CORKED - Not a cheap whine

28 Cork St, London
15 Aug – 25 Aug 2008

pics: nolionsinengland except where noted

A battered white transit van sits on Cork Street, “Vandals” it proclaims and sure enough it seems to have suffered a graffiti attack, cops and wardens eye it suspiciously anticipating a ram raid and in many respects they are right.

Bloody vandals

Urban art has bemused the “serious” crowd but hitherto they haven’t had to worry too much with it staying in its place in grubby East End galleries and transitory pop-up ghetto bazaars. Until now. Corked, the Urban Angel debut gallery show has brought a strange whiff to snooty Mayfair gallery land and that smell is the odour of street art, the chemical whiff of spray paint.




No regal gilded windows for this show, rather a wildstyle Zeus sculpted arrow bursts through the window threatening to penetrate one of (count ‘em) 2 Ferrari’s parked outside, Eine promises HELL within. Its not difficult to predict the rapid disappearance of Eine shutters off the Hackney streets when the price tag on this sprayed window becomes common knowledge among the sub-nation of shop owners.




Israeli Know Hope has chronicled on streets around the world the despairing interaction with a puzzling society of a gangly, insecure tee shirt covered character, distinguished by his long skinny arms, lost heart and melancholy expression.


Know Hope - London street p;ieces, Aug 2008

In the major installation, the un-named character sits entranced by a collection of old photos, kindling rose tinted memories of a by gone age which he hopes existed. Powered by the glow of this hope, confused scrawled noise on the TV screen intermittently resolves itself into a heart, only to distort again as he oscillates through doubt and hope.


Know Hope: "Generated by anything/Reminisce About Anything


This endearing bemused and slightly forlorn figure sits in several stunning framed collage pieces (one a partial light box), sometimes in lonely solitude, in others finding the solidarity of communication with kindred spirits. One fabulous piece shows our stringy anti-hero discovering the strength of bonding through linked arms, reflecting the power transmitted through the linked cables behind.


Know Hope: These Arms Are For Linking


After rocking the concrete skimmed canvasses at his London solo show last autumn, Eine has re-discovered the dayglo colours of his older bear images, which I never really cared for. Perspex is this year’s “found metal” (see D*Face, Pure Evil). The street playtime innocence of groups of Blyton-esque happy smiley children morphs into threatening and sinister subversion seen through the lenses of the ubiquitous CCTVs, the poor children are then overwhelmed by simple negative labels such as Vandals, Activist, Guilty done in that Hell font. Of course you can tell it’s street play, because of the paint spray background and drips everywhere.


Eine: “Activist”. Photo: Wallkandy


In addition to his window busting 3D sculpture, Zeus has three large compressed perspective skyscraper plans painstaking assembled in hand-cut card, one natural daylight coloured, one night time and one a blanched out magnolia – which interestingly is possibly the most striking of the trio. There are no winos, car wrecks or graffiti down at street level, c’mon, what kind of rose-tinted diluted reality is that! Anyone who was at the Open Studio last year and saw Zeus working on his RUN stencil won’t fail to appreciate the incredible work that has gone into creating these pieces and don’t worry if this time you can’t read the word spelled out by the building plan, it’s not that wild style has moved beyond your comprehension, this time there actually isn’t a word in there. Or is there? Blow your brains out searching!


Zeus: Untitled. Photo: Wallkandy


Labrona’s Rumours of War, an acrylic on canvas group of fleeing mothers clutching children heading in the opposite direction to goose stepping half-sized men with moustaches. This piece with its colourful cross between Picasso and a kind of tribal art feel is another show highlight, simply lush and gorgeous.


Labrona: “Rumours Of War”


Charming Baker takes a pop at a deserving target: molly coddled never-fail kids. Two young brats fail to fail with their dads as ghillies helping them shoot a strung up rabbit.


Charming Baker: “The Overachievers”


Hush continues a run of form with the manga and geisha girls, or we boys know it – wife-friendly wall porn. Manga tits are present and correct as expected whilst the Graff Geisha triptych is just stunning.


