Showing posts with label Art Is Trash. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art Is Trash. Show all posts

Wednesday 23 August 2017

Stik In Time

Street art is by nature generally ephemeral but every once in a while a piece of street art thrives for years so it’s informative to see how those pieces fare.

Usually the things that enable a street art piece to survive are either plastic protection, as is occasionally the case for Banksy (2001) or inaccessibility, such as ROA’s Crane (2010) or Conor Harrington’s soldier (2008).

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Banksy


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ROA (feat a Stik that did not survive)


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Conor Harrington


London street artist Stik painted a stunning interracial couple holding hands at ground level in Shoreditch in 2010 which benefits from none of those things, so how does this piece endure so much that just last month it was ranked number 17 in the list of top favourite UK artworks ever! He’s sandwiched between Anish Kapoor and Maggi Hambling and hasn’t been heard complaining.

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Stik


Beginning at the beginning, Stik being a savvy and nice person sought to ensure that the local Muslim community would not be offended by his intended composition, in fact to assist those of us not tuned into the relevant sensitivities Stik displayed a couple of pages explaining that his representation of a Muslim girl in a niqab and a white guy, the tendency is to presume Christian, did not breach the writings of the Koran which in simple terms forbids creating realistic images of human beings.

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Work In Progress, May 2010


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"Flat two-dimensional illustrations, deliberately unrealistic, no illusion of depth"


It is not surprising that the obvious significance of the painting with its message of harmony and integration makes it cherished within the very strong local Muslim community but it is particularly encouraging that it also resonates with the wider UK population according to a national vote (a survey of 2000 consenting adults to be accurate).

Over time the couple has endured a variety of embarrassing embellishments ranging from comedy anatomical adornments to taggers seeking cheap fame through tagging up such an immensely popular piece of art. Every once in a while Stik may pass by and restore the artwork, which after all comprises comparatively simple solid blocks of colour.

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One of the most amusing interactions was Art Is Trash’s 2014 additions showing the white guy apparently putting out some anthropormorphic rubbish.

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Art Is Trash


DRSC0 from Portland Oregon placed a pair of stickers holding hands in homage to Stik’s piece across the road on the back of a road sign.

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DRSC0 (2016)


One quite stunning homage to Stik’s couple came from the unknown artist who placed a pair of complementary “grotesques” in juxtaposition with Stik’s couple rather than actually on them. Unknown artist we salute you, that was brilliant.

Stik and grotesques
Unknown


Most recently, visiting South African artist Falko made a major adjustment to Stik’s classic by adding a bonsai elephant (the word pygmy really doesn’t do justice to the obvious contrast in scale). By adding an elephant to the couple holding hands Falko has taken on a quite iconic piece of art - 17th favourite! - quite a bold move for someone whose art we don’t recall seeing on these shores before. In an interview with Graffoto Stik generously described Falko’s intervention as a forced enhancement. Stik knows how the game plays with street art, nothing is sacred (no pun intended) so he hasn’t flounced down to Princelet St in a fit of pique to make good the additions, though it will happen eventually.

Stik c/w Falko
Falko vs Stik


In a particularly energetic burst Falko added quite a herd of elephants in Shoreditch in a very short period of time.

Falko
Beauty And The Beast, feat art by Falko


Falko’s addition provokes curious thoughts: is there a religious significance the elephant? Well an elephant would be considered haram under Islamic principals so the elephant is not going to be eaten for sure, it must be some kind of pet elephant albeit a bloody small one. The simple leash Falko has added binds the elephant to the couple, without that it would just be a small elephant superimposed on a couple holding hands so the lead is very important. Closer inspection suggests the elephant might be holding a marker pen in its trunk, perhaps the elephant is colouring in the background to Stik’s work, in a way signalling to us that Falko did actually do some restoration work this time around. Clever that, and is that a knowing little wink that the elephant is giving us?


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A more academic blogger might be tempted to call this post a longitudinal study of a single point in space but Graffoto is too horizontal for that.


LINKS:

Stik homepage 

Falko Instagram 

All photos: Dave Stuart

Friday 3 October 2014

Art Is Trash returns to London


Art Is Trash is back in town and installed this most unlikely tearful tribute to Robbo on a wall tastefully utilised by Drax and Oker and Pure Evil (out of shot) as a Robbo tribute then distastefully partially painted over too soon by Endless.

