k-Guy & Occupy vs Greedy Bankers

All photos: NoLionsInEngland




A decent target and a good idea is all the motivation K-Guy requires for another politicised barb delivered through the medium of stencilled street art. Bankers and politicians are frequently a target for K-Guy and as usual, he delivers a simple message with exquisite timing and placement.


Spraypaint,Carpet (quality: Eastern European municipal office standard issue)


K-Guy is coming from the same ideological origin as the protesters. They see a need, they seek a voice, they cut out the official channels of protest by putting direction action into effect. K-Guy rolls out the carpet.




Throughout banking's casino years the watchdogs failed to bark, the cracks appeared with the run on Northern Rock in 2007 and shortly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in Sep 08 K-Guy nailed the genesis of the ongoing crisis in capitalism with his October 2008 Memorial To The Boom Economy alongside the Bank Of England.




Occupy has generated a substantial body of protest art around the camp and it was curious to feel a resonance with K-Guy’s earlier Memorial.




The pot pourri of organisations, faiths, individuals and objectives that make up Occupy pride themselves on being a true democracy. They aren’t too shabby at media management either. There is a packed itinerary of events taking place today (sat 22 Oct), check out the details on the website OccupyLSX. (www.occupylsx.org)


(got to be handy having the country's largest camping gear retail onsite!)


Having accompanied K-Guy to take some photographs of what he expected to be a very short-lived installation, I asked him if he was going to hang around to see what became of his carpet art, he shrugged and replied “my work here is done, I‘ve delivered my idea and now it has too look after itself". Some 30 minutes later the carpet was still there. It's well worth checking out K-Guy's track record with the political street art here, particularly relevant in the context of OccupyLSX is his exhortation that you might as well hoard your cash under the mattress, and photos of his Memorial To The Boom Economy can be found here.

More photos from OccupyLSX:
















What Happened Next?

The protest remains in place. The news is entirely about the right to protest and the friction within the church over its response to the prescence of the camp, which has caused one canon to resign. Virtually nothing is said about the aims of the protest. K-Guy's rug remains in place, nopw the attractive unique foyer carpet to a small tent.




The limelight has definitely been stolen by a monopoly based piece of work which arrived on site over the weekend. Some claim it is the work of Banksy, if it is Banksy then it’s a huge disappointment. It has none of his usual colour palette, none of his "style" and it just isn't that funny. With political jibes Banksy always hits the target with an anarchist's guided precision, this is just lame. Occupy is about democratic change, wealth re-distribution, smash capitalism etc, this monopoly piece is, at best, about greedy bankers with their hands out (as if to some kind of..ooooo....Stability Fund...). Why does it look so much like a straight theft from Zeus with an Alec monopoly character slapped on it?

Street Artist Servants Express Gratitude For Long Weekend

all photos: NoLionsInEngland


To echo The Socialist Worker’s famous “traffic delays in London” commentary on the wedding of Charles and Di, large amounts of Britain came to a standstill today as workers enjoyed an extra day off work and a 4 day weekend. Kate Middleton, slim, looker, married Prince William, privileged, inherited. Street artists, resplendent in traditional livery of flat sole sneakers, shin length skinny denims and Abercombie hoodies paid tribute to the occasion.

Perhaps the most prolific around the ancient borough of Shoreditch, haunt of their majesties’ crustier artists and other trendie subjects, was Dotmasters, in his customary supporting role as Bearer Of The Exacto Knife, delivering a prolific number of this single layer stencilled artistic tribute of the royal likeness presented in the form of police identikit photos.


Dotmasters


Mr.Farenheit, Master of the Paste, has installed at strategic locations (i.e. the usual spots) a selection of newsprint pages stencilled over with a variety of messages expressing a commoner’s love the future Queen.


Mr.Farenheit


A parallel between a Prince’s desire to be left alone (particularly when falling out of the VIP area area of a Chelsea nightclub with a dozen close freeloading rugger mates) and a reluctant sexual partner adorns several locations of the realm.