Hush “Graf Geisha Tryptich”

Chillin with Hush - Corked aftershow

Romanywg gets a special mention for the oddest piece, the double bass that looks like a magician used it for sawing the box in half practise, in collaboration with French artist C215 and inspired by French artist Arman. It is worth having a look at the artists’ pictures of the piece under construction to see all the C215 pieces within the cuts between each section, link at the bottom.


Romanywg/C215 “Double Bass”


New name Michael Alacoque has produced a lurid set of skull faced dogs with ice creams on their heads and medallions. This is an allegory on the military establishment’s use of war memorials to both commemorate and promote war, I’m surprised you needed to ask. It is said many artists subconsciously paint themselves when doing an anonymous figurative work, Alacoque brilliantly contrived to actually look a bit like his sculptures with his bouffant hair and mascara.


Mikael Alacoque


This kind of show has no greater thrill when you confront in the flesh work by an overseas artist you hadn’t even heard of before and new but highly commended is young Brazilian artist Andre Firmiano. Three gorgeous canvas portraits echo a bastard offspring of Titifreak and Word To Mother styles, more please!


Andre Firmiani “Love”. Photo: Romanywg


Among familiar images of Mona and Toughen The Fuck Up, Dotmasters brings indoors the Burlesque Girl and his CANS “What A Load Of Rubbish”. Dotmasters have wisely, since these pieces are destined for the living room, decided not to overload with the authentic piss, vomit and dog-shit normally associated with a pile of bin bags.


Dotmasters "Load Of Rubbish"


Having experienced vicariously through the lenses of NY based flickr-ocrats the exquisite street works of Gaia and Imminent Disaster, the two are shown in different rooms here. Gaia’s Ourobus combines a nest of tail devouring snakes with a man devouring his own fist. Imminent Disaster’s wistful, seated, buttoned-up and extravagantly coiffured Ophelia looks like she can sit on chairs with the front right chair-leg sawn off. The viewer may ponder if the weight is meant to fall on the model’s own ankles on the box, in which case what does it mean?


Gaia “Ourobus”

Imminent Disaster “Ophelia”

Grafter’s work has somewhat polarised opinions but there is no doubt the quality of the stencils have come on leaps and bounds and he benefits hugely from moving away from photo-shopping nearly iconic images. The best piece, a Chris Stain like pair of smiling kids was displayed at the after-show venue .

Grafter

Inkie does what Inkie always does so well, beauties with labyrinthine tresses of hair.

Inkie

SHOK-1 contributes a set of two-tone takes on camera bodied flies, referencing the media’s obsession with celeb culture drawing paps like flies to shit. Several pieces are identified as “part of diptych, other half not shown” which leaves a mystery to be resolved.

Shok-1. Photo: Romanywg

Herakut – sad bat-masked squatting figures sharing a single tail. Hera’s loose brush work and Kut’s microscopically applied photorealistic eyes present and correct, watery-eyed pup missing.

Herakut “Right Before You Leave”

Two artists whose sweet work I would be remiss not to mention are Phillp March Jones:

“Beast 2”. Photo: Wallkandy

and Oliver Vernon:

“Red Swirl”

Urbanangel has unleashed not just strong works from old hands and great promise from new names, it has also launched its move to expand from the computer screen to global domination on the gallery streets. It has set a new benchmark for throwing a party and created a niche for itself by turning up in posh art twat land and preceding to blank the fine surroundings and do things its own way. The AfterShow party was memorable for …errrrrrrrrr…ummmm, actually I’d be surprised if many remember much at all, a gallery-shaped hole appeared in the London scene recently and Urbanangel are going to more than fill the space.

Several names haven’t been mentioned here, you can only read so much, so check out the excellent pics by Romanywg and Wallkandy to see more of the above as well as work by BEEJOIR, DANNY ALBECK, IAN STRAWN, PERIPHAL MEDIA PROJECTS, SNUG and VITCHE.

Diggs We Are Shitting. . . .

I am still undecided with what I'll call this occasional style of updates...of which I have kidded my self will be daily (when I struggle to even get the time to make it weekly!)

