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?

Something Interesting About Banksy, Really!

all photos: NoLionsInEngland except where noted



Central London today saw a truck decorated by Banksy coming out of obscurity and into the full glare of the popular art commodity market.




Banksy comes in for a fair amount of criticism for being a stencil artist and therefore not doing hardcore freehand schizz or just lacking can control. The critic’s purpose normally isn’t to make Banksy small but to merely make the opinion holder look big. Banksy has never claimed to be a spray can virtuoso and this truck doesn’t provide compelling evidence of excessive modesty, it simply is a fairly average piece of spraycan art.




On one side a host of winged monkeys watch over a Mohican coiffed glowing red hammer wielding class warrior smashing the system, represented by a tv broadcasting an image of a gas mask.





On the other side is what appears to be a depiction of police fleeing from a bull armed with flame spitting artillery on its back, echoing the old Heavy Weaponry staple from the Banksy oeuvre.





One of the monkeys even has a set of cross-hairs on its face, so this is a composite of many Banksy signature elements, which is nice. I presume the goons guarding each corner were to add some frission of danger or excitement to the display, who knows, maybe Team Robbo would turn up.




So far so dull. Nothing particularly special about this piece it seems but I’d like to draw your attention to one aspect for which I think this does stand out. Come and join Graffoto in the world of the Banksy obsessive.




How can you tell your genuine Banksy from a fake made using a stencil purchased for a couple of quid off the internet. One way, you can buy a piece of art from his official outlets, they come signed or with a certificate from Pest Control and possibly a certification that the certificate is certifiably a certificate and so on, Another way, you photograph a piece on the street and wait to see if that piece is anointed by inclusion on the photo gallery on Banksy’s website. I think it’s true that if you have the necessary geekish knowledge, you can prove that the Banksy website is registered to people who are now or used to be proud mates of the legend rather than a fake website.


photo NoLionsInEngland, also seen at Banksy.co.uk!



Finally, back the day, this charlatan Banksy used to actually stencil tag his street art can you believe. By his own account he started stencilling because it freed him from the slowness of his painting and he evidently stopped tagging his work when things got a bit hot regarding the dubious legality of his work from a police perspective. Thanks to the natural life cycle of graffiti, his stencil tags are now a pretty rare find, particularly in such pristine condition and as large as the pair on this truck. (ok, since you obviously will start racking your brains, try the Manchester poodle and also Old Street Happy Chopper but you got to go some to some lengths to see that one).


Turbozone Banksy tag, driver side rear


Among last ones I found were this one up on a derelict site up in Islington, it used to authenticate a chucked TV identical to the one behind the Foundry and currently hidden under the “Rat Trap”. This site has now been built on and the tag was obliterated by the party wall.


Note the rare exclamation mark!!


Most recently but again this was a few years ago, I came across these rare indoor Banksy tags, knocked up in the private area behind a bar when he was doing a legal wall on a back street in London’s West End.




How long ago did Banksy last tag one of his street pieces? There is only one oracle to consult with a question like that and that’s Shellshock, co blog jockey and author of the various definitive-as-possible-without-actually-being-authorised quides to outdoor Banksies. Shellshock believes the last piece to be tagged is the 2006 Naked Lover in Bristol, I didn’t even realise it had a tag.




Other gems from Shellshock are that this is far from being the only Banksy lorry. I Banksy Locations and a Tour he mentions a truck painted similar to the Abi tribute piece on Sevier St, Bristol (book ref BR17) and also from the late 90s (I believe) here is the well known “Fragile Silence” Glastonbury trailer, though in his book Shellshock identifies Brizzle homies Lokey and Inkie collaborators with Banksy on that one.


Fragile Silence, still photo copyright BBC

It is interesting to compare and contrast the Banksy tags on the two lorries, look at previously observed change in the letter a.


Fragile Silence c. 1998, trailer tag, still photo copyright BBC



Turbozone Truck c .2003, passenger side front


So there it is, Banksy doesn't tag his public art any more, the old tags disappear as is the wont of this ephemeral daubing and suddenly, up pop two huge, sharp banksy tags. Try to get to see them via the Drewatts Auction (Cumberland Hotel, Monday 10 OCt 2011) and cherish their scarcity value. Another reason to catch this truck, Shellshock believes that of the various Banksy lorries this one is probably the least known and least photographed, until today I suppose.




