Showing posts with label Borondo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Borondo. Show all posts

Sunday 7 June 2020

Diggin In The Archives Pt 10

When I first began to explore street art one my favourite artists was and indeed still is French stencillist Jef Aerosol. This Aerosol masterpiece was on Hanbury street and marked more or less a the time that this wall was just beginning to be used for permissioned murals.

Jef Aerosol 2010
Jef Aerosol 2010


Shoreditch street art was dominated by stencilism in the 00s and why not, Banksy was the stencil artist kicking down the doors of public disinterest and general hostility. K-Guy was and again still is a great personal favourite. This is his take on the dual significance of the national flag, a symbol of pride yet also racism.

K-Guy 2008
K-Guy 2008


The next photo shows K-Guy’s artwork in context. In 2007 Shepard Fairey hit that spot with a long lasting paste-up (a spot he returned to in 2012). Sotheby’s and Bonhams started their urban art auctions in early 2008, others then hitched to that bandwagon. This was probably the first occurrence I came across of an arts related organisation destroying a piece of street art in pursuit of advertising. This shit still goes on and basically if you see street art being damaged in pursuit of the commercial interests of galleries, auctions and online sellers, then it’s a clear sign the fuckers do not get the culture, steer clear.

K-guy 2008 featuring Shepard Fairey – defaced, dissed and abused
K-guy 2008 featuring Shepard Fairey – defaced, dissed and abused


Special Offer: Free Art! The stencil on cardboard below was a piece of free art by the prolific, varied and much missed street artist Mr Farenheit. Hopefully it went to a good home. This doorway in fact the whole building, now demolished, was always intensely distressed and beautifully decayed; muscular rust on the iron door had very little sympathy for any paper pasted onto its surface. “Special Offer” is a detail from an ACE paste up; the thick black bars emerging over Twiggy’s left shoulder are a Paul Insect relic; D7606 also did great paste up montages on this door and it’s a rare photograph where you can’t see one of his pieces at this spot.

Mr Farenheit, 2013
Mr Farenheit, 2013


The pair of birds in the next photo by artist and graffiti writer Dr Zadok are done in the swirling style which characterizes both his graff letters and his art. Alleyn Gardens habitués will note the virgin brickwork on the then relatively new North London Line.

Dr Zadok 2013
Dr Zadok 2013


The image below shows Dr Zadok’s hand finished bookcover in aid of Joe Epstein aka LDNgraffiti’s fundraiser for Great Ormond St Hospital. More details and information about how you can to support the fund raiser and maybe win one of these fantastic prizes in the #LDNGOSHLottery is HERE. Keep an eye out on LDNGraffiti’s Instagram for further announcements of more prizes.

LDN GOSH Charity Book with Dr Zadok Cover art
LDN GOSH Charity Book with Dr Zadok Cover art


Swoon again, simply because she rocks. Close to Broadway Market, 2011.

Swoon, 2011
Swoon, 2011


Borondo was an extraordinary painter who lived in London for a number of years in the early part of the 00s. His impressionist murals channelled the effect of strong colours but he first appeared doing single layer portraits created by splashing emulsion on the outside surface of glass windows then etching imagery into the paint with a fork. Two artworks survive, the “11 Apostles” on the Bull in a China Shop on Shoreditch High Street is easy to find. This pair of figures from 2013 play with the window frames; the scraped paint has settled like frost on the window ledge.

Borondo, Brick Lane 2013
Borondo, Brick Lane 2013


And now, something consigned to the archive in just the past fortnight !Things turned a brighter shade of orange across a locked down (ish) Picadilly Circus as the iconic illuminations displayed a charity digital artwork by Stik. Stik must be alongside Shep Fairey and Banksy in the ranks of street artists who most consistently use their art for deserving causes. This installation was in support of Young Westminster Foundation.

Stik Picadilly Circus June 2020
Stik Picadilly Circus June 2020


Stik is also one of the 9 street artists who have joined Joe Epstein to raise funds for Great Ormond St Hospital. Each artist has created a special version of the book by hand painting the cover, so that’s 9 unique versions of the book.

See HERE for a blogpost with more images, details and link to how to support the fund raiser and maybe win one of these fantastic prizes in the #LDNGOSHLottery and keep an eye out as well for further announcements of more prizes.

LDN GOSH Charity Book with Stik Cover art
LDN GOSH Charity Book with Stik Cover art


We didn’t clap for carers in the UK this week, the mood switched more to pressurising on the government to fund the carers properly, and reward them not to mention try a little bit of planning for a change as a second wave is held likely. Seems like a good moment to shelve Diggin In The Archives, though it has been a happy accident of exploring my own archives and memories and so don’t rule out DITA’s resurrection sometime.

