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New Banksy stencil of a man spraying tree on a street in North London

Banksy Imitates Nature

Spring is sprung and Banksy welcomes the freshest season with some fresh street art.  Last Spring it  was Valentines Day Mascara in Southend, this year a hibernating tree bursts into life with a vigorous new canopy of green foliage thanks to a gardener armed with a garden sprayer.

New Banksy stencil of a man spraying tree on a street in North London

Banksy Tree March 2024

It can be interpreted new life, new growth and rebirth is possible even in this most urban and densely populated of North London Locations, or maybe it suggests a resident is fed up that the tree has been so brutally pollarded by the council, pollarding being a routine annual exercise for public trees in these parts.  News of this new piece emerged on Sunday 17th of March so perhaps there is even a nod towards the St Paddy’s day celebrations.

New Banksy stencil of a man spraying tree on a street in North London

scene of the crime

The character holding the garden sprayer is stencilled in a very recognisable Banksy light-dark two tone style.  Evidently in his desire to get as much greenery up as possible the gardener has covered himself in paint.   The green of the foliage is a slightly different hue to that used in the character and also different to the green used to give solidity to the sprayer rod, so three different shades of green altogether.

New Banksy stencil of a man spraying tree on a street in North London

“I did that”

New Banksy stencil of a man spraying tree on a street in North London

3 greens in detail

Much of the reportage suggests that Banksy has used a fire extinguisher to paint the foliage.  He critiqued the cultural institution Festival Hall by spraying BORING with a fire extinguisher, flown an extinguisher paint powered Love Plane in Liverpool and in his intrusion into Cromer’s model village in 2022 he cutely simulated fire extinguisher graff at miniature scale so Banksy is not lacking experience with that tool.  However, a fire extinguisher generally produces a lot more splatter and a haze of colour around the impact areas.  The dripping and the controlled arcs of green, particularly where the paint reaches over the wall to the left, suggest Banksy may have used the type of hand pressurised sprayer he is seen deploying in his “You don’t mask you don’t get” 2020 post lockdown tube cleaning video, the paint effect is then consistent with the garden sprayer the character is depicted holding.  The density of the paint in some areas and the really heavy drips could also suggest paint throwing.  The stencil character also has signed of hand touch ups.  Probably a combination of different techniques was used.

Banksy stencil biplance loops the loop love heart shape on wall in Liverpool 2011

Banksy Love Plane, Liverpool, 2011

Banksy street art on a model home installed without permission at Merrivale Model Village

Banksy mini fire extinguisher graff on model village stable, Aug 2021

Artistmedea who we often meet at urban art shows where she live sketches the private view crowds was thrilled as she lives very close by.  She told me that when she has been out sketching she often walking home late at night past the spot chosen by Banksy because is actually well lit at night.

Artist sketches scene of New Banksy in North LOndon

Artist Medea live sketches

When Banksy did the Valentine Day Mascara in Southend last year I spoke to and photographed a traditional painter with his easel set up painting the “It’s a new Banksy” circus in oils.   Under then name Peter The Painter his art then appeared in the Cut and Run Banksy exhibition in Glasgow last Summer.  Artistmedea ruefully laughed at the comparison with her sketching, promising that Banksy hadn’t hired her.

New Banksy stencil of a man spraying tree on a street in North London

You should have seen the queue of photographers behind me

Time will be a fascinating component of this new Banksy artwork.  Not just the normal temporal aging that affects all street art and graffiti as much as it affects us, nor hopefully the awful sequestration and commodification of those pious “for posterity” art salvors but the pendulum of the seasons will bring forth shoots and leaves to shade and blend with Banksy’s green hues over the warm months before the winter shedding reveals the ageing piece on the wall again.

Banksy imitates nature, nature will imitate art.

LINKS:

Banksy website

Medea’s Instagram

All Photos: Dave Stuart


Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Space Invader Art Show In Paris Invader Space Station

The.Headquarters of an inter planetary invasion led by Space Invader has been opened to the public for the first time at the Invader Space Station in Paris.

