Bits: 10.19.09

A knit-covered subway greeter by Agata Olek, who's part of the Art in Odd Places Festival, NYC, through Oct. 26

• A fire has destroyed more than 1,000 works by the late Brazilian artist Helio Oiticica. A fire at his brother César's home in Rio de Janeiro destroyed 90 percent of the works stored there. (Via Nato Thompson on Facebook)

• Minnesota Public Radio looks at Silver Bromide, a new mural by artist Rich Barlow. Based on one of Fox Talbot's first silver-negative photos, the landscape is Barlow's first large-scale outdoor work and got funding through city graffiti abatement money. Earlier: Barlow's "Covers" series.

• The increasingly right-leaning U.S. Chamber of Commerce has reversed its opinion about climate change: it is bad for business after all and strong legislation must be supported! But hold on, the press release stating as much was really a Yes Men spoof. But that only came out after the Washington Post, New York Times and Reuters all ran with the fake report as news.

• Shepard Fairey has amended court records in his legal case against the Associated Press to indicate that he did indeed use the Mannie Garcia photo indicated by the AP as the basis for his Obama/HOPE image. On his website, he says that when he realized the AP was right about which photo he'd used -- something he long contested -- he "submitted false images and deleted other images" in "an attempt to conceal my mistake." Here's the AP attorney's response to the revelation.

• Shakira and Danzig, together at last. [via]