I mostly intended to just highlight stuff that makes me smile on my way to work, I think the problem becomes that I want to show too much and get carried away!

So I promise, brevity will be the key, I'll be short and sweet, say almost next to fuck all (except this once) and just show the great art that remains on the somewhat barren streets of the currently buffed East end (all courtesy of your friend and mine shown below....someone please tag the shit out of this van if you ever see it)

The only solution is a blank canvas...that works?!

So to get the ball rolling...a man who needs no introduction...not one of his most amazing works, but hey...still bloody marvellous.

Untitled - Street Art In The Counter Culture

Following on nicely from the Banksy street piece held by Andipa mentioned in the post below, a picture of it features on the cover of an absolutely brilliant new retrospective book on the worldwide culture of street art. Entitled "Untitled - Street Art in The Counter Culture" (hence the clever title of this post ;)

Also doubly cool as it features my picture of that Banksy piece in question on the front cover.....

I was actually there the night the guy who owned the door was contemplating selling the it on Ebay, he reckoned he would fetch around £850 for it and seemed more than happy with that.....I don't officially know if it ever made it to Ebay...but it definitely ended up in the hands of Andipa.

The book has been curated and published by Gary Shove, a friend I met originally via the Banksy forum and then at a couple of shows. He was clearly extremely passionate about putting a no bullshit book out there, filled with artists he was passionate about ....and rather rarely for a book on the movement he has done a superb job of writing it from a real fans perspective, rather than someone publishing a book to jump on the street art bandwagon.

The book is never afraid to say fuck and bugger..and I think that's what I admire it for most greatly...a breath of fresh air rather than trying to be high brow and use long words....which quite frankly I would struggle to keep up with. It also does a good job of never trying to intellectualise the whole thing, which many other books have done before it.

Excerpts from the website http://www.untitledstreetart.co.uk/index.html

"Not to be filed under history, photography, design or non-fiction, as it contains outright lies and outrageous subjective opinion, this book is definitely about street art. It is also about now. Fungus grows on your collected wild-style pioneers. Vile passions rage between old schools and new. Shit flies out from under the hammer at auction houses and property developers fund street art shows to liberal press fanfare. Oh, and Banksy hits the West Bank. Is anyone taking this stuff seriously? Should it be taken seriously? Is it all just an immense daisy chain of poker faces, irony and mind games?"

From Brooklyn to Bethlehem, Brick Lane to Barcelona this book shows just why street art is destined to become the first new major art movement of the 21st Century.

Do the guy a favour and help him recover all his costs and ,make this book the hit it deserves to be...it's worth every penny for the limited edition version (750 copies only) which features a hardback cover, gloss laminated and a eclectic mix CD inserted into the back.....superb!

http://www.untitledstreetart.co.uk/order.html

Street Fart (and other hot air)

we like having stuff we like on our walls.

A self-styled accidental gallerist (no apologies necessary), an art establishment academic/critic and a “street art” gallerist spouted off at a panel discussion at Tate Modern on collecting street art.

Pure Evil, the blushing gallerist, blew the debate out of the water with the truism that once it’s in a gallery or a home, street art is just art. Hooray for that truth cos with a lot of so called street art and street artists, it is impossible to see how the label is relevant, it’s just bandwagon jumping. Glazed porcelain street art pistols???

JJ Charlesworth bumbled through his talkie bit but really hit his stride in the Q&A, though it was difficult to concentrate long enough to follow the whole of an answer. He disagrees with Pure Evil, in his view just taking art off streets into a gallery doesn’t make it art. Well at one level he has a point, the barrier to entry is too low and there is some shite which passes muster on streets because it’s up and it’s illegal, which transforms into just shite on gallery walls. Most of it really should remain in the “I made 10 of these and gave 2 to my mum” realm of private hobby art. On the other hand, a decent street artist producing a well composed and executed image with a deliberate designed intent on communicating something is art all the way, regardless.