Teleporting to Paris to investigate, we discover intergalactic intrusions set in a multi level game masquerading as featureless former car park/office block.   We enter with trepidation, no one in history has ever survived a space invader attack, we are doomed to run out of lives.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Invader Space Station

It takes 9 levels to master this game but the first 4 are spent powering up.  The original much loved Space Invader arcade game rewards (or results in) fast wrists capable of extreme rapid fire button action at moments of close up battle, in the Invader Space Station strong thighs are an advantage as the platform lacks an elevating booster.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Powering up

Level 5 is where the enemy first engages.

From a deepest outer space darkness, larger than life rank and file invaders march towards us, way larger and more muscular than we remember from those ancient coin-op confrontations decades ago.  Flashing angular warriors whose amplified harmonic grunt gets faster and louder as they rip the darkness apart pin us to the edge of the universe.  Adrenaline reaching levels free from gravity and defences drained, we flee up to the next level pursued by a sound like someone downstairs has a record player that jumps back after the opening two notes of an acid brass band doing Purple Haze as a duet for euphonium and tuba.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

When the show closes come back to us, we might then have the courage to memorialise this awesome installation in video format but until then, we need to get by not thinking about it.

Entering the space station we were allowed to retain our communication devices, unlike, for example, in the black hole our phones vaporised into at a rat artist’s show in Northern climes in a previous epoch.  Our phones have been seeded with a viral app called Flash Invaders which we believe to be a “game”, our vigilance in spotting these lurking invaders on the streets is rewarded with “points” which take us up the “leaderboard” but tracking those invaders is tricky.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Most Valuable Invader Drones

The next level reveals the scale and density of the invaders local infiltration.  They are everywhere and mainly lurking in plain sight.  A location map and a matrix boasts of the visible spectrum characteristics of each invader but not their performance specs.  Some conduct their spying from roofs, some lurk at ground level.  We are obsessed with fixing their position using that app but the map of Paris on display is deliberately vague, in the real world each invader could be anywhere in the hundreds of meters that each marker covers.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

In 83 cities across 32 countries an army of (so far) 4027 invaders monitor, record, survey, report and spy.  Waves of attack on all fronts, the intrusion is global.   The next level of the Invader Space Station reveals the most photogenic invaders around the world though perhaps it is more of a spectacular large scale “employee of the month” photo wall.  Who is the best spy, which invader is documenting the most human activity through that app?

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in ParisThat question is actually answered quite explicitly on a real time monitor showing live surveillance successes.  You think we are playing the game?  The app is actually feeding our flashes back to the central hive, our location and times are tracked so that Space Invader, gloating Jabba-like in his lair, can monitor and measure the thousands of us daily pursuing the invaders embedded throughout the planet.  We are being played.

Lest we think our growing awareness of his scheme somehow levels the game, Space Invader’s next capsule mocks our puny efforts at mimicry.  A simple wall invites your counter attack but the result is an accumulation of toy-like marks and sticker.  Read, weep, don’t try this anywhere else is the overt Space Station message.   Curiously, the top of the wall houses a sequence of names, some clearly in code.  These are believed to be collaborators, if you know you know as they themselves say.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Space Invader is a master of video surveillance techniques, grainy dark footage of brief glimpses of invaders touching down in position simultaneously fascinates and strikes the fear of the unknowable into us.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

In parallel with the main invasion action, very secret tools have allowed Space Invader to capture humans and animals, transmogrify them and imprison them in embryonic stasis in pods mockingly called Kinder Eggs.  The next level forces real living humans to revert to a state of juvenile delight at Invader’s collection of captured Kinder Eggs, oh the unexpected shock and horror.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Rumour and allegations orbited the Forumosphere that the first invaders were innocent rubik’s cubes dismembered and rearranged in horrific parody of an old game played on low res screen in cabinet devices often located in pubs and arcades. The resulting mosaics were then given the responsibility of keeping sentry on street walls in major concentrations of humans such as Paris and London.  There is clear evidence at the 7th Level of entire rubiks cubes being assembled to make blurry images of artefacts of mass public appeal.   The cunning thing about the blurry images is that they are a disguise hard to figure out with the naked eye but on a phone screen it is much clearer who invaders are, all a ruse to get humans to pull out their phones and ultimately give their location away.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Next level is a magnificent Invader pin-up hall of fame.  Prints, canvas replicas and images face off against eachother.   These are the indoor versions of the outdoor mosaics.  5 football stars, all manspread knees and flash perms leer at a quartet of stunning blondes while gun toting film directors face down gangsters and OG rock stars.   No icy winters cracking their pixels off or Summer sunburn, a life in frames beckons these pampered prima donnas of the space station.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Our efforts in clearing the 7th Level were rewarded with cinemacope presentations of longer length Space Invader propaganda.  Accommodation is rudimentary lest comfort distract you from the audiovisuals and the propaganda changes, so what you witness depends on your space-time vector, in other words the day of the week you beam up.  We watched the compelling sand advert “I Invade Djerba” (2020) and left with a yearning to visit and not just because there are (or once upon a time were) 58 Invaders to spot.  Traditionalist space travellers will be horrified at the casual desecration of the old gods’ abodes as an invader takes up station on a hut previously in real life occupied by Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.  The force is with Space Invader these days.  Also available is the space classic “Art4Space” (2012) in which Space Invader… oh we don’t want to give too much away but defying gravity is involved and it takes place in Cape Canaveral, a spiritual home from home for the Space Invader.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

