Monthly Archives: May 2015

Plus ça Change

Here is a blog post which captures the exciting fizz and change of Shoreditch’s street art but for a variety of reasons mainly related to having too much other exciting street art stuff to write about, it is only being sprung onto the unsuspecting world today.

Shoreditch Street Art Tours recently had the pleasure of guiding several groups of students from Collège M. J. Chombart de Lauwe school in Brittany around the delights of East London’s street art. One of the pieces that really caught the eye of the first group was this beautiful impressionist rainy neon night scene painted by Dan Kitchener, also known as Dank.London, Shoreditch, mural, street art, building site hoarding, Great Eastern St, Dan Kitchener, Dank

photo: Dan Kitchener

Just two hours later, a second group from the school passed the same spot and found Columbian street artist Stinkfish had painted a fresh background over Dank’s piece and was still at that time working on a new piece of art.Stinkfish Work In Progress 1

Stinkfish Work In Progress 1

At the end of that tour, our group walked back past Stinkfish on their way to the coach, and Stinkfish had made considerable progress.London, Shoreditch, mural, street art, building site hoarding, Great Eastern St, Stinkfish, Columbia, Work in progress,

Stinkfish: work in progress

That evening as I cycled home I stopped off to see the finished Stinkfish piece and what a beauty it is.

London, Shoreditch, mural, street art, building site hoarding, Great Eastern St, Stinkfish

Stinkfish – a banger

I noticed that Stinkfish wasn’t the only artist who had been busy that day, French artist David Selor had breezed past during the afternoon and created a brand new piece of work next to Stinkfish’s. Selor was in London for a few weeks last Summer and made a habit of creating charming animal characters with witty slogans, now his fox character is pulling drippy abstract compositions off the hoarding to reveal a black nothingness.London, Shoreditch, mural, street art, building site hoarding, Great Eastern St, David Selor, France, Fox, T shirt, tee shirt

David Selor (Fr)

The next morning, a further group of students from Collège M. J. Chombart de Lauwe came to see the new Stinkfish and David Selor pieces and found yet another artist, London’s The Real Dill starting on a new composition over David Selor. London, Shoreditch, mural, street art, building site hoarding, Great Eastern St, The Real Dill, work in progress

The Real Dill – early doors

The final group later that morning then saw the Stinkfish composition standing next to a freshly completed cartoon fantasy piece by The Real Dill, David Selor’s piece having lasted just over 12 hours!

London, Shoreditch, mural, street art, building site hoarding, Great Eastern St, The Real Dill, work in progress

The Real Dill – Job Done

When French philosopher Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr coined the phrase “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”, roughly translated as “The more things change, the more they say the same”, little did he anticipate that a mural permission broker would arrange to take that so literally!

The changes of course didn’t stop there, just a week later Artista painted one of her signature cartoon toast pieces over The real Dill’s piece and week after that, Stinkfish’s glorious piece was painted over by Irish street artist James Earley.

London, Shoreditch, mural, street art, building site hoarding, Great Eastern St, Artista, cartoon, toast

Artista

London, Shoreditch, mural, street art, building site hoarding, Great Eastern St, James Earley

James Earley

 

Photo credits: Dan Kitchener – thanks for kind permission

all other photos: NoLionsInEngland


Awarded Certificate Of Excellence

Shoreditch Street Art Tours is delighted to announce that it has been awarded the prestigious and prized Tripadvisor 2015 Certificate of Excellence.

This award is testament to two things, the most important is our wonderful guests who have chosen to share their appreciation of the Shoreditch Street Art Tour activities with the public through Tripadvisor. The second, and we blush here, is down to the quality of the tour.

London, Shoreditch,streetart,tour,walk,guests,guided,

Tripadvisor Certificate Of Excellence

At this moment a quick glance at Tripadvisor shows that since its first review appeared in July 2013, Shoreditch Street Art Tours has received 601 reviews and a massive 587 – that’s 98% – of those are 5 out of 5 stars. The other 14 of course are all 4 stars.

The art always changes, the route may changes, the message often changes but the quality of the experience is unwaivering.

