Monthly Archives: September 2024

DFace street art treasure hunt stamp

DFace Shoreditch Stamping Ground Treasure Hunt

Last weekend saw fun, creativity and a bit of exercise for all the family thanks to local street artist DFace.   Being “Local” was particularly significant as DFace was celebrating decades of decoration on his stomping ground, the street of London.

DFace Stamping Ground image

image courtesy DFace Official mailing list

The idea was a treasure hunt.  Solve the clues, find the location, stamp your paper, create your own authorised legitimate collaborative DFace image.   The fun started at DFace’s Gallery, StolenSpace.   Put your paper in a hinged frame, ink up the stamp pad, press the stamp through the window in the frame, fret about whether you had properly stamped the colour onto your sheet and how long the ink would take to dry (not long) then on to the next clue.

DFace street art treasure hunt stamp

Stamping Point Treasure Hunt Clues

DFace street art treasure hunt stamp First Stamp at StolenSpace

First Stamp at StolenSpace

Second stop on the treasure trail, after the StolenSpace Gallery, was Slam City Skates in the Old Truman Brewery.   DFace is known to be a skate fanatic.

 

DFace street art treasure hunt stamp

Blue Half Tone and mysterious blue streak added

Many may recall the old StolenSpace base in the Old Truman Brewery, hidden away in a loading dock DFace and friends Word To Mother and Ronzo had a skate ramp set up.

DFace street art treasure hunt stamp

From Slam City Skates the next stop is the epic DFace showcase at Art ‘Otel on the site of the former Foundry.  Digital animation installations, lenticular mural, sweeping DFace collages in the public spaces and a telephone box installation outside are among the reasons this location is now a major stop on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour.

DFace street art treasure hunt stamp

Art ‘Otel, ready for the green ink

DFace street art treasure hunt stamp

Green stamp stamped!

The next location was the much storied Golden Heart pub on Commercial Street which has held out a welcome to local artists from Gilbert and George to DFace for years.

DFace street art treasure hunt stamp

Pink hair and painted nails. Shoreditch norm.

Finally back to StolenSpace for the excitement of applying the 5th stamp and the grand reveal, the black outline which gave definition to the image .

DFace street art treasure hunt stamp

Check the registration

DFace street art treasure hunt stamp

5 stamp DIY DFace print

Variations in the consistency of the inking, the distribution of smudges, vignettes in the corners from over enthusiastic unequal pressures, not to mention minute (or not so minute) discrepancies in registration (the alignment of the paper in the frame) pretty much guaranteed that no too images were identical.

DFace street art treasure hunt stamp

Take your pick

 

All across Shoreditch families and familiar faces participating in the treasure hunt were super easy to spot, not least due to the distinctive pouches used to protect the paper while dashing from clue to clue.   I enjoyed the company of Brighton Street Art and we hooked up with artist Stubacca and a fun time was had, great company.   Then at each stamping station there were conversations to be had with staff and participants, works in progress to be compared not to mention clue checking. It was a lot about the social as well as the creation of a DFace artwork.  Technically I guess the finished stamped print could be regarded as an open time limited edition.  Everyone who completed the treasure hunt and printed all colours got a bonus screen printed and signed Certificate.

DFace street art treasure hunt stamp certificate

CoA

DFace is a globe trotting muralist, print maker and sticker artist.  This year I have seen major DFace murals in the 13th arrondissement in Paris as well as on the side of a building in Williamsburg, New York but London is not over-blessed with major DFace murals.  DFace painted a mural on the Camden/Kings Cross border for the 2020 London Mural Festival and has just recently painted a new mural at the same location for the 2024 edition.  Lo and behold, the #stampingground image turns out to be a miniature (reversed) souvenir of that stunning mural in Camden.

DFace mural for London Mural festival 2024

DFace Dog In Hand detail, Camden 2024

DFace mural for London Mural festival 2024

DFace Dog In Hand detail, Camden 2024

DFace mural for London Mural festival 2024

DFace Dog In Hand, Camden 2024

StolenSpace website

DFace instagram

London Mural Festival news

all photos: Dave Stuart