Art is Trash...back in town


I doubt there is a more flamboyant performer in the world of street art than Art Is Trash.

Art is Trash...back in town


Art is Trash aka Arte es Basura in his native Spanish tongue was the most exciting and original talent to burst onto the Shoreditch stage in 2013. This super found object creation revisits one of Art Is Trash’s recurring themes, the artist vs the establishment. Look how the artist has the higher ground and a firing not arrows but roller brushes dripping colourful paint at the idiotic bumbling police. Note also the similarity in garb between the painted artist besting the authority figures and Art Is Trash’s chosen threads in the photo above, he puts himself right into the heart of his art.

Art is Trash...back in town


We raved about Art Is Trash when he was here in 2013, it is great to see him back in town and we look forward to an exciting and productive visit.

Art is Trash...back in town

all photos: NoLionsInEngland

Saturday 28 December 2013

London's Street Art 2013 - Nostalgia is so last year



They said it wouldn’t last and dammit they were right. The year turned out to be mortal, just 365 days long but attaching electrodes to 2013’s nipples, street artists cranked the generator handle to keep fresh work fizzing on the walls right to the very death. Let’s look back over the highlights, the brilliant walls, the teeny-weeny you’d-easily-miss-it fragments, the colours, the visiting international artists, the spats, the local artists who aren’t getting curated spots on permission mural walls, the REAL street art.

Words and photos: NoLionsInEngland


Street art is not a competition but Art Is Trash is 2013’s winner. Brash, colourful, inventive and at times downright lewd and crude, Art Is Trash turned his installations and painting into a performance. It was his ephemeral tragic bin bag characters and beasts that first caught our eye.

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Art Is Trash


He then took the fight to fly posters (ok, I know street art is doomed to lose that battle) with some twisted subversions of the airbushed, cool and fulfilled characters targeting our needy and product deprived community.

Art Is Trash subverts illegal fly posters
Art Is Trash


His cure for tapeworm may face challenges getting medical certification.

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Art Is Trash


One of the most beautiful campaigns was the soulful floppy eared characters who appeared on vintage music sheets and magazine pages courtesy of Midge, sometimes in stunning collaborations with My Dog Sighs.

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Midge v. My Dog Sighs


On the subject of vintage paper, 616’s trespassing in abandoned buildings resulted in the liberation of found letters from a bygone pre-email era, he picked out underlined highlights from the text which formed the basis for multiple distortions of his characteristic tribal cartoon characters.

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616 – “Monarch”


It has been a brilliant year for the highly promising ALO. His street work painted directly on the surface has won heaps of admirers and he is beginning to develop deserved traction in the gallery world.

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ALO


The world is certainly a brighter place for the pop art paste ups of D7606. After coming to attention for persuading icons of femininity that piss smelling phone boxes were the place to be seen in 2013, he expanded the repertoire to embrace other forms of technologically challenged communication utilities such as post boxes, valve TVs and “Tardis” police phone boxes.

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D7606 – (“yeah, Billy love, just go to the hotel and straight up to his room”)


D7606 proved himself to be an exceptional engine for artistic collaboration, inviting artists such as 616, C3, Gee Street Art and Benjamin Murphy to integrate their characters into his pop soaked retro world but as suckers for interaction between pieces of street art, the perhaps unplanned addition of a letter to the interface between Skeleton Cardboard and D7606’s post box tickled us most.

Skeleton Cardboard's Final Demand to D7606
D7606 v. Skeleton Cardboard


Clet Abraham has been a frequent visitor in recent years though the vast majority of his traffic sign subversions from previous visits to London were “sign man” carrying a heavy beam. On his most recent visit late this year his interference with the authority's visual control signals demonstrated the full range of his witty and imaginative repertoire.

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Clet Abraham



It would have been an incomplete year without the collaged brand-jacking of A.CE, he dutifully kept up a barrage of wheatpastes. Something unusual this year from A.CE was his "artist-cam" view of a night time bombing mission which captures the energy and “one man alone versus the city" of an intense illegal run, click A.CE: Inside The mind Of A Street Artist.

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A.CE


The Horror Crew, Mr Fan in particular, has had a great year with work which challenges categorisation. The observant will see in addition to the gorgeous candy coloured pop imagery that the legs of the beast in the photograph below spell out HC FAN, defiantly blurring the boundary between street art and graffiti. Also, is this cool street art or a permissioned mural? Though we have chanced upon him painting this spot a couple of times in broad daylight without a care in the world, I am inclined to guess that Mr Fan has created these beautiful Koons hat tips without permission from the property owner. That supposition is supported by the absence of any camera crew documenting every squirt of paint and also the absence of any stencilled shouts to any mural organizers.

