Saturday 18 February 2012

Word On The Streets Is....



All photos: NolionsInEngland


Fate conspired to stop me pressing the shutter release on any camera for 9 whole days until yesterday lunchtime. It was nothing in particular, nothing special, just a bundle of things from the normal routine of life that cuts perpendicular across a passion for street art and graff. Yesterday lunchtime every surface seemed to throw up a splash of colour and artistic intervention begging to be memorised. Though Graffoto tends to be about the words, for a change here’s a string of pics which would normally be consigned to flickr where the image is the law.

CEMO
CEMO


Last time out, Graffoto reported on the toyish dogging doings of someone with a grudge against Malarky’s colourful shutter and wall murals; the street cartoon machine didn’t let that stay up for long, completely re-doing the Redchurch St wall with a notably more gnarly and snarly tone.

Malarky, Lucas
Malarky, Lucas


At the other end of the size range there were a lot of ultra small interventions catching the eye and begging to be photographed. A prominent proponent of what we might refer to as the beauty in the male form, this Paul Le Chien sticker isn’t new by a long shot but yesterday the colours and composition begged to be photographed.

Paul Le Chien
Paul Le Chien


Still at the macro scale, someone had a minor clearout of their toy collection or, as HowAboutNo observed, possibly something from a cereal packet. Just one of those quirky little bits you find that you can’t see any rhyme or reason for its presence but it’s just good someone thought it should go there. “Artist” unknown.

DSC_6854
Unknown


Back up to the mahoosive, productions in this car park plot escape the usual life cycle of dogging and 1 day max going over, perhaps due to the 24 hour security presence. This new(ish?) piece by Probs echoes and appropriates the rail line that arcs over the plot, so much so that I wanted to bring that link into the picture which is my lame excuse for this somewhat contorted context shot.

Probs burning bridges
Probs


DON has been out there smashing prominent “street art trail” spots which will keep the tour guides happy. You’ve got to admire the quality and detail of this partially stencilled piece, the two characters also by DON mugging their way into the shot are Darwin and Hirst.

DON
DON UA


This collection of irregularly sized charcoal portraits look sweet. Would they have been better spread around the parish rather than clustered in this one over-pasted go-to “urban back alley”?

DSC_6852-1
Unknown


What is the word on the streets? For some reason none of the massive number of doorways bearing ancient and modern tags made it onto the camera’s memory stick but RUSHT is one of the few writers who deems the Shoreditch art fag vortex worth bothering with, here’s a dirty and new Rusht piece.

RUSHT
RUSHT


This sticker is cool. Whoever the proud stickerist is, they wanted to create a long lasting legacy as this is about 10 feet off the ground. Artist anyone?

DSC_6888
Unknown


One more sticker, bit of a curio, this is an image of the flyer advertising Banksy’s Graffiti, Hostility and Jubilee show in Southwark in May 2002. The event went ahead based around various Banksy images including the Monkey Queen and sentry with pants down but the fuzz were all over it. Why make a sticker of this? Why cross out the date? You think got a micro piece-ette of a Banksy factoid you want to hide from us? Pesky forum types perhaps.

DSC_6850
Unknown


Getting more sculptural here, no idea who this is by, possibly an artist with a show that I missed but it’s nice to see someone putting up something one off, crafted and abstract.

DSC_6911
Unknown


You just can’t beat a bit of colour and the writing IS the word, so it’s good to end with a nice piece by RULA ONE.

Rula one
RULA ONE

Monday 6 February 2012

Fuck Street Art - this year's model

Photos: NolionsInEngland except HowAboutNo where stated.


Every year throws up it’s street art hating graffiti purist, thankfully 2012’s has arrived early.

Malarky, Lucas & Kamba
Malarky, Lucas & feat Kamba


Malarky, Lucas, Mr Penfold and co are clearly guilty of wantonly putting up sweet and bright painted walls and shutters all over Shoreditch and someone, step forward Kamba, resents that. “Street art is not for galleries” and “street art is not a business” is Kamba ‘s message, propagated by stencil, ironically.


Malarky Lucas Kamba dogging


Kamba‘s tag hasn’t exactly got the finest handstyle but he/she evidently trusts in the purest of graff colours – chrome and black.

Malarky Lucas Kamba dogging


The message is curiously accepting of street art. Unlike many of Kamba‘s more illustrious predecessor crusaders against the corruption of the graff culture, it’s not the existence of street art itself get Kamba‘s goat just that it shouldn’t be in galleries. Ok, most us accept that you don’t get street art in galleries, in galleries it becomes just art but lets not nitpick.

Oh Dear
photo: HowAboutNo


Maybe Malarkey does own too much Shoreditch, maybe we could use a bit more variety, hopefully the tacit acceptance of Malarky’s epic walls and shutters will mean that those dogged murals will now be painted by a greater variety of street artists. Let the production/dog/ buff/production cycle commence. And may the artists raise their game cos Kamba is on their ass.

Quick ting.

Malarky Lucas Kamba dogging