I am as always hugely indebted to my great friend Shellshock who dissected my half formed thoughts and provided a ton of the facts which were an invaluable help in writing this article. Shellshock was the architect and guide of the original 2006 Banksy Tours in London and based on those he went on to publish the hugely popular Banksy Locations and Tours, now in its 4th edition in the UK. Then followed in 2010 the Banksy Locations (And A Tour) Vol 2 which covered Banksy street art in more graffiti locations from the UK. US readers may be interested to know that PM Press has just published Vols 1 and 2 of the Banksy Locations books in quite substantially amended and updated form.

PS – When I speak of Shellshock being the “go-to” guy for information on Banksy’s street art, I say that cos we discuss it so often and his knowledge is invaluable. I should say I often also discuss Banksy stuff with Art Of The State and Howaboutno who know their shit and just as equally are orifices on the matter.

Saki And Bitches - Tokyo Lady Chatterely

London,
30 Sept–7th Oct, 2011



all photos: NoLionsInEngland




One of the joys of wandering the tarmac’t gallery of London’s outdoor artists is finding a new talent, an artist with an un-familiar signature getting up in a novel and unique style. One evening over a year ago, skirting around old street roundabout I spied a paste up and straight away was intrigued. An array of naked burlesque girls contorted themselves into the shapes of letters and spelled out a somewhat hard to decipher message.




The first word was clearly SAKI, the last appeared to be BITCHES. This blatantly eroticised alphabet appeared to announce a rather extreme identity. Saki and bitches, and little doubt that the bitches in question were disporting themselves for the sexual gratification of Saki. The lewd tone made me think it wouldn’t last a day but it persisted for possibly a month or so.

Over the next three to six months, more pieces appeared including one high up on the infamous “fuck the fucking fuckers” anti Judge Clark spot, I mention this given the un-confirmed rumours as to which hardcore graff writer was likely to have been responsible for that beauty.


October 2010


The body of work grew but the mystery over who or what Saki and Bitches was about didn’t resolve itself. The very first piece suggested a graffiti writer’s letterform creative sensibility, the location of the second paste up suggested a writers ability to climb and desire to get high.




Over the coming months, more paste ups appeared, then about 4 months ago, the first teasing messages started to appear…”first show coming soon” they proclaimed. I began to suspect this was a hoax, a double bluff, some kind of knowing wind up of us over-earnest street art crazy fan boys. I even began to loathe the artists exploitation of the medium to deliver their self advertising, this one spotted nailed up over a dub on Ladbroke Grove on Carnival weekend was just a bit too much zeitgeist jacking.


Carnival weekend, 2011


A waning affection for these naughty lined images was revived by the beauty of these transluscent pieces placed on phone boxes and bus shelters, double and triple street art points when you show just a teeny bit more imagination in execution and a location less mundane than the average hall of fame paste up spot.


August 2011


When I spotted this over-size buxom cut out figure high up on the old Shoreditch railway sidings then I knew it was time to devote myself at least to a bit of research. Sure enough google located a single entry blog by Saki proclaiming the date and location of a show (- - though how under the radar Saki was at this point is indicated by the fact that the first three google hits were for photos and shit posted by…..yours truly, it seemed like no one else cared!


September 2011


Saki is actually a demure, petite and smiling young ex tokyo-ite living in London for the past 7 years or so. She admits to a fondness for old school Japanese soft-core, tattoo artist iconography and she enjoys painting female curves.







The bulk of the works on show are executed on glass doors from old British Museum display cases, they look about the size of those waist high wooden cabinets with the sloping glass tops dedicated to interminable and obsessively documented moths or middle ages corn dollies. The pieces all have a super saturated intense colouration which Saki explains is due to the material itself, apparently the paint in contact with the glass never dries and when viewed through the glass never loses that flat cartoonish colouration.




Saki admits to deliberately toying with men’s emotions particularly in the selection of her nom d’artiste. which provocatively combines a strong Japanese drink with a masculine misogynist view of woman-as-slut-object.




The soft eroticism is given a sharp twist with the subtext of S&M in most of the images, I suspect that with some considerable research I might report a lot more knowledgeably on these fetish elements but - well, right now I don’t have the time to be as comprehensive in my due diligence as the subject matter warrants.