A shocking demonstration of the power of the Invaders took place a few years ago when a trio went rogue, hijacked a plane and flew around regions where humans are known generally let their defences down.   Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… they come for you from the sky!  Scenes of panic and hysteria were witnessed by the Invader’s minions and if you make it to the higher levels of the Space Station you get a glimpse into their photo archive of photos of this invasion exercise.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Invader banner

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Invading La Plage

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Invading La Plage

An optical monitoring device near the top of the Space Station fixes on the latest invader to take up station.  The 1500th invader in Paris, PA_1500 to give it its formal code, sits on top of the exoskeleton of a modern art mausoleum called the Centre Pompidou about 1 light kilometre from the Space Station as the Galaxian flies.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Centre Pompidou from Invader Space Station

Insurgents have railed against the desecration of the incumbent authority’s cultural palace but there is evidence the Pompidou Centre was complicit in their own downfall, according to a transmission detected from Space Invader the rulers of the Pompidou were practically begging to host an Invader.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Invader Space Station

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

PA_1500 flashed – 100 Points in the bag!

This invader’s height grants it immense range and it is almost invulnerable to any ground-to-air assault.  The telescope is a relatively simple concoction of lenses known to allow light to pass through in both directions, based on the evidence of the curious relationship invaders have with such devices, were we looking at the invader or was it looking at us?

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

PA_1500 through the looking glass

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

PA_1432’s telescope, often mistaken for a cloud

Any modern invasion must incorporate certain customary elements: take over the means of communication, then issue instructions, then control the populace.  The newspaper Libération, oh the irony of that title, used to be published from the very premises the Invader Space Station currently occupies.  Star log 2012 saw Space Invader enter the building and take control of the paper, subliminal surreptitious invader motifs took over the masthead and the font.   The last level of any game is where ultimate mastery is established and there at the very top floor we find PA_992 has since 2012 been transmitting into space, readily witnessed by the Google satellite.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Libération

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

PA_992 rooftop Invader 2012

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

detected by Google earth mothership satellite station

That’s it.  They said we could expect to spend 1.5 hours surveying the Invader Space Station, we were detained for over 3.   Locating the exit we turn sideways, flap our arms up and down from the elbow and do the space invader jive through the deep space portal back to London.   Game over.

Art shows by street artists these days tend to be regimented product displays, framed art with price tags.  “Owners required, help me shift my inventory”.  Not enough art for arts sake, more farts for farts to take.  This Space Invader art experience harnesses concept, installation and retrospective in a manner harking back to the glory days of shows by the likes of Swoon, Faile, Cept, Giles WalkerPaul Insect taking over old swimming baths, Dr D putting us on spin cycle in an open working launderette and Banksy’s Cans Festival where the art mattered, not the Profit and Loss.  Invader Space Station really brings the art back into street art and does it with style and fun.  Next level.