Mr.Farenheit


The street art community has paid its respect to the ancient traditions of this Sceptr'd isle, led symbolically by its great royal figureheads, successors to a long line of distinguished and brilliant cross-dressers, into a brave new era of tourist economy dependence, determined to show the world whose eyes today watch our green and peasant land with envy and awe how Britain maintains its love of honouring those born to be first to the trough.




K-Guy produced a limited edition screen print but didn’t make it out onto the streets. This sort of summarises the general level of ennui reigning among a populace upon whom the greatest impact will have been “yippee, another 4 day weekend”. All in all a pretty paltry reaction to the wedding. Apart from the obvious targets - privilege, wealth and un-earned but mainly symbolic authority, it seems Willy and Kate present little material to inspire the artist courtier. Perhaps the scintillating wit and pointed political satire is being reserved for the eventual wedding of his swastika wielding brother.

Late update, I forgot about this one,as likely to be a paid for commission as not, cheque signed "love Liz and Phil"?




After The Piss Up.....The Paste Ups

K-Guy obviously felt the sludge landslide of instant commemorative pull-out souvenir colour supplements leant an excessive gloss to an overblown celebration of the marriage of the nation's favourite negligee manikin to the single beaming 2:1 chink of intelligence flying in the face of the royal family's fine tradition of academic mediocrity, so he silk screened this mass paste up souvenir bollocks with the exortation "God Save Your Mad parade" from the Sex Pistols 1977 Jubilee year single "God Save The Queen".


K-Guy



K-Guy


Just yards away HowAboutNo, still reeling from an excess of Amsterdam refreshments, spotted a couple of figuroids bigging up William as a kind of "Mens Health" speedo poser and Kate with a splat of blood on her wedding dress designed by someone dead. Somehow we doubt that was the first time the Prince stormed her palace gates, c'mon, the Royals move with the times daddyo.


Unknown

Papal Bull

Pope In London - Street artists rise as foretold

photos Nolionsinengland except S.Butterfly where noted


Benedictus episcopus servus servorum Dei, Pope Benedict, Bishop, Server of The Servants of God, etc etc is in the UK to give us a bit of a telling off and to enjoy one of the most expensive inter-city long-weekend breaks on record (Twelve million quids worth is the accepted estimate of his inclusive board and travel deal). Graffoto was a little disappointed that the opportunity presented by the elections in the UK this Summer passed by un-remarked by most of the street art/anarchist community, perhaps with the honourable exception of Dr d, so it is encouraging to see this papal visit has stimulated the minds and exacto knives of a few stencilistas in London. For anyone not familiar with the circumstances, the two protest themes hinge around expense and paedophilia cover-ups.

Top prize goes to the ever thoughtful K-Guy who placed controversial work in a couple of spots designed for maximum visibility to the papal entourage and all passing Catholics. K-Guys is at his best when presented with a toxic cocktail of politics, religion and hipocracy and the quality of his political work is sustained in this hear-no-see-no-speak-no cannon-ised monkeys. Reducing the pontiff to the level of a primate and mocking the Church’s inability or un-willingness to properly and clearly address the horrendous crimes committed within its sanctuary by a few (“Paedophilia is a sickness, they were “ill”), this work pulls no punches.


K-Guy “see-no-hear-no-speak-no”


K-Guy placed a version of this image on Thursday night on the Popemobile route to Westminster, Graffoto made a detour on the way to the day job on Friday morning arriving just as one chuffed-to-bits cleaner removed the piece off the streets. 0-1 to the buff.


I’ll ‘ave that


K-Guy was motivated to go one better for the Pope’s benefit on Saturday (today), placing a second specimen inside Hyde Park where the Pope was due to lead an open air séance or something. Wonder if it survived until the vigil, certainly thousands of Catholics will have got the message if it did.


