Monthly Archives: July 2019

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Urban art, Tour, tour gude, ODDO, DaddyStreetfoX, dADDY sTREET fOX, sAVANT, mcln

“The Start Of The End” ODDO and street art friends

Art shows involving street artists have a special place in Shoreditch Street Art Tour’s affections, particularly when the exhibition is artists we love in the kind of rugged unconventional gallery spaces we prefer.   ODDO, DaddyStreetFox, MCLN and Savant just had an exhibition called “THe Start OF THE End” at Monty’s Bar on Brick Lane and it ticked all the boxes.

Sadly the exhibition has closed before we had the chance to finalise a write up of it but one theme that emerged that was the direct line between the art on the streets and the artists’ indoor art.

Indoors ODDO pretty much replicates the breadth of styles but really amps up the dark, warped and bizarre.   Introducing the hairy babies!  They look spooky on the streets, they are awesome in the rough sculptural creations in this show.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Urban art, Tour, tour gude, ODDO, DaddyStreetfoX, dADDY sTREET fOX, sAVANT, mcln

ODDO Hairy Baby – Shoreditch 2018

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Urban art, Tour, tour gude, ODDO, DaddyStreetfoX, dADDY sTREET fOX, sAVANT, mcln

ODDO – Hairy Baby!

Framed works on paper serve to underline how faithful the street paste ups are to ODDO’s indoor art.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Urban art, Tour, tour gude, ODDO, DaddyStreetfoX, dADDY sTREET fOX, sAVANT, mcln

ODDO – Do I Know Your Name (Shoreditch 2018)

DaddyStreetFox’s contributions have a direct line from the layered collages in frames in the gallery to the photos of the collages as seen on the streets.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Urban art, Tour, tour gude, ODDO, DaddyStreetfoX, dADDY sTREET fOX, sAVANT, mcln

DaddyStreetFox – From The Wood (Collage)

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Urban art, Tour, tour gude, ODDO, DaddyStreetfoX, dADDY sTREET fOX, sAVANT, mcln

DaddyStreetFox – From The Wood (paste up)

MCLN’s plague doctor has been a charming and occasionally emotionally charged character that has decorated Shoreditch walls for several years now but the artist appears to have embraced other characters this year.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Urban art, Tour, tour gude, ODDO, DaddyStreetfoX, dADDY sTREET fOX, sAVANT, mcln

MCLN – Shoreditch 2019

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Urban art, Tour, tour gude, ODDO, DaddyStreetfoX, dADDY sTREET fOX, sAVANT, mcln

MCLN Expedition Kindred

Savant is one of Shoreditch’s more prolific street artists with a reputation for complex imagery populated by ghosts, themes of darkness and death in a surreal Dadaist style utilising collages of text and imagery.  Intriguing and easy to like, Savant’s art translates well into the theme of the show and the company it is keeping.

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Urban art, Tour, tour gude, ODDO, DaddyStreetfoX, dADDY sTREET fOX, sAVANT, mcln

Savant – Your Approval Is Not Required, paste up Shoreditch 2018

London, Shoreditch, Street art, Urban art, Tour, tour gude, ODDO, DaddyStreetfoX, dADDY sTREET fOX, sAVANT, mcln

Savant – Entropy

This is an extract of a longer review of the “The Start Of The end” show, the full review including more photos and details of Monty’s Bar which is often recommended to gusts at the end of the tour are available on Graffoto

DETAILS:

“The Start Of the End”

ODDO and special guests DaddyStreetFox, MCLN, Savant

Monty’s Bar

49 Brick Lane;

London

11th July – 25th July 2019

 

LINKS:

ODDO Instagram

DaddyStreetFox Instagram

MCLNL Instagram

Savant Instagram

Monty’s Bar facebook

All photos: Dave Stuart


England, New Zealand, Cricket, ICC World Cup, Trophy, Street Art Tour, winners,

Shoreditch Street Art Tour In Massive Cricket World Cup Fluke

England are Cricket World Cup Champions for the first time after lifting the trophy in one of the most dramatic sporting occasions ever at Lords Cricket Ground.  England Captain, the Irishman Eoin Morgan followed in the footsteps of Shoreditch Street Art tours in getting his hands on the revered trophy.

Yes, you read that correctly! First, just a little background as it is possible that some followers of Shoreditch Street Art Tours may not be keeping fully up to date on a minute by minute basis with developments in the world of cricket.   The Cricket World Cup has been hosted by England and Wales Test and County Cricket Board and England played New Zealand in the final today.   It was the tensest, most exciting closest game ever, the two teams ended with exactly the same number of runs, so a deciding “Super Over” was played and both teams scored exactly the same number of runs, so then it went to the third method of deciding the game and England were the winners, winning the World Cup for the first time.