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Mr Fan HC


Sometimes it’s the small and un-shouty street art that deserves greatest admiration, a piece that is clever, took some effort and doesn’t scream “I’m an artist, buy ME ME ME “. This metalwork bird by artist unknown is stunningly placed, beautifully executed and its installation is ingenious in a way you can only appreciate by finding it on the street, one of my favourites of the year.

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Unknown


Something which seems quite commonplace in New York with their angle iron sign posts but which is rare in London is the metalwork tag. Artist “Three” from Singapore left this beautiful rusty tag on a wooden background of faded abstract spraypaint colours, a stunning and photogenic little piece which lasted quite a while.

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Three


D*Face closed the old Stolenspace location with a spectacular solo show, reviewed here, which was accompanied by an epic mural next to Christchurch Spitalfields, beautifully juxtaposing the sins of the flesh and religious piety.

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D*Face


In doing so, he provocatively went over a long running graffiti spot and to no one’s surprise, probably least of all D*Face’s, due response was delivered within days.

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Graffiti v. Street Art


There is a long list of artists and pieces of work we want to include in this year’s annual review but in recognition of the attention span of our audience…and hello to anyone still reading this far…plus the fact that I may have figured out the technology for the first time, we are going to recognise the great contributions of some (not all) of those artists in a photo slide show.


Coming shortly will be part 2 of Graffoto’s review of the year 2013 in street art with emphasis on the larger and more spectacular work of visiting artists and muralists and anything we feel just should be mentioned even if only for being damn photogenic. Sign up for the Graffoto email or RSS and see ya shortly.

Friday 18 October 2013

Hit Shot Walls - September 2013

All photos HowAboutNo
Words NoLionsInEngland

We are just over halfway through October so it must be time to reminisce fondly on the street art that appeared on Shoreditch walls back in September. We can also reminisce on the good old days when the part of Graffoto wandering round with a camera would let the part of Graffoto that thumps the keyboard keys know that the pics were ready in the draft box;-)

MJar put up some wonderfully hand coloured and spray finished paste ups then he got round to fighting evil nasties by putting his paste up faces over advertising for a record which was trying to pass itself off as street art.




MJar


Art Is Trash is still around and still looking like the big new thing in street art for 2013. The non conformist anthropomorphised packaging of his installations continue to defy categorisation as domestic refuse (white bin bags) or restuarant waste (black bin bags) and so create a pavement mess for quite a few days! He also takes up cudgels on behalf of the virtuous by assaulting flyposters placed over graffiti, the particular modification below were truly spectacular.


Art Is Trash


Is was nice to see Pablo Delgado back at the bottom of the brick canvas, this particular example of his work being quite epic.

Pablo Delgado


Our favourite Brazilian Cranio rounded off his visit to London with this scorching Mural showing hs friends the rainforest indians enjoying their drugg, pets, iPhones and replica kits in a denuded brown landscape stripped of trees. Sadly the day after he left some toys went to town tagging it.

Cranio


Unknown unknown


We love the cool way Miilo has transformed the Post office logo into a teeshirt design here


Mean strikes a blow for Shoreditch graffing
Mean

Binho brought a delicious characteristic Brazilian style to the streets of Shoreditch
Binho


Saki was pretty busy this month in particular doing some wonderful stuff in the windows and doors of a barred abandoned building but this isn't it.
Saki and Bitches



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It has been quite a while since a street artist provoked such unanimous hostility as 2-Square, perhaps it is the work on the walls, perhaps it is the dippy hippy over the top sheepskin look, I'd like to think it was collective critical horror at their piss poor painting slap next to the Roa Hackney Road rat

2-Square


C3's work has charmed us mainly by dint of appearing in D7606's old phone boxes and vintage TVs so it was nice to find this large size heavy duty one off solo piece of work.

C3


Also making a more than welcome return to Shoreditch's walls was environmentalist Xylo. It has not yet been determined if this tile is referencing the work of sculptor Jacob Epstein or a droid.

Xylo


To finish this look back, this manic cracker on the home turf of HowAboutNo from the cans and brushes of Rowdy and Sweet Toof


Sweet Toof, Rowdy