Space Invader: Invader Space Station

2nd Feb – 5th May 2024

11 rue Béranger

Paris 75003


Links:

Invader Space Station Bookings

Space Invader Website

All photo: Dave Stuart


Intertwining figures in cubist style by street artist Yorgos painted on unusual shape wall

Yorgos new street art and old

On Christmas Eve the Shoreditch Street Art Tour had the pleasure of bumping into Yorgos photographing a charming new street art piece in his signature style painted the night before.  Ever the friendly one, Yorgos delighted guests on the tour by posing alongside his new masterpiece.

street artist Yorgos shows off his Shoreditch mural showing intertwined bodies with picasso cubist faces

Yorgos shows his characters on Christmas Eve 2023

Yorgos told us that he had painted the artwork the night before but hadn’t been able to get a decent photograph.  He had returned to get his daytime photograph but confessed he was a bit worried that it might have been tagged or painted over before he got there.  Lucky for all is was still in pristine condition.

Having seen out the old year with that beauty, Yorgos welcomed 2024 in with another banger.  This was painted on a wall some might consider complex but Yorgos seems to have found its geometry a simple problem to solve.  Cubism in a couple of squares!

close cropped photo of Intertwining figures in cubist style by street artist Yorgos painted on unusual shape wall

Yorgos, New Year 2024

This wall was actually right at the spot where my very first street art tour convened in 2008 and it is I believe the first time that spot has been taken over for a full mural piece in this style.

Yorgos showed he fully understand the ephemeral nature of street art and it was just as well he got his photos on Christmas Eve, that piece was painted over this week.

New graffiti writing over Yorgos mural

Polo STS over Yorgos, Jan 2024

I am sure we will see more from Yorgos this year, can’t wait.

Links:

Yorgos Instagram

All photos: Dave Stuart


2023 Street Art Memories

2023 Street art, another year down.  Did you smile more often?  Certainly the Smokers crew aka SMO did.  A burst of activity in the Summer sun included the perfect composition of “Smokers” on a railway bridge as well as the crew acronym SMO appearing all over Shoreditch but the crowning piece was their huge Smile More Often wall with the names of all 12 crew members in smoking purple contained within the blockbuster letters, see the feature image at the top.

Smokers Crew

It there was such a thing as an award for the most up crew of the year it would go to Ghost Writers, no competition.  It seemed that there was someone representing Ghost Writers with something new almost every week.  Christmas week was no different.

graffiti and street art in Shoreditch by Ghost Writers members Minto, Tizer and Trafik and also Pablo Fiasco stencil

Minto, Trafik and Tizer repping Ghost Writers plus Pablo Fiasco

graffiti and street art in Shoreditch by Ghost Writers members Minto, Tizer and Trafik

Minto and Trafik collab, Yorgos, Tizer and Trafik

Banksy’s gift for newsworthiness did not desert him in 2023.    There was the retrospective exhibition in Glasgow, lifting the veil somewhat on the process but not the person and trumping all those shit un-authorised shows of ripped of reproductions and pure fantasy re-creations.  There was the court case which the litigant over hyped as about to lead to Banksy’s identity being revealed.  There was the artwork in Kent on the building that was demolished three days after he painted it.  Then, this being a non chronological list in which the best story is kept to last, there was the “Valentine’s Day Massacre” in Margate which led to possibly the most unfulfilling street art treasure hunt ever.  I arrived just as council contractors loaded the fridge onto a truck for disposal, how much did I rue missing by a minute the train from London that would have got me there an hour earlier.  Peter The Painter didn’t miss a thing, as anyone who Banksy’s Cut and Run show will have seen.  (Actually the most frustrating treasure hunt ever was a night spent wandering the streets of London in vain pursuit of an Adam Neate free art drop in 2008.)

Margate Council truck takes away the freezer from Banksy "Valentines Day Mascara"

Dangerous freezer captured in Margate

Banksy "Valentine's Day Mascara" Street art in Margate without the original freezer

I went London to Margate – the wall went Margate to London

There were at least four occasions this year when street art’s fleeting nature defeated my ponderous reactions. Twice I missed Banksy artworks, (the Valentine’s Day Mascara above) and the Stop War traffic sign installation which was stolen less than an hour after Banksy posted online about it.  The two other occasions were brilliant paintings by Airborne Mark, his masterpieces of virtuoso spraycan technique seem fated to be painting over immediately.  I count my blessings that there were a couple I managed to get to before they disappeared.  Everything about the origami gecko coming to life with every slant and facet of the paper catching the orange and green side lighting differently is just sensational.  All street artists’ creativity has at its core the certainty that the original piece is doomed to a very very short lifespan, yet the artists return again and again unpaid yet showing a dedication to the art which in any other endeavour would be regarded as bonkers.