K-Guy


SPQR also addresses the popular theme of papal cover-ups, this splendidly executed work referencing the less than transparent internal investigations supposedly carried on by the Catholic church. Being placed on a gallery wall miles from where the papal retinues and the flock would gather renders this effort a tad futile but to be fair to SPQR, he was presumably rather busy with a solo show opening at Signal Gallery that night.


SPQR – “Report Exposes Church Sex”


Much closer to the heart of the papal action geographically speaking is Nick Walker’s Cardinal Sinister placed on the walls of the Royal College of Art immediately outside Hyde Park. Nick Walker renders the Pope as a Blofeld-like evil head of a sinister organisation stroking the cat on his lap. We like the analogy to the head of a crime based organisation, the stencil has impressive scale and detail but we feel the Royal College of Art gains more through boosting its waning“edginess” quotient than Mr Walker gains for his imaginative composition.


Nick Walker "Cardinal Sinister"


We thank the ever vigilant Ms S Butterfly for photographing this effort by Raymond Salvatore Harmon (anyone like to hazard a guess at his religion?) aka RSH, location unknown. Perhaps the splatters of blood are a bit OTT but the few pieces by RSH we have seen recently have been almost violently dayglo, the point of the work is more important than the colour palate.


RSH – Suffer The Children (photo S Butterfly)

D*Face used the opening on Thursday of a retrospective show at Electric Blue Gallery, Middlesex St to mock the new religions of corporatism and branding with his logo cross (curiously, this time hung upside down St Peter style), previously seen at the 2008 aPOPcalypse Now show.


D*Face logo cross (aPOPcalypse Now, 2008)


The Pope angrily charged D*Face with what he called “Aggressive Atheism” but the bulk of the mainstream press have chosen to interpret the remark in the wider context of British Society.

K-Guy Framed!

We generally know what to expect wandering Shoreditch, the epicentre of London’s street art scene so more than a little curiosity was provoked by the oddity of a picture frame stuck to a garage door known in the past as a street art magnet but more recently just splattered with gig flyers. The latter phenomenon is a product of the zero tolerance buff on street art but that’s a debate for another time.




Cursory inspection determines that the frame comes from Ikea, it’s a totally standard package even down to the standard IKEA backing sheet inside the frame and the impenetrable and unlikely scandi product name visible. So we thought.


ITIFFARG


It is immediately obvious that this is conceptual art on the street and the concept is thankfully not obscure. Actually, there are several concepts, the anomalous mass produced frames is referencing the commoditisation of art, decrying the exploitation of the street art phenomenon as a shameless marketing tool and then there’s the dig at people who are happy to buy their art pre-packaged from any soul-less furniture emporium, shrink-wrapped and anodyne, bland and innocuous and brimful with the deception of a designer lifestyle on a mass production budget.


YUGK


The current state of street art is pretty damn poor, anything aspiring to imagery more complex than photoshopped cartoon characters or production values beyond inkjet printouts put up with flour and water or poorly cut single layer stencils is going to stand out. This particular example shines because it takes the simplest art necessity and by putting it in the street context raises so many interesting thoughts and questions.


Tranabru


Close inspection reveals that what looks like standard IKEA packaging is in fact clever re-modelled work from the artist. Firstly those Scandinavian product names, turns out they are just street art descriptors spelt backwards, add a couple of dots over the odd vowel and Bobs your uncle, you have a whole new Ikea product range.

The street art references continue in the small product icon in the middle of the sheet, you know, the one inside the picture frame to remind you that you are looking at a picture frame, the artist had installed a couple of spray cans.




The identity of the creator is revealed down among the patent labels and hazardous picture frame warnings were you will spot the tag of the artist, none other than K-Guy! This isn’t meant to be smart-arsed or deliberately smug writing, initially I thought they were completely un-modified frames and missed the detail that K-Guy had introduced his own Ikea product sheet into the frame. Too be honest all the concepts had been realised just by positioning picture frames in these street art halls of fame, the rest is vanity! (same can be said of any artist siggy).


