Showing posts with label Roa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roa. Show all posts

Saturday 26 September 2020

Street Art on Redchurch Street

 

Redchurch Street in Shoreditch has changed dramatically over the years yet despite gentrification it still houses some seriously good street art. 

As part of the Shoreditch Design Triangle, itself a subset of the London Design Festival, I was asked to assess the impact of Redchurch St and the history of its street art.   The novel twist was that OnRedchurch who got in touch set up a Cabinet of Curiosities in window fronts on Redchurch St where QR codes linked to online features.   Here is a reproduction of my survey of Redchurch street art produced for the Shoreditch Design 2020 Triangle Cabinet of Curiosities.

Malarky, Ronzo, 2011
 

Redchurch Street with its swish boutiques, street fashion, food and coffee was until barely a decade ago a cut-through lined by roofless derelict properties and empty wasteland plots.  As street art found its home in Shoreditch, Redchurch Street’s rough surfaces, dark corners and curious small spaces came to host a huge amount of street art and to play a role in developing the careers of many significant street artists.  

Redchuch St 2008 feat ATS, Peripheral Media Projects, Toasters, Jak-D and Faile

Derelict properties led to squat galleries and exterior canvasses for street artists.  The former Section Six Gallery, now the apartment block next door to Labour and Wait, sported a kaleidoscope of stencils and paste-ups and eventually was transformed with a mural by street artist and fashion designer INSA.  

Sickboy 2008

 
 
INSA 2009
 

After dereliction, the next phase in an area's development sees properties made secure and ahead of redevelopment, street art becomes tolerated and occasionally explicitly consented.  Many Redchurch Street facades witnessed early street art pieces from artists such as Roa, Otto Schade and Jimmy C and others who have since gone onto international success.

Otto Schade, 2010

 

Mobstr, 2011
 

Redchurch Street still had proper corner shops until a few years ago, shutters provided prime real estate for a rolling exhibition of graffiti luminaries such as Cept and Discreet, Aset (RIP) from the ATG crew and Vibes representing the RT crew.  A significant factor was the presence of specialist spraypaint store Chrome and Black which had an entrance next door to Richmix on Redchurch St.

Cept, Dscreet, 2009


Mean, Aset (RIP) 2014
 

Redchurch St was a linear building site for a large part of the late noughties, extensive building site hoardings hosted furiously changing art stencils, paste-up, tags and murals by artists from the UK and abroad.  There is little doubt that street art was co-opted as a tool in the “gentrification” phase.

Dr Zadok, Meeting Of Styles 2014
Jim Vision, a spraypaint artist and key figure at the more permissioned end of the street art spectrum resided for many years on Redchurch Street.  In his role as organiser of the Meeting Of Styles graffiti festival Jim Vision arranged impressive murals on Redchurch Street as well as painting massive spectaculars himself.  He also curated a number of pop up graffiti writers and street artist group shows in several Redchurch St locations.  

Probs 2009

Jim Vision 2014

The cottage at the junction with Club Row hosted some stunning murals by Roa, James Bullough and Jim Vision as well as a long running relief sculpture by artist Cityzen Kane installed with permission as a poignant tribute to his deceased son.  

Roa 2009

 

Cityzen Kane, James Bullough, 2015

As is often the case galleries sprung up In advance of the arrival of boutiques. The event space at the junction of Ebor St, in its guise as the London and Newcastle Gallery was the venue for pop up exhibitions by street artists such as Borondo, Insa and Shoreditch’s own Pure Evil as well as graffiti writer group shows.  Its outside wall was the location of a piece of INSA’s pioneering “Giffiti”, an augmented reality mural which with a smartphone app would reveal a squad of policemen chasing eachother in  “The Cycle Of Futility”.

INSA 2014

Urban Angel at the junction of Redchurch St and Chance St had very distinctive shutters declaring themselves as ART, as indeed they were having been painted by EINE in 2008.   Doomed by the coincidence of its opening and the financial crash of 2008, its brief existence saw it host shows by Remi Rough, Hush, Copyright and Best Ever.   

