Over the past year or so occasional street art pieces have appeared in London tagged with a stylised OSCH. Although not a common sight, a piece by OSCH has become notable for the quality of the work and curiosity as to who OSCH is. With the appearance of a new piece on Cargo’s outside wall it is time to introduce Otto Schade, a young Chilean artist currently to be found living and working in London (it says on his website!).
“Hunted” below appeared last Summer on the iconic Banksy location on Old Street (Ozone/Pulp Fiction). The spot isn’t difficult to reach but anyone getting up there stands accused of riding on Banksy’s coattails even though the last Banksy there was buffed early last year.
"The Hunted", Old Street, London
The maddening thing about this piece was the stencil was obviously well cut and the spraying is but being this far off the pavement and hogging such a large wall facing direction the traffic is going makes it hard to see and also completely the wrong scale for the location. Graffoto wonders if Schade just got a kick out of the “mission”. Otto Schade’s website describes this piece as a credit crunch allegory with the capitalist system, represented by the tiger, mauling “us” which generously suggests that none of us are capitalists and that corporations are self-conceiving and perpetuated by robots.
The next time OSCH was spotted on the streets was painted over an INSA piece on Redchurch St. There is a repetition of The Hunted alongside a large seated featureless figure with stretched limbs and torso. This rendition of The Hunted looked much more sensibly positioned given the size of the work.
In December last year a beautiful OSCH stencil appeared in the Old Truman Brewery. The intricate and very precise painting is a wonderfully surreal couple unravelling as they kiss, Schade’s composition suggests the meeting of minds and the physical lust are both the same thing.
The Kiss, Old Truman Brewery, London
Last week Schade did a new piece on the outside wall at cargo. The fragmented lattice style is there again in the angel/butterfly girl’s wings and the colour scheme the gorgeous contrast effect seen previously on the Old Street and Truman Brewery pieces. The seated figure symbol is there again but there is no obvious link between it and the angel/butterfly girl but obviously being a bit surreal you can’t dismiss the possibility there is some symbolic resonance.
One of the most striking aspects of Osch's street art is the complexity and sharpness of the stencilling.
Browsing Otto Schade’s website reveals a fascinating painting style and the street work certainly goes some way to capturing his key motifs. The Truman Brewery and Cargo pieces almost certainly were done with permission and it seems equally certain that the Redchurch St and Old Street pieces were illegal. There is no sign yet that Otto Schade is lurking within the gallery system in London but he has (inevitably!) produced an editioned print of The Kiss, street art and its commercial objectives were ever thus. Keep an eye out for his work though, both on the streets and on canvas Schade has got something beautiful going.
Otto Schade website
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