I won’t lie and pretend this is the most brilliant art ever to come out of the Orient but I do love her execution and I’m a sucker for the innocent-pornographic overtones. My response to her art may be significantly coloured by an admiration for what Saki has put out on the street, which although it recently fell into the trap of abusing the public walls for apparently commercial promotion still continues to impress with its originality. Only one other female writer out there in London reaches illegal spots like Saki. An entirely average piece of street art – the horse by Stewy's Stencils was converted into one of my favourite by Saki’s brilliant Lady Godiva enhancement (below). I hope that nothing will have been lost in her future street work now that the veneer of intrigue has been stripped– Banksy beware!
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Stewy's Stencils v. Saki and Bitches

more photos here

Ludo - Metamorphosis

High Roller Society
Unit 10 Palmers Road,
London E2 0SY (Click for map)

10 September - 7 October 2011

all photos: NoLionsInEngland



If you have any squeamish fears of triffid like invasions, then your sleep will already have been disturbed by Ludo’s enormous paste up Nature’s Revenge project, seen on his several previous visits to London.


London, 2009



London, 2010



London, 2010


Distinctive characteristics of his street project are the enormous scale, avoidance of hall of fame spots, green pigmentation and fusing of organic plants with man made technology. Ludo rises to the challenge of translating this aesthetic into the gallery by creating a mad-boffin’s bio-genetic engineering laboratory bunker; a refuge from a world where nature has armed itself for the fight against man, a grotty lair where scientists deploy crap German accents and bow ties in their continuing destructive research.




Ludo’s cross pollinated plant machine hybrids have leapt off the sheet and into 3D sculptural form. Nutty lab technicians roam the gallery in lab coats, hair nets and sinister latex gloves and embryonic plant mutants emerge from the the test tube glassware and incubation units lying around the insane laboratory.


Tazeropede


Massive schlock horror B movie screen grabs pasted around the walls create a nightmare collage of a world falling to the horticultural armed response to man’s inhumanity to the environment. Scattered around the hide-out are specimens mounted Jurassic park style in perspex moulds as well as mock (or are they????) scientific journals from the 50s and 60s documenting reports of latest developments modifying DNA structures to maximise the yield of organic matter.




Apart from the fascinating and well staged laboratory, evidently un-funded judging by its Heath Robinson-esque arrangements and clichéd demented scientists, Ludo’s art consists mainly of pencil and oil paint compositions on white paper as well as a new print (have there been any before?) and an film of the artist working on the street.


Beestie Boys


As Ludo has made the insanity of man’s destructive tendencies towards the environment the key thread in the fabric of his work, it seems strange that the fearless eco-enviro warrior should aim one of his satirical compositions at a fictional rather than real oil company. On second thoughts, perhaps he is astutely avoiding what has been a tedious rite-of-passage for huge numbers of street artists squabbling over who best bastardizes the Shell and BP trademarks via the medium of a screenprinted edition of 250.


Ewing Fly


So, green remains the game, great to see the mutants in 3D and kids of all ages will enjoy the grungy science lab. The most obvious metamorphosis taking place at High Roller’s Society is Ludo’s morphing into a serious installation creating, gallery-comfortable artist.


e-Lepidoptera,
Hand pulled screen print, green and white hand finished acrylic, ed 25



London, 2011

other photos here

Graffiti 365 - Jay "J.Son" Edlin (et al)

all photos: NoLionsInEngland


A sub woofer resonating rumble and Richter scale registering tremor signalled newly published book Graffiti 365 crashing through the letter box today. 365 graffiti artists, 2 inches of pulp and about the same weight as a newborn baby, you could use this book to barricade your door.

On the surface it’s a simple idea beautifully executed. 365 double pages each having a large photo on one side, waffle on the other. That’s 730 pages of awesome photos and writing, heads will enjoy it and new initiates will learn much.


(PS -excuse these photos, I had to use Lady NoLion's camera and the bloody kids think it's ok to put it way with a totally discharged battery, these 3 pics were all I got)


The content is part historic record, part contemporary survey, part graffiti and part street art. The graff history aspect skews the national representation to a North American bias but in terms of current writers and street artists, the survey represents quite even-handedly Australia, Europe, UK (no, I don’t need you to point out where we are on a map) and Latin America as well as the US.