Charlesworth assassinated a Dotmasters as being by a Notting Hill Trustafarian type who’d never been further east than Cork Street. Knowing that Dotmaster is a particularly feral fucker with a housing estate complexion, it would be interesting to see Charlesworth explain that comment to Dotmaster if he ever goes east of Piccadilly Circus.


Side of a posh gallery

Curiously, Charleworth at one point challenged the audience to go out an bomb the Tate walls with non-commissioned stuff, exactly aligning with Dotmaster’s reason for doing that piece above: “graffing a art gallery with something they appreciate as art was supposed to provide a dilemma. Testing their snooty attitudes by seeing if they buffed them”

Charlesworth has a concern about middle class art buyers buying street art as a life-style accessory, well spotted. He could but didn’t also have railed against buyers who see only the investment potential and think that this market goes in only one direction. He glaringly omitted one of the main and perfectly acceptable reasons why art by street artists is purchased by its’ fans, we like the stuff and we like the spirit! For those who get a tingle up the spine upon discovering a nice new street piece with a good “message” (social, political, humour, subversion, offensive, whatever), well placed, working with its environment and illegal, then non-street stuff by that artist serves as a homage to that artist and this form of “art”. And we like having stuff we like on our walls.




Eine - big and scary



A Little Scary


(yeah - I am aware this may confirm suspicions that street artists don't transfer indoors)



One curious contention concerned Banksy’s apparently naïve approach to communication, in terms of failing to use the media well in propagating his message. Much sniggering under breath among the smelly hordes at that one.

Much circular and crappy debate about the issue of authentication ensued, Andipa supporting Pest Control’s refusal to authenticate pieces ripped off the street versus the art bloke’s position that authentication merely comfirms whether a piece is genuine or not, and thus Pest Control’s stance is intended to control supply and support values. The yawn factor was enormous, right up to the moment of Andipa’s claim that they’d never sell a piece presented to them as originating from the street.


Andipa Gallery - photo borrowed from Eddiedangerous

Back to Pure Evil, at the start he set the tone in an un-usually subtle way with his manifesto that street art has to be fun, immediate, illegal and almost without pre-meditation. In his words get pumped, get the tools, get out, find a spot and do something. Street Art is one of the most bullshit umbrella labels ever conceived (and lets not even start on what the fuck urban art means), perhaps the evening could have ended there.


Bigglesworth - Is This Art? (by Cauty)

Keywords- rebellion, fun, anarchy

Yes - I am aware of the irony that all this bullshit and intellectualisation is the exact opposite, (or antithesis - snigger) of what I love about the graff and street art scene.

Cancer Sell Charity Art Sale

98 Leonard Street, London EC1. 6pm 'til 11pm Free Entry!

http://www.cancersell.org.uk/

http://www.flickr.com/groups/cancersell

Cancer Sell is almost upon us! With the quality of the artwork that has come in in the last few days, the organisers have been as pleased as punch and are really looking forward to putting on a great show.

There is so much going on throughout the evening, come along, bring a friend, enjoy the atmosphere and a beer on us and help fundraise for The Florence Nightingale Hospice and Cancer Research.

Barry Poppins - Son of Mary

SNUB23

Ben Lawson

ALSO ON THE NIGHT!

* A 20 lot art auction

* DJ line up - organised by Debbie from http://www.debbie-does.co.uk/

* Manicures by Mavala

* A Prize draw with over 15 prizes not less than £35

* First come first served art sale

* Misled + her crew for the evening drawing LIVE - own a piece of art thats created on the night http://www.flickr.com/photos/miss_joanna_h/

* Customised Munny prize draw

* Limited free bar (once it's gone, it's gone)

* 100 goody bags for the 1st 100 guests inc. mini vinyl toys, buttons, stickers, and a one off zine produced by Mjar

Less Well-Known Banksy, and introducing.....

To fill the void of this incredibly dull period of inactivity on the local streets, lets have a look at some obscure, less well-known but not likely to have been forgotten Banksy pieces. Firstly, in one of those grotty yet achingly trendy shoreditch arty farty bars Mr HowAboutNo, obviously being younger and trendier and still able to rock a goatee look from time to time, revealed an indoor happy chopper and Grin Reaper, their appeal enhanced by the accumulation of many years of dogging.