spraypaint Street art mural by Airborne Mark in Shoreditch

Airborne Mark Gecko and stationery

spraypaint Street art mural by Airborne Mark in Shoreditch

Airborne Mark X Wing and stationery

Russel Shaw Higgs framed his characters beautifully within this lintel, only on the streets can such engagement with a perhaps once grand façade be realised.

street art paste ups in Shoreditch by Russell Shaw Higgs and Dr Cream

Russell Shaw Higgs, also feat Dr Cream

Yorgos first appeared in Shoreditch in 2022 but his prolific output this year has beguiled all.  He paints with influences from Picasso and traces of Matisse and his use of emulsion, which is quite rare in street art, produces a very flat and crisp aesthetic.   This pair of lovers (count the hands!) share their love with a heart that snuggly matches the bike lock frame sitting a couple of feet from the wall.

Street art mural by Yorgos of lovers whose love heart fits into the heart shaped bicycle frame

Yorgos

Yorgos

Most of Jonesy’s creativity on the Shoreditch streets this year was in the form of original drawings and paintings, check out all the oily creatures in the detail below as well as several new bronze castings atop street sign poles.

street art illustration concerned with pollution and environment by Jonesy

Jonesy Jan 2023

bronze casting sitting on top of a street sign of a see no evil monkey with hands covering its eyes

Jonesy See No Evil, March 2023

bronze casting sitting on top of a street sign of a demon with a petrol pump

Jonesy Bronze July 2023

If I have to pick a single art piece that made my jaw hit the ground it was this beauty from Minto.  Minto is a writer more associated with graffiti lettering but when I realised the alignment of the inverted face with the architecture in the background formed a stunning tribute to rapper (and occasional graffiti writer) MF Doom it was clearly a piece of ephemeral genius.

Minto

MF Doom by Minto

Cept is a bit of a renaissance man who goes through phases alternating between gallery installations and outdoor endeavours, it was great to see thet pendulum swung back to street art and graffiti this year.

comic illustration style street art by Cept supervillain with written text confession

Cept

Dan Kitchener had a brilliant year, not just because he painted abroad a lot or in terms of the scale of his murals, he also created some beautiful specimens of urban landscapes and character art in Shoreditch.  The most interesting was the mural which veered towards abstract impressionism in a painting with a point of view sitting in a car looking out through a rainy windscreen at one of his rainy night time neon lit street scenes.  The small photo cannot do justice to the impressionist beauty in the full size mural.  I could be wrong but I think Dan painted this spot three times this year, other artists occupying this wall were Inagaki (twice) and Only E1

spraycan impressionist street scene viewed through a wet window with drip or rivulets of raindrops and car lights reflecting off wet road surface by street artist Dan Kitchener

Dan Kitchener Feb 2023

Nearly every time you turn up to photograph this wall there are huge mountains of bin bags awaiting collection which makes my failure to get the photo of this image with a stack of bin bags in front of it quite unforgivable.

realistic spraycan painting relates to the piles of commercial rubbish seen regularly on Commercial Street

Inagaki, formerly known as Enigma, Feb 2022

Esauteric continued to amaze with his energetic disregard for conventional crisp spraypainting techniques, the very experimental colour combination and of course the manner of painting on walls with irregular surfaces, corners and buttresses that mean you really have to be able to walk around the wall to experience what the art has to offer from different angles.

wall mural colourful energetic face Shoreditch Brick Lane

Esau-teric. one angle only

wall mural colourful energetic face Shoreditch Brick Lane style of Futura2000

Esau-teric. Look closely, there is a 12 inch deep buttress in this picture

ODDO is an enduring Shoreditch favourite and his prolific production of wilder and wilder characters veers towards the curious, dark and scary.   “Bamboo mole” was a recurring theme.  I made one selection of snaps that captured the contribution ODDO made to my enjoyment of street art in 2023 then on the morning of New Years Eve, two more new ODDO artworks popped up on my walk through Shoreditch and one muscled right into this selection.  In a parallel universe I would be wearing clothes designed by ODDO.

crazy clothes crazy colours on harnd drawn street art paste up by ODDO in Shoreditch

ODDO, New Years Eve

crazy clothes crazy colours on harnd drawn street art paste up by ODDO in Shoreditch

