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


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


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


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.


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


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 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”?


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


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?


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.


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.


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

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 & 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.





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




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.


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.

Graffoto Round Up of the Year - Part 4

Photos by HowAboutNo and NoLionsInEngland And here we have it folks, part 4 of 4 in the round up of 2011. This final look at the year now covers September all the way through to the end of December. Being that it was mild for the time of year, and there were a shed load of art festivals and paint jams in town, the surrounding areas had a nice smattering too. Street art pastes and stencils seemed to be out of the window for pretty much most of this quarter, and I think that was also a big shift for the year. Good to see more talented artists grafting it at the side of a wall. Also nice to see lots of quick and dirty damage throughout town. Rowdy/Horror, photo HowAboutNo Rusht, photo HowAboutNo Shane ODV, photo HowAboutNo Roid MSK, photo HowAboutNo D*Face in progress outside the Moniker Art Fair, photo HowAboutNo And completed, photo HowAboutNo Various, photo HowAboutNo Gold Peg, photo HowAboutNo A solid year for the machine of graff that is Probs. Think this is my fave piece he has done ever. (photo HowAboutNo) I think we'll see a bit more of JimmyC in 2011 (photo HowAboutNo) Motor, photo HowAboutNo C215, photo HowAboutNo , photo HowAboutNo 2011 was the year Ronzo turned his hand away from sculpted pieces to graff.....and a welcome turn it was. This piece painted with Conor Harrington photo HowAboutNo Evol impressively buggered about with scale this set of blocks making up a mini housing estate complete with Elk, Drax and Shun tags. Read more about his visit here photo HowAboutNo Banksy did quite a few street pieces, all outside Soreitch - consequently I didn't get off my lazy arse to photograph them. No bother, this was my favourite thing he did all year anyway. General and most lovely damage . . . (photo HowAboutNo) Swoon, photo HowAboutNo This superb paste up by Gaia lasted no more than a few days and was fly posted over (photo HowAboutNo). Revok/Roid at the most single hit "legal" spot in Shoreditch (photo HowAboutNo). Don’t believe the nay-sayers saying the scene has tanked, looking back we have been overwhelmed with top quality shit on the streets of London in 2011. Stuff that should have got a mention earlier but just got missed in the admittedly random selection process includes: Phlegm was down several times during the year photo: NoLionsInEngland One of the highlights of the year was the privilege of seeing Sweet Toof and Paul Insect collaborate on this stunning rooftop piece, and in case you missed it, the timelapse is here photo: NoLionsInEngland Elbow Toe photo: NoLionsInEngland This Chu sticker made us chuckle earlier in the year photo: NoLionsInEngland So that's it for Graffoto's round up of the action in 2011. At the beginning and at lots of points throughout the year it did seem like it was stale and not moving anywhere. Part of wanting to look back at the year at the beginning of a new one has shown that it was a busy and colourful year, full of lots of new names and techniques and people to watch in 2012. The shift also seemed to go towards lots more "with permission" spots last year, I guess a big test for those shutters and areas may fall closer to Olympics time, when the council may decide to buff at random for no reason whatsoever. Happy 2012. Fuck The Buff.

Graffoto Round Up Of The Year - Pt 3

HowAboutNo rashly promised FOUR picture-rich blog posts to review what was up on London’s streets and alleyways in 2011, so I thought I’d contribute something at this stage covering the Summer months, mainly because with our productivity we might not complete this magnus opus until Dec 2012.

Dr D was present and correct throughout 2011, this particular poster reflected what we were all thinking but by pasting up on this scale on the A501, Dr D said it with a little more panache.




Small was beautiful throughout 2011,not only the likes of Isaac Cordal and Pablo Delgado (see VNA issue17 for an interview) but new to London’s streets were a collection of hand painted anthropomorphic pig sculptures by lovepiepenbrinck.




Italian artist Clet Abraham visited these shores early in the Summer and took the liberty of modifying a number of our street signs.



We didn’t see too much of Kid Acne on London walls this year but he seemingly did go out on a bombing mission one night in the company of Aida and Emma. Seeing my bike leaning against a wall on the fringes of the shot reminds me of the self inflicted stupidity that led to my bike being nicked from just 3 feet from me in Brick lane in October. Twat.




Stencils on old newspapers are Mr.Farenheit’s stock in trade, he (she?) certainly got up a lot throughout 2011. Supposedly the QR codes used in a lot of his paste ups do work.




Mobstr had a great year, frequently targeting street artist’s commercial agendas and, as in this one, the council buff.




Continuing to display a refined appreciation of vintage Burlesque as well as a faculty for hitting the high spots, Saki and Bitches turned out to be a continuing surprise and mystery – until her warmly received pop-out, sorry... pop up show in East London.







Ai Wei Wei had a piece running in Tate Modern in London and despite being unjustly detained in China for a long period was able to get these fearsome beasts up outdoors in London. OK, the courtyard, Somerset House.






Dain putting up some of my favourite paste ups EVER. This lasted 1 day and was then fly pasted over.

Stinkfish


C215 had at least a couple of trips to the UK in 2011, this was my fave from the year.


El Mac painted this piece shortly before going off to paint in the Bristol "See No Evil" event.

New names in 2011. . .

These artists may well have exhisted long before last year, but in 2011 they smashed Hackney/Shoreditch and Brick Lane . . .


Nemo


Nemo


Malarky


Malarky

Kata - who showed ealry spouts of activity in July/August...but not much else since.


Part 4 before the weekend is out....in your Face!