Check out the previous Diggin’ In The Archives weekly compendiums starting with week 1 and then hopefully navigate the index to find the rest: DITA 1

All photos: Dave Stuart

Thursday 19 December 2019

2010s A Decade Of Murals

Muralism is the painting of astounding pieces of street art on buildings, these days usually with permission. We're talking daylight painting, accomplished artists and permission but not direct municipal involvement. In Shoreditch that’s generally how it operates. We are not talking about civic murals where artists pitch for council approval, arts council funding and perpetual legacy.

Although this is not intended to be about any kind of order or preference of ranking, let’s begin at the end, or perhaps the top, the one single mural in Shoreditch compared to which all others are fussy little miniatures, the Connectivity Mural painted in 2018 and partly repainted in 2019. This took muralism in Shoreditch to a level of complexity, coherence and (unimportantly) a size which we had not previously seen.

Busk and Oliver Switch, flanked by Ninth Seal and Best Ever to left, Ed Hicks and Dr Zadok to right
Busk and Oliver Switch, flanked to left by Ninth Seal, Nomad Clan and (just visible) Lovepusher and Mr Cenz; Ed Hicks and Dr Zadok to right, 2018


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Mr Thoms, Hunto, Captain Kris, Tizer, 2018


Autone Neist Connectivity Mural
Connectivity Matters - 2019 Pride update by Autone and Neist


Curiously, the very end of the decade saw an unexpected change to Shoreditch’s oldest mural as EINE updated SCARY in support of the mental health charity Movember

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EINE, Really Scary October 2007 - 2019


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Movember Scary, December 2019


At the start of the 2010s street art muralism was in its infancy. Typically artists were on their own if they wanted to sort out a permissioned wall or if they were lucky there might be a gallerist sorting out a few spots to paint in conjunction with a major exhibition.

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Mode 2, Wenlock Rd Laundry, 2010


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Gaia, Hackney Road, 2011 (who says murals have to be painted?)


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Phlegm, 2011


Mural walls with frequent updating were few and far between and were typically in the management of well organised, knowledgeable, skilled but otherwise busy spraycan artists.

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EINE, 2010


Muralism changed dramatically when Lee Bofkin, a man with a vision, set up Global Street Art and delivered a different model for mural organisation.

Spore, Macism
Spore, Macism, 2013 – support by Global Street Art


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Cyrcle, Cept, Run, Faith47, Mysterious Al, Rone


Soon muralism was on steroids, exactly the way you all love it now.   These days photo journals from certain street art and gallery websites pantingly announce “the world's best murals this month” and it is clear that what appeals most to them and by inference you, is SCALE. Things ain’t worth shit unless two hoists, a photographer and a drone were involved. We don’t have so much of that in Shoreditch thankfully.

ROA and buffed EINE
ROA permission mural work in progress; buffed non permissioned EINE above, Tizer below; 2014


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D*Face 2011


Jim Vision has been a key organiser of festivals, group shows and murals in Shoreditch but as also an awesome spraycan artist his own right produced a stream of belters throughout the decade.

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Jim Vision, Hanbury St, 2017


Jim has organised Meeting Of Styles in London since 2008 and in consequence the Nomadic Community Gardens housed a series of spectacular signature murals.

Twesh VIbers Odisy Gent 48 Ders Sokem Meeting Of Styles 2014
Twesh Vibes Odisy Gent 48 Ders Sokem Meeting Of Styles 2014


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Meeting Of Styles 2015 feat Zadok, Wisher, Tyme, Kak, Jim Vision, Ekto, Anone, ADNO


Meeting Of Styles 2017 feat Zadok, Xenx, Jim Vision, Balstroem, Neist & Twesh
Meeting Of Styles 2017 feat Zadok, Xenx, Jim Vision, Balstroem, Neist & Twesh


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Meeting Of Styles 2018 feat Voyder, Samer, kaes, Jim Vision, Jeba, Irony, Fanakapan, Core & Aches


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Graffestival 2019 feat Jim Vision, Trafik, Balstroem, Cazer, Planet Rick, 2Rise, Vile, Lifer, Tizer


Graffoto is allowed to pick favourites so it’s a pleasure to include this 2018 Xenz mural which was just beautiful. The young man in the photo potentially has a great career as an art curator.

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Xenz, MOS 2018


Many home based artists made the transition from graffiti to non permissioned street art and then on to legal murals. At the start of the decade our favourite local muralists were the guys and girls making up the Burning Candy and The Rolling People crews.

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“Love Will tear us Apart” CEPT TRP, 2014



D*Face got a double points score with Guilty Pleasures as both a mural AND rooftop!

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“Guilty Pleasures”, D*Face, 2013


Murals don’t have to be huge. This stunning confection by meme Martinez was painstakingly painted and looked incredibly photogenic, something which Graffoto is always biased towards

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Meme Martinez, Argentina, 2018


Shok 1 consistently produced virtuoso spray painted Xray imagery and successions of interesting thematic projects including the spectacular Rainbow XRay series.