ODDO, Feb 2023

crazy clothes crazy colours on harnd drawn street art paste up by ODDO in Shoreditch

ODDO, Oct 2023

Nonose has been doing quirky, lurid potatoes spiked with cocktail sticks since forever and for a little while this year a flotilla of crash-landed sputniks could be found on the tops of bus shelters and street furniture in Shoreditch and Hackney.

a dayglo potato with cocktail sticks by street artist nonose on top of a bus stop shelter

Nonose, Jan 2023

a dayglo potato with cocktail sticks by street artist nonose on top of a bus stop shelter

Nonose, Jan 2023

a dayglo potato with cocktail sticks by street artist nonose on top of a bus stop shelter

Nonose, Jan 2023

For a former graffiti writer Shaim certainly has no fear of negative space!  His hand drawn originals and paste up copies have managed to make horn rimmed glasses sexy again.  The trio of ladies are not copies at all, each is different and for the really curious, the green splats on the wall date back to a Nick Walker show in 2008.

3 black and white female faces on a wall at Old Street Shoreditch by Stephen Haim Shaim

Shaim

Ed Hicks remains the master of painterly gothic street art, he had a productive 2023 and there wasn’t a single piece I saw that I didn’t love.  It’s a puzzle that his masterworks tend to have much shorter lives than equivalent efforts from his peers, the artwork on the Grey Eagle St wall lasted barely a week before giving way to Smile More Often.

double height door gothic light and dark mural on Brick Lane by Ed Hicks

Ed Hicks

street art mural of fiery explosion, Brick Lane, Ed Hicks

Ed Hicks, Nov 2023. 1 week only.

Shoreditch visitors

Shoreditch continues to magnetically attract brilliant visiting artists working from small paste ups to the largest murals.  Alex face painted literally a scorcher, controversially short lived as it was painted over by an advert on a wall which has never hosted an advert before.

burning faces mural by Alex Face from Thailand painted on a wall on Brick Lane

Alex Face, Thailand. Jul 20263

Drash visited London twice this year and her colourful detourned fashion mag pages got brasher and Drasher.

Colourful Street artist Drash La Krasse from La Rochelle next to her art in Shoreditch

Drash La Krasse

Colourful Street art by Drash La Krasse from La Rochelle on derelict window old Shoreditch tube station

Drash La Krasse, with additional LDashD sticker

Niafase, Key and Naths Ice visited from Mexico and got stuck right in painting with some talented artists at various spots around London with Niafase contributing some technically brilliant 3D lettering.

part of large mural with goldfish, portraiture and 3d graffiti lettering

Niafase with Curiouser and Curioser

collaborative wall mural with spraypainted street art and graffiti

Moonkey, Niafaze (Mex), Achezink, Naths_Ice (Mex)

3d graffiti lettering Stockwell hall of fame

MoonkeySP, Solo, Nifazse, Casem, Ezra Kemen, Vladarts, Void One

On My Travels

The years since we were all put in detention have been spent frantically travelling to make up for lost opportunities.  This year wonderful street art was discovered in Manchester, Paris, Southend, Lisbon, Port Talbot and Glasgow.

Manchester’s street art bristles with self confidence and inventiveness.  Hornby train set art?

Geese in a Manchester streert with sign saying on the 6th day God created Manchester

On the 6th day, God created Manchester – Trafford Parsons

Street art made from model railway and figure dressed like Kevin Rowland from Dexys Midnight Runners

“Dexy’s Midnight Roller”  with miniature Kevin Rowland, Jungle Angelo, Manchester

Paris blew me away, over 1000 photos of magical street art was a fraction of what I saw and the task of selecting a few to share proved too painful to contain within just one blog post.  So I wrote two.   Paris is blessed with magnificent murals but there is way more than 10 story murals to Paris’ street art.  B-Toy Andrea’s mural makes the cut just because I loved the way a bit of light painting and long exposure melded the decoration in the subject’s hair with the blossom on the trees.  Paris of course has the largest collection of Space Invaders but I fell in love with the really esoteric things like Tegmo’s glass sculptures and mosaic arrangements.