Most of the pages feature writers and their crews or artists but just as interestingly we get J.Son & Co.s’ insights from the graff culture coal face. The book mixes ol school subway kings and their crews with new era street artists with brief tutorials on technique, vocabularly and ancient legends of benches, yards, galleries and landmark events that milestoned the birth and adolescence of the graffiti movement in New York. Among loads of things I never knew, I never heard before about writers going into the yards where decommissioned trains were stored prior to being dumped in the ocean (really? C’mon NY...all that shit can be recycled) and doing nostalgic “scraps”. Sounds like substituting Tesco’s own brand for Coca cola - a slightly pussy copy of the real thing.


NOGA (Nation Of Graffiti artists), NY 1978, photo Michael Lawrence


Martha and Henry contribute extensively of course but the photos that excited most were those of Jack Stewart, capturing 1970’s chaotic explosions of tags and pieces in colours and styles that to today’s eyes look rough, ready and wild.

[photo sometime soon - see above]

Zephyr writes the opening blurb and reports that the book’s author J.Son has experienced a lobotomy-like conversion in the process, he now sees some point in some street art. And that to a large extent captures why this book is worth reinforcing your shelves for. A battle hardened writer, a there-at-the-genesis graff head steeped in tunnel mystique and whole car yard missions has filtered the graff he loves and the street art he respects. He draws the genetic link between the two and if it qualifies to be in this book then it has been passed fit for consumption by a real graff head.



Piece by Rasta, Character by Revolt, photo by Pjay One


The book condenses colour, atmosphere, history and style into a very easy read with an un-hectoring style. It smoothes over the fault line between street art and graffiti in a way that will introduce many a polarised graff or street art bigot to the merits of the other form. A superb achievement.

Warning, if you like reading in bed and gently falling asleep with a light novelette gently resting on your nose, you are going to wake up with a black eye with this book and….. PROPER BLOODY FONT SIZES PLEASE I can hardly read fucking VNA these days and needed a telescope for photograph labels in this book. There is real knowledge to be gained from knowing when a particular painting was created and where. I will even confess that knowing who took a photo can often reveal something about the era, the location and the circumstances under which the graff was likely to have been created.

By the way – I don’t feel any obligation to mention that I am honoured to have had a few snaps included in the book, because I have no interest at all in its success or otherwise, merely a belief that if you need help selecting a graff book from the landfill graff photo albums available today, then hopefully this little write up could help you (see also – Crack and Shine and Subway Art).

God Help Us - It's Ronzo

all photos: NoLionsInEngland



Slightly disappointed with the location of this one. My first reaction was this should be located somewhere that spoke more of the nearby Square Mile of profit hungry soul destroyers. Instead, it’s pretty much at the entrance to the yard housing his studio, a fact he can hardly hide given the number of times he has been seen outdoors applying finishing touches to super-sized Ronzo bugs and monsters.




Then I realised that this spot is also a portal to the dingy alley which leads past the new location of Crunchie the credit crunch monster, recently displaced from its elevated position overlooking the den of indulgent economic greed in the City. Perhaps my dis-satisfaction with the location of this new little sculpture is merely a manifestation of my disappointment with the neutered irrelevance of crunchie’s new nest. It now munches its coins while overlooking the organic craft stalls and pop-up cantinas selling any foreign cuisine you like so long as it comes with rice or in pitta.




And why is he now pink? Is Ronzo savagely fingering the gay economy?


The latin motto cast into the new Ronzo coat of arms is open to a number of translations. Domine adiuva nos speaks of a master, god or leader, whose protection, aid or favours we seek. In other words......”Lord help us! City of Ronzo”


Let's look on the bright side, it’s still a new street Ronzo which is usually a good thing and if you doubt us, check out his 2009 Crunchie campaign which was truly top notch.



P.S - Crunchie The Great in his original location:

Time Bomb

History. What is it? I wasn’t there!

Moving to London in the early 80s I contrived to miss graff’s heyday because (a) I cycled everywhere and (b) I couldn’t stand hip hop. Some things never change. Today on my ride home, a chance encounter with a door ajar allowed a glimpse into a hidden time capsule of ancient tags from some home grown legends.




Let's play a game popular on flickr called Guess Where London. Show you know your history, tell us the name of the location where these photos were taken. No prizes.



Sadly, clip clop cycling shoes and an unlocked bike outside meant I couldn't explore further. Booo. Still, we love clandestine photo missions and when they are also impromptu - even better. I think I have seen this particular stairwell on a youtube clip somewhere, or is it in a book, I couldn’t find it – anyone know?