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Shok 1, Seven Stars Yard, August 2013


A real challenge in assembling a selection of favourite murals and finishing before the following decade ends is the painful process of deciding what to leave out. The same applies to Mr Cenz’s oeuvre, over the decade Mr Cenz has produced a solid stream of stunning futurist inspired portraits.

Mr Cenz
Mr Cenz, Fashion St 2018


In 2012 Sheffield’s Jo Peel managed to find a rain free 3 week period in April to paint and repaint a mural which was photographed to make the amazing “Things Change” award winning animation . Planning, execution and grinding hard work was required for this majestic achievement, a mural who fulfilment really unfolded in the virtual space with the street art element being a step in the process.

Jo Peel: Things Change
Jo Peel - Things Change (end piece)


Things Change animation - Jo Peel



Portuguese artist Vhils drilled and chiselled this amazing portrait out of the plaster on a wall on Hewitt Street on a vanished building which for a while provided a home for the End Of The Line crew. This portrait was significantly different in the way pretty much that no one really works quite like Vhils.

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Vhils, Rockwell Studios, 2013


Behind the Vhils in that photo you can see a mural depicting intertwined stiletto wearing legs by the immensely talented INSA. INSA developed his giffiti™ concept using an augmented reality phone app. The “Cycle Of Futility” was a standard waypoint for street art tours for a number of years until the wall was taken over by spraypainted adverts. You can simulate the effect INSA achieved on the street by downloading the free "Insa giffiti Viewer" app and displaying this next “work in progress” shot on a screen or another phone and viewing it through the app, available here.

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INSA, Cycle Of Futility, 2014 – 2018


London artist Stik’s “Big Mother” mural in Chiswick was the largest mural in the UK, the one time I cycled over to look at it a rear derailleur malfunction (shit happens) meant I didn’t get there and never actually got to see it in person before the block of flats was torn down! Brick Lane Couple dating from 2010 made it onto a list of the UK’s favourite art of all time in 17th place and from 2016 the famous “Shoreditch Past, Present, Future” has ruled the Old Street landscape though appreciating it requires understanding the different aspects of Shoreditch that each of the three characters is contemplating. Context is critical.

Stik
Stik, 2016


Event driven and campaigning murals were common occurrences. The terrible tragedy/crime at Grenfell tower led to many murals, including this two storey blockbuster whose scale is not actually that obvious from the photo:

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"Dedicated to all those who lost their lives 14 June 2017" by NHS and CBM

Australian artist Jimmy C has made a huge contribution to London walls over the span of the decade, perhaps the one with the largest impact internationally was this amazing portrait of Usain Bolt which surveyed Sclater St market during London Olympics in 2012. Also features a stunning trackside image by Dank Kitchener.

Jimmy C "Usain Bolt"; Dan Kitchener (below)
Jimmy C "Usain Bolt"; Dan Kitchener (below) 2012


That sorely missed spot also hosted a mural which was one of the highlights of Borondo’s sojourn in London in the decade’s middle years. Borondo was one of the most talented painters we saw in London over the decade and we were very luck to enjoy his work over quite a prolonged explosion of creativity.

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Borondo, hackney Wick 2013


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Borondo, Shoreditch 2014 – also featuring Miss Van and Dede


In 2012 Shephard Fairey visited and for the first time put up some stunning painted murals as opposed to the huge paste ups which had previously been his calling card.


Shepard Fairey - It Takes A nations Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Shepard Fairey – It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back


Even master of miniature sculpture Jonesy got a little mural action going

Jonesy
Jonesy Missing Link, Seven Stars, 2014


Neoh and Sweet Toof get a big nod simply for being awesome painters in completely different ways and being smashing people

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Sweet Toof, 2012


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Neoh, 2017


It may not be possible to shoehorn a Banksy entry into each of the Review of The Decade posts so in the context of murals we can’t overlook the genius of Shop Till You Drop. Proximity to one of London’s most chichi shopping locations Bond Street lend this mural great context and it also is great to see a Banksy that survives without being under plastic.

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Shop Till You Drop, Banksy, 2011


Contemplating the impact of street art murals inevitably weighs in the balance some great aspects and some which are perhaps a bit unfortunate but this is a celebration of some the stunning murals we have enjoyed over the past decade so we're not going to get into “muralism good or bad thing?” here, that’s what academics are for.

This series of "That was the decade that was" blog posts started with a look at the state of the game as it was back in 2010. Not sure what's going to come next nor when all wthat is asked is that you just love, sign up, and follow.


Inkfetish, Poer, Jasik, Nemo, Corp, Stik
Inkfetish, Poer, Jasik, Nemo, Corp, Stik


Panic ATG
Panik ATG, 2010

All photos: Dave Stuart