Shows & Exhibitions
Watch Os Gêmeos Transform Industrial Silos Into Wondrous Giants
The Brazilian twins steal the show at the Vancouver Biennale.
For the past month, Brazilian street art duo Os Gêmeos have been transforming six 70-foot-tall silos on Vancouver’s Granville Island into their signature colorful, straight-faced cartoon figures, for a giant piece titled, well, Giants. The project, which is part of the Vancouver Biennale, is their largest work to date, with painting the exterior of a Boening 747 for the World Cup landing a close second.
Costs associated with the towering mural—it took 1,400 cans of spray paint to complete!—were successfully recouped using crowd-funding site Indiegogo, where the pair has almost tripled the initial $20,000 asking goal, with 13 days left to go. They are now hoping to raise $125,000 to cover the full costs of the project, including airfare, prep, a base coat for the silos (even silos need priming!), and lift equipment rental. The twins graciously donated their time to the non-profit undertaking.
“The first challenge of this project was to find a location that would fit with our idea. We did not want a conventional two-dimensional wall that we had done before—we wanted something different, special, and unique,” the duo said in a statement. “The Biennale has a strong connection with sculpture, so we decided to find a place where the painting can be transformed, creating a dialogue between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional worlds.”
Indeed, the roundness of the silos makes the figures come alive, and the bright colors bring a bit of Brazilian flair to Vancouver’s skyline. It’s an incredible feat when you consider the level of detail the brothers, along with a crew of four, were able to bring to such massive structures using only spray paint cans and given just a month’s time.
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