England Celebrates with ICC Cricket World Cup – photo courtesy We Are England Cricket

England have reached the final on three previous occasions but for lack of an Irishman as captain failed to win any of those attempts.

Eoin Morgan with ICC Cricket World Cup – photo courtesy We Are England Cricket

This would not have come to pass were it not for possibly one of the jammiest flukes ever seen on any sports pitch.  With 3 balls left the required run rate had sky rocketed and was looking impossible, England batsman Stokes scrambled to make his ground for a 2 when the incoming throw from 60 yards away struck the bat of the diving Stokes and diverted to the boundary for what under the laws of the game was a 4 to add to the 2 already picked up for running between the wickets.  Without those 4 extra runs the cup would have been the Kiwi’s.

If Stokes had not had to dive, if the ball had come in fractionally later, if it had bounced 2 inches higher to clear Stoke’s bat…we would have a different outcome but these things did not happen and a jubilant nation instantly forgot its embarrassment.

So how did Shoreditch Street Art Tours fit in with this excitement?  Well, in May last year, Young People’s Laureate For London Caleb Femi wrote a poem anticipating the international festival of cricket due to visit England, the poem was written up on a wall on Brick Lane by commercial spraycan artists Graffiti Life and the World Cup Trophy was brought to Brick Lane for a photo shoot.

Poem by Caleb Femi, sprayed by Graffiti Life on Brick Lane

At that moment, the Shoreditch Street Art Tour turned the corner onto Brick Lane and found itself in the privileged position of being able to pose with the World Cup Trophy.

Shoreditch, Street art, cricket, London, graffiti life, world cup, tour group

ICC Cricket World Cup meets Shoreditch Street Art Tours Group

Five minutes later, official snaps taken, the trophy was whisked away –we fluked our timing with the finesse of a Ben Stokes dive.

Shoreditch, Street art, cricket, London, graffiti life, world cup, tour group

ICC Cricket World Cup checking out street art

My bike ride to Shoreditch takes me past the front gates of Lords Cricket Ground every day and one sunny day in May I spotted a curious sight, the post box outside the ground had turned blue overnight.   It wasn’t a piece of “Blue period” graffiti however, outside each venue where World Cup games were played a post box was painted blue in celebration.   It qualifies as art on the street rather than street art perhaps.

World Cup Post Box at Lords

World Cup Post Box at Lords

Congratulations to England and commiserations to New Zealand

 

 

 

 


Tour Catches Boishakha Mela

Not many things bring the street art tour to a halt but every year one event  we love putting a tour on pause for is the passage of the Boishakha Mela parade down Brick Lane.

Happy New Year! No, were aren’t late to celebrate the roman calendar 1st day in January, this time Brick Lane explodes with even more life, colour, music, song and dance than usual as the Bengali community in Tower Hamlets celebrates the Bengali New Year with the Boishakha Mela festival, the largest of its kind outside Bangladesh.  The festivities are delayed slightly in the hope that we will have more sunshine in July that we get in April and this year the weather delivered.

The Mela began with a Grand Parade starting in Alleyn Gardens, headed down Brick Lane to see the Shoreditch Street Art Tour then on to the main festivities located in Weaver’s Field in Whitechapel.

A beautiful burst of energy as far as the eye could see were a sea of floats, dancers, singers, musicians and onlookers.

In celebration of the coming of the rains the head of the parade was led by boats afloat on rivers propelled by oarsmen with red paddles.  The bounty, a catch of silver fish is carried aloft by symbolic fishermen.

The two main floats this year comprised a fish and a tiger.  In previous years a raucous trumpeting elephant brought the street art tour to a jaw dropping halt.

The parade was put together by local schools, artists, youth and community organisations working with Emergency Exit Arts.

Bangladesh is home to the world’s largest Mangrove forests so it is appropriate in a parade themed around the Rivers Of Bangladesh that we see Mangrove trees bursting with flora and insects.

It was a pleasure to sight Mr Hussein from Preem Restaurant in the front ranks of the parade, Mr Hussein has been a wonderful supporter of street art for many years and has permitted his walls on Hanbury St to host some of the World’s top artists, including the hugely popular and auspicious bird by ROA.

Here is a little of that Boishakhi Mela Grand Parade action, we look forward to next year.

All photos and video: Dave Stuart