Benjamin Irritant - "Forget You Ever Saw Me"

Atom Gallery
127 Green Lanes, Stoke Newington,
London N16 9DA
18 May – 8 June 2019

Anti consumerism and anti advertising has been a street art staple street art since day dot. In 2017 black and white paste ups started to appear around Shoreditch with fully formed views on these subjects and they looked awesome. The messages were clear, the imagery was clever and witty and the art and locations really ticked all the boxes.


Shoreditch 2017



Shoreditch 2017



Shoreditch 2018


The artist is question was Benjamin Irritant and the art employed surreal collagism to spear establishment privilege, environmental complacency and set a fresh agenda.

Paste up street artists face several challenges when their art moves indoors. Can the ideas that look so thought provoking or stimulating outdoors avoid becoming mere cartoons in a gallery. Can the artist up the production quality to give the art the longevity that simply is not required in the street art arena?


Shoreditch 2018


In one way, Benjamin – let’s not shorthand him as Irritant, that just wouldn’t be terribly kind – does indoors exactly what he does outdoors, lots of paste ups. The human size bunny headed characters on the gallery wall did a great job of eavesdropping on the any chin stroking art gallery conversations going on.


Rabbit Rabbit Yak Yak Rabbit



"It Isn't That Great"


The Churchillian hands looked particularly effective in halftone form screen printed onto the gallery window, whether you are in the gallery or outside there is a certain “FUCK YOU” evident and who’s to say that’s not implicit in a lot of Benjamin’s art.







The Bunny rabbits bring a sense of fun and perhaps absurdity to the party. They could connect to Alice in Wonderland or you might even think a kind of Donnie Darko weirdness is afoot.


Conform



Expect A Comedown


The real point of the show though is the actual framed art and the art is both fascinating in content and beautifully executed.


Anything Is Possible



You Are Free



We Are Ungovernable



We Have A List



We've Got Your Walls


The cacophony of paste ups on the street reached a cacophony in the days leading up to the show and there were two particular pieces which these eyes had not observed on the streets before “We are Ungovernable” and “Social Control – Not Anymore”, which are now both available in the gallery.


Shoreditch, 2019



Brick Lane, 2019






Social Control - Not Any More


Check the way the art has been assembled, we suspect the original collages are screenprinted on heavyweight paper, they appear to be mounted on board and then set into deep frames creating depth.


We Are Ungovernable


Graffoto has got out of the habit of publishing alcohol fuelled reviews the morning after art show private views but in sympathy with the White Rabbit "Oh dear, oh dear! I shall be too late!" is our perpetual concern. At time of writing there are 3 viewing days open before the show closes its well worth the schlep, hopefully you won’t forget you saw him.


That's Flawed Folks


Links:
Benjamin Irritant: Instagram
Atom Gallery: website
All Photos: Dave Stuart

Brexit Street Art

This evening the UK’s parliament voted to show that they had not changed their mind since December on a withdrawal agreement that hadn’t changed since December. This leaves the country up shit creek, a situation that hasn’t changed since, well, several years ago. Street artists have not been impressed with the political process over the past three months, nor indeed the past three years or so.


Artist Not Known, March 2019


“Bye Bye” says an anonymous artist who spotted a gate in Shoreditch conveniently painted EU flag blue. This flag with one member missing piece echoes Banksy’s enormous EU flag with a tromp l’oeil worker chipping away a star brilliantly greeting UK leavers as they depart through Dover.



Banksy, Dover 2017 (during the 2107 General Election campaign)


It was noticeable and disappointing how little political street art appeared during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign. The most memorable from a very small entry list were these spoofs on the adverts for Banksy’s street art documentary “Exit Through The Gift Shop” lampooning Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage.


Boris Johnson, Artist Not Known, June 2016



Nigel Farage, Artist Not Known, June 2016


Since then we have seen a ramping up of the Brexit street art as the unthinkable went from implausible to likely to now pretty much unavoidable.


