa's all there, like a gold mine in a funny way—all the stuff I'm telling you is totally normal. [South Africa's] just badly presented. America's got amazing presentation, especially New York—the most potent, strongest, concentrated, amazing presentation. The gangster culture in South Africa—Sexy Boys, Playboys, Fancy Boys, Nice Time Kids, and one of the biggest is called the Americans—base their style on American gangster movies, like, full-on, because the presentation's so juicy. So with us, we've been very influenced by American presentation, but we've got a fucking gold mine of fucking tweaked-out, freak-mode shit that occurred. I feel we're really good at the presentation of our lives. There's no imagined adventures we need to have. These fucking real life things are more of a kick." GQ Magazine

Die Antwoord is no stranger to artistic collaborations. Fashion designer, Alexander Wang, is continuing his guerrilla-style marketing to promote his 2012 T-shirt , but it's not your usual fashion video. See for yourself below.

#INSA in San Francisco (and Los Angeles and London)

INSA, London's pervy graffiti artist, is in California!

He opened his first solo show in San Francisco last week. "MORE" will run at Upper Playground's FIFTY24SF Gallery until February 28th, 2011.

INSA's new work still has his signature saucy imagery of women, feet and heels, all realistically painted and adorned with strategic paint drips. But he's added classic hip hop gold chains, wax-like scultures and light installations.

"Within the new body of work in 'MORE,' INSA explores themes of aspiration and expectation, wants versus needs, and happiness versus success in his most comprehensive study to date. MORE will feature 9 new provocative works, with INSA utilizing media such as sculpture and lights adding to the 'glamour' of his work." FIFTY24SF

Gifitti art Check out some an example of INSA's admired "gifitti" art. This is the main gallery room at FIFTY24SF. It took me a minute to work out how to grab this animated gif, which is far quicker than it took INSA to create this image!

Keep it street And check out below some of INSA's street paintings during his Cali trip. First L.A. with pornstar Kristina Rose, then San Francisco. For more (literally) of Kristina check this out.

Playpen, L.A. (Credit: Jetsetgraffiti.com)

Playpen, L.A. with Kristina Rose (Credit: Jetsetgraffiti.com)

INSA mural on the corner of Scott & Oak, SF. (Credit: Upper Playground)

Tate Britain INSA's blowing up! His "Mary" lightbox installation and infamous elephant dung-heeled shoes at the Tate Britain ("The home of British art from 1500 to the present day") can't be bad for his profile and commissions.

Credit: Luxury Travel Advisor

"Anonymous but prolific street art king Insa has collaborated with some of the biggest and most popular brands in the world including Nike and beyond. 'Bring the Noise' debuts his latest work - a lightbox installation and pair of high heels – inspired by Ofili's notorious 'Virgin Mary' painting." Tate Britain, Bring the Noise 2010.