London, Shoreditch,streetart,tour,walk,guests,guided,

photo: Ron de Vos (guest)

We thank all the guests who have provided feedback through Tripadvisor and the other locations where independent reviews can be placed, here are just a few snippets from recent Tripadvisor reviews:

“I brought along my husband who didn’t have a previous interest in the subject and at the end he said, “This is the best tour I have ever been on in any city”. ” – Annie Y, 16 May 2015

“Don’t skip the Tate. But this is even better. ” – Gutflam5, 15 May 2015

“with Dave’s expertise, we were able to understand and decode the messages hidden in the work” – Maria V, 12 May 2015

Certificate courtesy Tripadvisor

Group photo: Ron de Vos


London, Shoreditch, street art, graffiti, tagging, Neoh, freehand, spraypaint, impressionism, cubism.

New Street Art By NEOH

A wall which was virgin brick as we passed at 11am yesterday this morning sported a gorgeous new piece of street art. Neoh is an unusual character with roots firmly planted in the coarser end of graffiti, the emphasis is more on being “up” than on elaborate style.

London, Shoreditch, street art, graffiti, tagging, Neoh, freehand, spraypaint, wall, bridge

Neoh dubs

London, Shoreditch, street art, graffiti, tagging, Neoh, freehand, Escalator

Neoh escalator tag

However, when Neoh puts his arty hat on, brilliant impressionist characters emerge including this energetic ballerina conjured into existence last night. The repetition of the cubist tinged faces has resulted in the motion of the ballerina being captured in her head as her whole body pirhouettes.   we get simultaneous front and rear views. This is a girl fully committed to the sinuous motion of the ballet. We are willing to speculate that no mural permission broker was involved in this new one!

London, Shoreditch, street art, graffiti, tagging, Neoh, freehand, spraypaint, impressionism, cubism.

Neoh Flamenco dancer

We have been unstinting admirers not only of Neoh’s graff but the awesome movement and economy in his impressionist dancers.

London, Shoreditch, street art, graffiti, tagging, Neoh, freehand, spraypaint, impressionism, cubism, ballerina

Neoh Ballerina

London, Shoreditch, street art,  graffiti, tagging, Neoh, freehand, spraypaint, impressionism, ballerinas, Hackney Wick

Troupe of Ballerinas by Neoh, Hackney Wick, 2013

It is such a delight to unexpectedly find new pieces of art on the street and Neoh’s speed, attitude and single-minded determination to get up in a variety of different media is really what graffiti AND street art is all about.

All photos: Dave Stuart


Free Art Found. Again!

Guests on Shoreditch Street Art Tours have a long and happy streak of luck in finding art deliberately left on the streets of Shoreditch for collection.   The artist Sean Worrall is doing a special project throughout 2015 involving leaving 365 pieces of art out on the streets for people to find, take home and treasure.

London, Shoreditch, street art, free art, Sean Worrall, #365artdrop

Sean Worrall Free Art #365artdrop

On the Shoreditch Street Art Tour today we found a new piece from Sean’s project.

London, Shoreditch, street art, free art, Sean Worrall, #365artdrop, Lucas

Lucas records the found art

Lucky guest Lucas liked this one and now the art has found a happy new home, nice one Lucas!

London, Shoreditch, street art, free art, Sean Worrall, #365artdrop, Lucas

Beaming Lucas with his new found treasure

London, Shoreditch, street art, free art, Sean Worrall, #365artdrop

number 114/365

All photos: Dave Stuart


How Do Street Artists Vote?

Tomorrow the United Kingdom goes to the polls, except for those poor fools who thought that a dissenting childish megalomaniac comedian was the god-font of political wisdom and declined to register. Street artists have been sharing their thoughts on the prospects and that is a good thing as 5 years ago there wasn’t enough political agitation emanating from the walls.