It’s Sheep We’re Up Against


Frankly, it should have been easy to spot the hand of K-Guy much earlier because if there is one person who has consistently gone for a clever and more ironic level of street art installation it’s our political and social satirist K-Guy. This blog is beginning to look like K-Guy’s PR bitch but in terms of actual art on the street there’s not much else hitting his quality on the streets these days.


ITIFFARG


We found three IKEA frames today, there is apparently a fourth and K-Guy got his collar felt by the fuzz when installing the fifth, losing his ladder and drill into the bargain and in the process suffering the scorn and derision of some tag fag who was amused at the sight of an artfag getting arrested. Kept it real bruv!


Tranabru

K-Guy - Brown Stuff

Street artist and biting political humourist K-Guy has passed verdict on UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s political career. A new installation in front of the Houses of Parliament shows Brown’s career going down the sewers.




Public anger at the sight of politicians with their snout in the tough doesn’t abate while Brown faces decimated popular support (though to be fair – we’d vote against all politicians if there was a suitable box on the ballot paper) and luke warm tolerance from a Cabinet that he appointed.




Stencil portraits passing down the toilet show Brown in a variety of tick-ridden and stressed out poses.








K-Guy’s edgy work has in the past included the spectacular Memorial to The Boom Economy at The Royal Exchange, London, the "cash under the matress" family banking pieces and his celebration of Britain as a multi-cultural society, even more relevant now since the election of the first UK representative from the far right wing BNP party.







all photos: NoLionsInEngland

K-Guy - Under The Mattress Banking

Northern Rock had a run, house prices fell off the cliff, Lehman Brothers went to the wall and we all suddenly became bank owners as the government miraculously suddenly found billions and billions of quid to bale out the banks. This pisses K-Guy off, and he likes a rant and a rave and taunts hypocrisy, greed and stupidty. A month ago to the day, he set up his shrine “In Loving Memory Of The Great Boom Economy”.




That piece deservedly got global attention but even as he executed that installation he was already developing his next idea and last night, four locations around the City Of London (well, perhaps one or two were just over the edge) acquired new branches of the age old tried and test Sleep Easy Family Bank.




It did for K-Guy's granny in her time so why shouldn’t it do today? Think of the benefits – it’s highly personal, as Sonia and Mike may testify. In fact, you can make out the fistfuls of cash sticking out of their mattress (K-Guy loves the details).




You can withdraw however much you want, whenever you want, say happy bankers Mike and Trish of City Road – their branch cheekily placed right outside Barclays Bank.




Pause for moment for a little story about the practicalities. Do you have half a dozen mattresses going spare? How do you transport them? Apparently K-Guy was spotted driving up from his reinforced economic bunker with three double mattresses tied to the roof of his car and two single mattresses in the boot. Vigilant PC Plod, in unmarked wheels, pulls him over and enquires “pray tell what is afoot, you looked like a slice of bread surfing a pea as you approached”. Thankfully the explanation that the ensemble is on it's way to Shoreditch to be part of an art installation is entirely satisfactory, indeed almost completely predictable for that area. It’s amazing sometimes how you can get away with it simply by telling the truth.

Another advantage of sticking your wad under the mattress, the interest rate is low according to the Bank of Stef, who obviously owns a bank and keeps other people’s money under his mattress.




Even a small one will hold quite a lot of money beamed little Lewis, age 5, outside Royal Exchange.




Four out of five of the K-Guy pieces had disappeared before lunchtime today making the word ephemera really too elongated for describing the lifecycle of this work. Children – taking rubbish off the streets, stencilling on it and puting it back out on the streets is still going to look like rubbish to 99.9% of the world’s jobsworths with a pick-up.




The current edition of a street art/graphic design mag contains the ludicrous claim that Hush is the only serious contender for the heavyweight belt currently worn by Banksy. Well as long as ideas, wit, placement, attention to detail and satire have anything to do with it, K-Guy is likely if he keeps this up to soon be twirling that belt over his head before throwing it in the bin.




More pictures here