Monthly Archives: November 2015

Cityzen Kane “Portal” Making Of

On a balmy warm week in mid 2014 the Shoreditch Street Art Tour came across a complex permissioned street art installation by the street artist Cityzen Kane. Cityzen Kane has now put up a film of the making of “Portal”, the immensely popular sculptural piece.

The film captures the intensity and the amount of handcraft Cityzen Kane puts into his sculptures.

That week, Shoreditch Street Art Tours had the pleasure of being joined by the Vagabrothers from San Diego and they were able to do a quick interview with Cityzen Kane as he installed that piece, it comes up 2’40” into their Shoreditch Street Art video (look out for their subliminal appearance in Cityzen Kane’s video at 6.40) .

Cityzen Kane’s portal was put up as a tribute in memory of his son Joe who had taken his own life a year earlier. Given the tragic nature of its inspiration, it is perhaps poignant that from time to time the central figure actually cries in the rain:

London, Shoreditch, Cityzen Kane, Portal, sculpture, clay, video, making of

Portal – detail

Cityzen Kane’s personal message reads:

Help save young and vulnerable lives from the despair of depression, Shatter the stigma around suicide. Please support www.papyrus-uk.com or www.thecalmzone.net

June 2017 Update: CityZenKane’s Portal is no longer on that wall but in the spirit of his intent and message, I thought I would let you know about A Guide to UK-based Free Mental Health Helplines by Cassiobury Court.

Paul at Cassiobury Court writes that there are fourteen different helplines in the guide. He wrote the guide because many helplines of this nature exist, and people seeking out the services of these helplines may be confused by their sheer number. This guide helps to demystify these helplines so people can select the most appropriate one for their needs.

Other resources:

OK Rehab: For guidance and support for people experiencing problems with substance misuse and co-occurring mental health problems

Born 2 B Mild

This beautiful piece of Free Art by HNGR Art finds itself a new home with the delighted Nastasja from Holland. “Born 2 be mild” says the cute canvas, you can’t go wrong with pussy cat art.

Free Art is art left out on the streets to be collected and many pieces of free art have been given a new home by guests taking the Shoreditch Street Art Tour.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Free Art, Found Art, HNGR, Cat, pussy cat, canvas

Delighted Nastasja

Nastasja deserved this lovely Free Art find for dressing warm and thoroughly enjoying Saturday’s chilly tour.

HNGR Art says on Facebook “abandoned in a London leisure centre car park over the summer”, poor kitten. Sounds like the art has an interesting history already.

FREE ART- from HNGR

Links:

Stories about some of the Free Art collected by Shoreditch Street Art Tour guests: HERE

HNGR’s Facebook page: HERE

All photos by Dave Stuart aka NoLionsInEngland

Not Too Cold For Street Art

After several days of freezing weather it was nice for the Shoreditch Street Art Tour to have merely “crisp” conditions on a bright clear day on Sunday. Not that a cold snap deters street artists, plenty of new street art was discovered on this morning’s tour and we start above with a beautiful paint spattered peacock on Brick lane pasted up by Bastek.

Under a railway bridge Bastek also dropped this Ali G portrait intricately stencilled on paper, another preening peacock perhaps.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, new, Bastek, paste up, Ali G

Ali G – Bastek

Framed symbolism labelled Miah pleads “Fall in love with me”. Perhaps, but only for your art.

And unsurprisingly Sell Out had been about creating topical trash sculptures and what could be fresher than a clone trooper just ahead of the next Star Wars movie. Bet clone troopers don’t feel the cold.

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, new, Sell Out, sculpture, trash,

Trash Cloe Trooper – Sell Out

All photos: Dave Stuart aka NoLionsInEngland

Small Perfectly Formed Street Art

A biblical downpour, ice cold hailstones and a hurricane 15 minutes before the start of this afternoon’s tour may have turned me on my bike into a mobile icicle but it didn’t deter a hardy group of tour guests.

We found a tiny piece of art on a wall, a mother, her child with some beautiful hand stitched embroidery acting as a shawl, the whole thing about 6 inches from top to bottom. It was beautiful, it is poignant and the artist is anonymous.

Shoreditch, Street Art, Street artist, unknown, paste up, hand stitched, embroidery, colourful, threads, mother, child

The placement of this work is intriguing, the juxtaposition against a pair of faded Betty Page images, part of a D7606 “post box” piece bring together two power images of the roles of women.

This next specimen, clearly from the same artist, photographed earlier this week a few hundred yards further up Brick Lane had already succumbed to light fingered art collectors!

Shoreditch, Street Art, Street artist, unknown, paste up, hand stitched, embroidery, colourful, threads, mother, child

Street art – it’s temporary and it’s not just about the large murals, the permissioned artwork and the international household name street artists.

A little “ps”, here is the D7606 mailbox photographed in its early days in June 2014, and yes, it is just a paste up, that’s not a real postbox.

Shoreditch, Street Art, Street artist, unknown, paste up,colourful, threads, mother, child, D7606, Betty page, Pop art

D7606, Jun 2014, feat Betty Page

All photos: Dave Stuart aka NoLionsInEngland

Mexican Street Artists In Shoreditch

A clutch of Mexican artists have just passed through London and created some beautiful art on Shoreditch’s walls.

Mazatl has placed some classic wood cut and linocut prints on the streets, classic in the sense that this is very much from the template provided by Swoon and Elbow Toe in the late 2000s.

Maxatl – El Hogar

London, Shoreditch, Street Art, paste ups, Linocut, Maxatl, Said Dokins, Acuro, Fusca, Mexico,

Mazatl – Shoreditch

Mazatl had a busy evening or two out with British screen print paste up artist Donk and Columbian artist Stinkfish, placing their work in many locations together, probably none more spectacular than this:

Donk, Stinkfish, Maxatl

Said Dokins is an artist who like Mazatl features campaigns for social justice at the heart of his art. Alive refers to a situation in Mexico regarding the “disappearance” of a group of students, wanted back alive. The calligraphy is stunning.

Said Dokins – Alive

Maxatl and Said Dokins were in town to participate with Mexican compatriots Acuro and Fusca in a four person group show at Hoxton gallery. The show opened last week and after this moring’s tour I was able to pop in to catch this excellent show for the first time. The woodcut and lino cut prints by maxatl are stunning and the fact that he issues work through justseeds.org in the States tells me his work places social conscience in the foreground. Here is a selection of photographs of art in the show:

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There is also a set of three night photographs of Said Dokins doing some light painting, we have seen light graffiti before but I have never seen light calligraphy like this, it’s well worth popping by Hoxton Gallery at its new location for that.

Said Dokins

Show details:

Graphictti

Said Dokins, Maxatl, Acaro, Fusca

Hoxton gallery

59 Old Street (same block as “Look Mum No Hands”, the City Road end of Old St)

Ends: TBC

Shoreditch Free Art Finds New Homes

Street artists have been in generous mood leaving Free Art for people to collect and a couple of guests on this morning’s tour found themselves going home with new found art pieces.

First, Tindra found this curious burnt matchstick painted on glass which she hopes she can take home to Sweden.

London, Shoreditch, street art, tours, walks, found art, free art, Imaginary Friend

“He Tells me To Do It” – painting on glass

“He tell’s me to do it” [punctuation: artist’s own] – Some pyromaniac is blaming the Imaginary Friend, this will look great in a plain frame with the wall behind being set alight by the match.

Then Jennifer became the proud owner of the latest in a substantial line of free art by Sean Worrall deposited on the streets under the aegis of his #365artdrop project.