K-Guy is a London based street artist who has often mocked politicians and pricked the bubble of right wing sentiment on issues such as the economy and immigration. On this occasion he doesn’t have a specific agenda other than seeming to hanker after any other choice apart from the ones we actually have, he regards our current system as moribund, pointless and redundant as nothing changes for the better. One after Russell Brand’s own heart.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, artists, politics, election 2015, UK, K-Guy, Vote Dodo,

K-Guy “Vote Dodo”

What is particularly impressive is K-Guy’s technique, that piece is an illegal stencil. Earlier this week I came across a soggy pile of paper on the floor, intrigued by what this pile of paper might yield I did something I have never done before, a 50 piece street art paste up jigsaw!

London, Shoreditch, Street art, artists, politics, election 2015, UK,

k-Guy Vote Dodo Paste Up

Damn that paper was sticky and horrible.

Street artist T.Wat loves a bit of political humour and evidently hates watered down nationalistic facism. There is more than a hint of something disturbing in the fetishistic sado-masochistic paraphernalia that UKIP leader Nigel Farage rocks on the walls of Shoreditch. Of course, it is not clear if that dress sense is a good thing or a bad thing, each to their own and who are we to criticise – look at the French and Italian politicians Perhaps Farage has more in common with European politicians than appears at first glance though I suspect that wasn’t T.Wat’s point, the swastika kind of suggests not.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, artists, politics, election 2015, UK, Nigel Farage, UKIP

T.Wat – Potty Mouth!

T.Wat has puts up the “making of” video and like K-Guy he scores bonus points for putting up a complex multi-layered stencil composition without permission.

Unify placed this paste up a couple of weeks ago with the see no evil/hear no evil/talk no evil monkeys wearing the rosettes of the three main political parties, in some repscts I feel the idea is similar to K-Guys sentiments, identikit politicians basically aren’t going to effect any kind of change, they are too absorbed in their own self interest and self preservation.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, artists, politics, election 2015, UK, Unify, Paste up

Unify: “see no evil”

Another couple who I regard as talented but infrequent street artists are Expanded Eye, their artwork is generally one off well thought through and often quite sculptural in appearance. On this occasion they have produced a body politic headed by a collage combining facial features from the main political leaders but they are willing to produce a manifesto for your convenience so long as you cross their palms. Fine if you can afford to finance the manifesto you require, so we know that means..fine for the rich. Nice work by Expanded Eye.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, artists, politics, election 2015, UK,

Expanded Eye

Sarcasm is a fine weapon in any political street artist’s arsenal and this “Feed The Rich” is probably the most targeted negative political piece of art seen so far, the tag appears to be C. B. R[ant].

London, Shoreditch, Street art, artists, politics, election 2015, UK, "Feed The Rich"

C. B. R[ant]

Not many street artists dive into specific policy issues, though one artist is using walls to highlight concerns about the Badger cull with the witty slogan “If badgers could cull 70% of politicians it may reduce ridiculous countryside policies”. A second piece of street art suggests that if badgers were bears there would be a massive lobby for their protection. Possibly not the kind of issue weighing heavily on the mind of voters in Tower Hamlets, Islington and Hackney

London, Shoreditch, Street art, artists, politics, election 2015, UK,

Cull politicians not badgers. Artist unconfirmed.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, artists, politics, election 2015, UK,

Wanted – indigenous bear. artist unconfirmed.

On the subject of “special interests”, British Election night always has its comedy moments, often provided by the sight of the nutter candidates who lose their deposits (an entry fee designed to filter out crank candidates from the British Political process but the worst cranks generally have large scale party funding) but who harass and barrack the main candidates to our general delight and entertainment. The campaign for sexual liberty is progressing down a secluded path of 50 shades of something more interesting to do that vote with their campaign posters. Stylistically there is some similarity to the work of Shepard Fairey though it is unlikely he has been tied up in this project.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, artists, politics, election 2015, UK,

Sexual Liberty

So, all in all, British Street artists have been slightly more active than in the recent elections using street walls to bypass censorship and the costs associated with major political campaigns which is the point of uncurated access to an audience!  The sentiment is partly anarchy and partly disenchantment with the current system and parties with a healthy opposition to fascism and self serving capitalism.  Go and vote.