Brexit Through The Chip Shop - CodeFC, June 2017



Scrap Brexit - Uberfubs, 2018


In the aftermath of the referendum result the immediate targets for street art scorn and derision were David Cameron, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, the architects and chief pom-pom wavers for the Leave cause.


Spineless Nigel Farage, UKIP party by MCLN



Boris Johnson buffoon, fuckwit, bellend, racist, snob by Boo Who Up North



3 Brexiteers - Derek Davis (gone), Boris Johnson (now officially missing inaction), Jacob Rees Mogg by Subdude, April 2018



Boris Johnson is DUMBO by K-Guy


Now we have forgotten who the first two were and the third has decided to hide his light under a bushel and let others take the heat of what looks likely to turn into a monumental chaotic fuck up likely to please neither the leave nor the remain camps. The political paralysis and consequential insertion of heads into the sand really gained a head of steam in December.


Scrap Brexit - Uberfubs, Dec 2018


Theresa May faced a vote of no confidence by her own party after cancelling the first so-called "meaningful vote" in December


Maygo - Joe Bloggs


I was recently obliged to take a few weeks away from the walls and pavements of Shoreditch and on resuming street meanderings at the weekend I was bowled over by the amount of Brexit streetart that appeared in that short absence.

The duo Quiet British Accent belatedly brought George V into the debate.


Quiet British Accent - Bugger Brexit


Benjamin Irritant’s rabbit asks a very pointed rhetorical question, is it great again yet?


Benjamin Irritant


The Misfortuneteller has developed a witty street cartoon style in the past couple of years, this largest piece to date borrows its style from a closing down sale, its simplicity belying the fact that it is emphasizing the gap between the Brexiteer’s promises of “the easiest trade deals ever negotiated” against the visibly increasing isolation the country faces with borders and barriers hardening, no deals and inward investment evaporating.


Britain Closing - The Misfortuneteller


Subdude, producer of a lot of Brexit related art over the past few years, has deviated from his usual distinctive style of political humour on flat colour blocks to deliver a hand drawn condemnation of petty sectarian spats, photos and cartoons on newspaper pages make it clear who is the target of the jibe. Apparently Subdude has put six out on the streets but so far I have only found two, one of which overlays a political cartoon illustrating Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn both facing a common dilemma, Brexit actually threatening to irreparably split both of the UK’s main political parties. Ironically, in order to placate their parties both are having to turn away from the fact that neither actually supports the position they politically obliged to adopt, we live in weird times.


Subdude


Cigarette packet health warnings have been used as the basis for political street art for over 10 years, in fact almost since the regulations came in in 2003, think K-Guy in the mid 2000s. Wanker’s Of The World, whose mission is to identify and award that sobriquet to suitable candidates in the public eye are responsible for enormous cigarette packets mocking the main proponents of the Brexiteers. There are apparently 6, we located 5 in the past week. Ironically, the adoption of those cigarette packet warnings is actually an EU law which mandates the format, size and range of messages in all EU countries.


Jacob Rees-Mogg, chair "European Research Group". Brexit Can Be Fatal



Theresa May, Brexit Causes Family Arguments (who's putting out the bins?)



Boris Johnson, Brexit harms your children



Michael Gove, Quit Brexit Now


Graffoto strives constantly to be fair, even handed and balanced in its coverage so here is a comprehensive review of all the pro Brexit street art seen since 2016:














It is hard to know what the big take away from this is. “Keep going guys, street art will change it all” or “too little too late”? Who knows what the monkeys in the chamber are going to do next, certainly they don’t!


Bansky - Bristol Museum, 2009

LINKS:

Banksy website

CodeFC Instagram

Uberfubs Instagram 

MCLN Instagram

Boo Who Up North Instagram

Subdude London Instagram

K-Guy Instagram

Joe Bloggs Instagram

Quiet British Accent Instagram

Benjamin Irritant Instagram

The Misfortuneteller Instagram

Wankers Of The World Website

All Photos: Dave Stuart