EINE, 2008

It is hard to believe that 11 years have passed since Graffiti legend and renown musician Goldie had a two floor solo show with live painting demonstration at the Maverick Showrooms.

Goldie, "The Kids Are All Riot", 2009

At the time of going to press the London Mural Festival is in full swing and London Design Festival favourite Camille Walala has provided a huge makeover to the rear of Rich Mix at the eastern end of Redchurch St.

Camille Walala, London Mural Festival 2020

The logical trajectory of combining property development, street art and expensive shopping reaches its unavoidable conclusion with spraypainted adverts appearing where once there was street art, though having spent years honing their spraypainting skills in the riskiest circumstances, who would begrudge artists a living?

Among the niche fashion houses, beauty treatments and designer furnishing accessories Redchurch Street has not lost its edgy cool, a stroll will still yield brilliant stickers on lampposts, freehand non- permissioned portraits, art paste ups and for the especially observant, illegal bronze castings by street artist Jonesy. 

Zomby, Type, 2011
Stormie Mills, 2009
Duk, 2010  
 
 
Jimmy C, Alo, Cartrain, T.wat, Cityzen Kane 2013


Pure Evil, 2012
C215, 2013
NEOH, 2012
Unify 2014

Jonesy, 2018

 

Cabinet Of Curiosities, Shoreditch Design Triangle 2020 (same facade as Pure Evil above)

 

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 13 June 2014

ROA: Projectum 06

Stolen Space Gallery
17 Osborn Street, London E1 6TD

13 Jun – 6 July 2014

all photos: NoLionsInEngland


It would be easy to sneer “Sell out, same ol’ shit, run out of ideas” in a week when shows by two of the giants of street art open in London*. However, in the case of Roa, the art in his Stolen Space installation based show was breathtaking.

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Roa’s art has always played with twin notions of animals rising up in abandoned human habitats and ambiguous dead creatures which left us questioning were the spoils of a successful hunt or a sinister ritual sacrifice. He has frequently employed lenticular imagery both on the streets as with the concertina shutter doors on the now re-developed Cordy House or the series of locker doors in Roa’s awesome London debut show at the Pure Evil Gallery below.

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Cordy House 2009


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Pure Evil Gallery 2010


The ROA room (Max Rippon aka RIPO is also exhibited in the front room) is entered through a center hinged revolving door which creates four permutations of the poor creature changes from playful repose to decomposed.

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Front side!

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Front side decomposed

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Back side


Centre stage is a stunning 8 way optical trick of the eye in which the creatures we are looking at change as we walk around looking alternatively from square on to diagonally into the corners.

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This idea of looking into the corners being a critical viewpoint repeats with a couple more installations where mirrored surfaces create a fearsome symmetry.

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An intriguing fearsome bat is painted on three staggered surfaces which viewed from one point form a seamless image but form all other angles offer nightmare scary frankenstein juxtapositions. Notice the two way stomach incision flap pandering to the audience that prefers their bats pinned down and partially dissected.

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The reduction in the array of cases, furniture, boxes and intriguing old biology lab accoutrements compared to his 2012 Hypnogogia show in this space has allowed the painting to have a bigger impact. Signature dishevelled, bedraggled creature and blue and red gizzards come to the fore and empathise the merits of ROA’s rough but detailed painting style. Virtually all of the images here look like ROA could just as easily have painted these on the streets as indoors in a gallery and it has been a while since there was a show that managed that achievement.


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The awkward and ambiguous images of these creatures force us to contemplate our own skewed view of the animal kingdom, are we in love with them as pets, are we horrified by them as scary bats or do we hunt and devour them as ruthless consumers at the top of the food chain? Roa is on awesome form in this show and the brilliance of his art whether on street mural, abandoned buildings or inside in the gallery all amount to the same thing with this guy.

The burning question at the end is does this guy’s name need to be spelt with all capitals or just a leading capital R? Judging by the preview newsletters it is not clear that even the gallery knows!

*Also opening, "Banksy Unauthorised", Sothebys/Lazarides