Yes, that is Faile just to the right.

Then by complete coincidence the same week something came to light at a friend's book launch in one of the wierdest old buildings in London's West End, its' internal architecture being arranged to serve a medicinal purpose not required since the petrol engine achieved mass popularity (sorry - obscurity here is to protect the location's identity). Down a flight of back stairs were a couple of very sharp Banksy tags.




photos T. Lezard (who had a camera WITH functioning batteries!)

The manager of the building said that they had been done in about 2000 and that they had apeared at the same time as a couple of stencil images which they now know as Banksy on a wall outside. I conferred with a expert at turning guesswork, supposition and speculation into hard fact - Shellshock, and he confirmed the existence of the pieces on the outside wall, so those tags inside must the the genuine article, right?

Anyway, as his name has been brought up, lets introduce the latest addition to the Graffoto stable of bullshitters. Hailing from the west country but none the less able to read and write, Shellshock carved himself a niche as a Banksy guru. He organised and led the now legendary 2006 Banksy guided walking tours and wrote the Banksy Locations And Tours photoguide book to London places where there are or used to be Banksys.



In between acting as a poster child for the debilitating effects of a vegan diet ("I'd give it 5 minutes if I was you") and (genuinely) being heavily involved in community and charity activities both in the deprived areas of inner cities and voluntary work overseas, Shellshock has acquired an advanced taste for visual vandalism. Having recently moved up North in his relentless pursuit of an older civilisation to complement his strict adherence to the ancient art of printing photos without electricity, Shellshock is going to brighten our lives with news and opinions on hardcore graffiti matters from the Manchester area. And anything else he can be arsed to write about. Or photograph. yayyyyyyyyyyyy!"

Deadbeat Donny - Pulse Discovered

Pure Evil Gallery, Shoreditch, London
11 July 2008 - fuck knows when



Deadbeat Donny somewhat underwhelmed on previous viewing at the Open Studio transient gallery in Dec 07.




With a three week window to create something under the intermittent gaze of the public, a mess of cardboard shifted around between wall and floor and in a blizzard of masking tape and pen drawings some sort of Mary Poppins cityscape materialised on the closing night. Expectation were not high for this new viewing.

This time out things are markedly different, though the subject matter has echoes. The bulk of the art consisted of moderate sized canvasses featuring elevated city views, levitating girls and retro hi-fi objets.







The dungeon walls had been wiped with the oiliest grimiest smears seen on a gallery space for a long time. What was an evil flagstone floored brick lined cellar has ground down a notch further into a subterranean crypt like gloom, and the ambience perfectly suited the murky pieces on the wall. It was also the exact opposite of what is required for decent photography so apologies for the shitty photos here.




The pallete is dominated by shades of black and dirty grey, the execution is striking for its heavy pen dribbles. With cityscapes littered with wrecked cars and littered with discarded shopping trolleys, this is sub-sonic richter scale dirty gorgeous and ugly, Deadbeat Donny has really rammed the urban up art’s jacksie.




In the second cellar (there is a third cellar, which goes under the pavement but that is so grim you’d want to clean your coal after storing it in there) a cardboard encased TV shows details of Deadbeat Donny’s hands brushes and pens at work while the walls hold a large number of postcard sized frames of notebook jottings and pages from ornithological books. This kind of artists’ workings exposed is becoming more and more common, it almost always looks like a dead aunts loft has been cleared out and its not clear that this is a good thing.




The two partners forming Deadbeat Donny preserved a mysterious non-personna, though it would be bizarre not to mention that they are very well known to a large number of street art forum-istas who shop for their prints at Pictures on Walls. On a previous meeting at Open Studio, Deadbeat had been, to say the least, diffident about discussing their achievements, so the self-effacing approach at this show's opening seems in character. This didn’t deter a fairly stellar audience of people who really can make things move and shake in the urban art world from turning out.









Markedly different, hell of a sight better.

Set of photos here