Monthly Archives: September 2022

Public art by Felilpe Pantone in Greenwich Peninsula art trail The Tide

Felipe Pantone Quick Tide

The annual London Design Festival which is on right now at time of writing presents a dizzying selection of visual indulgences across London and a particularly eye catching one is Quick Tide by Felipe Pantone.

Felipe has been commissioned to add chromatic vibrancy to an outdoors stairway and cantilevered veranda arrangement overlooking the 02 Arena at Greenwich, East London.

 

Felipe has been seen in Shoreditch in the past painting dazzling abstract spraypainted murals though history is no impediment to a writer of hype, Quick Tide is according to the promoters Felipe’s first commissioned artwork in the UK, why being first in this manner should have any significance is not clear.

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The Tide is a work-in-progress 5km elevated walkway along the south bank of the River Thames heading east or, for the Captain Pugwash in you, downstream from North Greenwich and ultimately, when complete, forming a loop around the peninsula returning to the station at North Greenwich which is helpful as you don’t want to be dumped a million miles from civilisation at the end of a 5km wander.  It is not a million miles from a purpose built Greenwich version of New York’s High Line.  Felipe’s vinyl wrap Quick Tide artwork is a temporary addition to what seem to be a more permanent installation of contemporary sculptures along The Tide trail.

View of the elevated walkway The Tide with office blocks at GreenwichView of the elevated walkway The Tide towards River Thames at GreenwichQuick Tide certainly livens up what would otherwise be a fairly bland start to the public walkway.  Soft blends and rainbow spectrums in Pantone’s signature style delight the eyes.  Felipe has developed a real knack for kinetic dayglow trompe l’oeil art pieces which always make you nod and think…” yessss….clever”.    His playful use of interference patterns has made him one of the most interesting contemporary artists to emerge from the graffiti scene.

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Quick Tide seems to have been installed for London’s Design Festival which ran 17th – 25th September though it is captioned “Greenwich Peninsula Art Trail” in the LDF guide and that art trail certainly seems to be permanent.  Photos of the stairs and cantilevered structure without Pantone’s art show it to be a sterile bland exercise in municipal footpath geometry.   The signs are confusing, the signals are unclear, the abstract art deserves to live a bit longer but who can tell whether it survives past this week – to grant such a short life seems a waste and indeed an insult to the creativity that has gone into its conception.

Links:

Felipe Pantone Instagram

Art On The Tide/Greenwich Peninsula/The Peninsulist website 

London Design Festival website

all photos: Dave Stuart


Impressive colourful graffiti in London by Helch

Helch – The Dog’s Pollocks

It being that day today, Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral, I decided to go out graff hunting and what a great decision that turned out to be.   “Helch Watch” has been running for several months following the addition of an incomplete piece of graff close to our hood in May.

Impressive colourful graffiti in London by Helch

Helch, May 2022

Impressive colourful graffiti in London by Helch

Helch, May 2022

My fave graff lookout, Lady Nolions, reported back a couple of weeks ago that Helch had returned to  transform and complete that piece and it was looking epic.  The fills range from fades to stripe via glitches and quilted patterns.  The symmetry in the composition is, as per for Helch, impeccable.

Impressive colourful graffiti in London by Helch

Helch – Sep 2022

Impressive colourful graffiti in London by Helch

Helch – Sep 2022

After suitably urban looking “context” shots, stepping in close for some close cropped shots revealed a stunning surprise.   Helch has gone full Jackson in a ground level oil spill trap and it’s more or less invisible until the moment you fall into it.  Helch does brilliant fills generally but this time a new level has been reached.

Impressive colourful graffiti in London by Helch

Helch has low pollocks

Another new Helch was found in Shoreditch at the weekend and again the fill looked stunning.

Impressive colourful graffiti in London by Helch

Helch Sep 2022

Impressive colourful graffiti in London by Helch

Helch – glitchy fill

Helch has kind of taken over one end of the road behind the old Truman Brewery, this time the combination of blues and whites in the fill suggest Helch seeks to give nature a run for its money in providing best cloud and sky colours.

Impressive colourful graffiti in London by Helch

Helta Skelta up to the clouds

Helch has created many more stunning text based artworks in Shoreditch over the past 12 months, consolidating a burgeoning reputation among fans of art as well as graffiti.

Helch instagram

All photos: Dave Stuart