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)

 

Diggin In The Archives 3

Four weeks of Lockdown now, most sensible countries have extended their lockdown period for a few more weeks but don’t worry, the archive isn’t going to be running on fumes any time soon.

The relationship between impact and size is not at all clear in street art. Isaac Cordal's forlorn concrete figures were found in nooks and cranies in London over several years from 2010. Spotting them was difficult, how the artist installed them at their illegal elevated perches was inspiring. A few survive to this day.


Issac Cordal, 2010


As a great fan of stickers it is a bit remiss not to have looked back at some great stickers of times past. PS, or "Public Spirit" was an amazing sticker artist, the examples here date from 2010 and 2011. PS was comfortable with a range of styles from fantasy illustration to op art via pure abstract geometeric but always in a very distinctive teardrop style. The first sticker in this series has a little clue how to look for the initials PS embedded in the swirling shape of the art - other than the purely symmetrical ones (so far as I can see anyway).

At least one PS sticker dating from that period survives in Shoreditch.



















Fake stencil. Fake Street artist K-Guy. Fake photo from 2017. K-Guy has total authority.


K-Guy, 2017


Burning Candy represented by Cept, Sweet Toof, Tek 33 and DScreet had the first spot on lockdown for many years. The Garage owner received a council enforcement notice demanding the piece be buffed but flatly refused. Garage now rolled over by development.


Cept, Sweet Toof, Tek 33 and Dscreet


Burning Candy at its largest grew to 9 members, the next photo features two of London's hottest #rooftop kings of that time, MightyMo and Goldpeg


Mighty Mo, Goldpeg, 2010


Otto Schade painted very intricate musing on human emotions using a stencil technique, symbolically connecting the emotions and the nervous system to external stimuli. This was one of his earliest ribbon paintings on the street, the owners buffed this very shortly after Otto finished it.


Otto Schade, 2010


Stewy Stencils populated Shoreditch and Norf London with a menagerie of animals, reaching a zenith with the size of this horse. The horse appears to be tethered and getting fed, not sure if that was Stewy or a clever augmentation by someone else. Either way its great when there is a little more to the stencil than just a spot where there was no cctv. Then virgin wall, now a hotel stands on the property opposite the Pure Evil Gallery. A version of this horse closer to Brick Lane was brilliantly augmented by Saki, might have to dig that pic out later but let’s hope we aren't in Lockdown that long.


Stewy Stencils, 2012


From the days when artists did find virgin unpainted derelict walls in Shoreditch. "Plastic Bones" Best Ever v. Deadleg


Best Ever v. Deadleg, 2011


Next week, same time same place yeah?  Check out Part 1 and Part 2

Art credits and links are by each photo. All photos: Dave Stuart

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 to left by Ninth Seal, Nomad Clan and (just visible) Lovepusher and Mr Cenz; Ed Hicks and Dr Zadok to right, 2018



Mr Thoms, Hunto, Captain Kris, Tizer, 2018



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


EINE, Really Scary October 2007 - 2019



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.


Mode 2, Wenlock Rd Laundry, 2010



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



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.


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, 2013 – support by Global Street Art



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



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.


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 Vibes Odisy Gent 48 Ders Sokem Meeting Of Styles 2014



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



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.


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.


“Love Will tear us Apart” CEPT TRP, 2014



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


“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


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.


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, 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 (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.


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.


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, 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:


"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) 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.


Borondo, hackney Wick 2013



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 Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back


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


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


Sweet Toof, 2012



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.


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



Panik ATG, 2010

All photos: Dave Stuart