Tegmo, Paris

2 street names, 5 legged confusion. OJI, Paris

BToy Andrea, Paris

Southend is so easy to get to from London and the Southend City Jam seaside circus has now grown to one of the coolest, happiest and indeed largest gatherings of street artists, graffiti writers and fans in the world.   I wonder what happens to all those boards?

Pink haired woman in front of mural with matching bright pink details

Bublegum, Southend City Jam 2023

Street art from Southend City Jam 2023 Asur work in progress

Asur work in progress, Southend City Jam 2023

Street art from Southend City Jam 2023 Elno

ELNO, Southend City Jam 2023

Street art from Southend City Jam 2023

Epic1, C.A.S.E.M, Southend City Jam 2023

Lisbon has an amazing city wide distribution of street art and graffiti.  Star locals Vhils and Bordalo simply can’t be left out of any Lisbon highlights but even in a city noted for its tiled décor I was delighted with the surprise find of a massive tiled mural by Monsieur A whose parents are Portuguese.

Junk street artist Bordalo studio in Lisbon

Bordalo studio, Lisbon

huge tile mural in Lisbon by street artist Monsieur Andre

Monsieur Andre Tiled mural, Lisbon

huge tile mural in Lisbon by street artist Monsieur Andre

Monsieur Andre Tiled mural, Lisbon

Mural portrait half and half collaboration in Madrid between Shephard Fairey and Vhils

half and half Shepard Fairey, Vhils collab, Lisbon

Glasgow had been invaded by the usual suspects visiting the Banksy exhibition so at that moment it was an effort to track down the local talent rather than same old Shoreditch habituees.

Stencil street art in style of Banksy of falling couple by The Rebel Bear

The Rebel Bear

clever stencil juxtaposition appears to show girl balancing on thin handrail in Glasgow

Rogue Oner, Glasgow

And so, with another New Years Eve photo A Chance Of Creatures kicks out the old and welcomes in the new, may you all have a healthy wiser better more peaceful 2024, fill it with joy and art.

New Years Eve street art 2023 2024 by A Chance Of Creatures In Shoreditch

A Chance Of Creatures – New Years Eve

All photographs: Dave Stuart


panoramic view of traffic STOP sign subverted by Banksy in Peckham

Its A Sign Banksy

Banksy is in the news again, who’d have thought?  For the benefit of anyone dwelling beneath something hard and rock like, an image of three drone missiles appeared on a STOP sign at a road junction in Peckham, South London, acknowledged as a genuine Banksy on Banksy’s instagram.  What made this Banksy particularly newsworthy was the blatant broad daylight removal of the street sign by two thieves which was captured on hi-definition video footage and rapidly circulated on social media.

panoramic view of traffic STOP sign subverted by Banksy in Peckham

Stop War, Banksy, Peckham, 23rd Dec 2023

The artwork is an anti-war message, Banksy’s name for the image is “Stop War”.  There is little doubt in the light of Banksy’s past work in support of Palestine that the reference is to the current war in Gaza.

Among the more ludicrous theories spouted on the internet was the idea that this theft was some kind of Banksy stunt.   Team Banksy is renown for professionalism and secrecy, it’s hard to imagine Banksy engaging a thief who didn’t have the nous to cover their face when committing a crime in front of the cameras.  Also, Banksy would surely have had to give any accomplice an indemnity for potential consequences including arrest and he isn’t that stupid.

close up view of traffic STOP sign subverted by Banksy in Peckham

Stop War, Banksy, Peckham, 23rd Dec 2023

The artwork’s message is delivered through a subversion of an existing road sign, this is a rather unusual niche in Banksy’s street art.

google street view showing Stop sign before Banksy subverted it

Existing STOP sign, June 2022, photo courtesy Google Maps

Banksy’s books, website and Instagram account are the only public sources for verifying something as a genuine Banksy and these reveal just a few examples of modified street signs.  In his 2005 Wall and Piece book we find two photos of what appear to be subverted road signs though we’d need photos of the intact signs to be certain.   In 2009 there was an amended “No Stopping” sign in Whitechapel, London with a rat in a wheel, an image that appeared subsequently in New York and Croydon except the rat is now in a clock face rat race.

Red triangle traffic warning sign subverted by Banksy

Subverted traffic sign, Photo: Banksy, Wall and Piece

subverted Give Way traffic sign by Banksy showing cow hanging from Parachute

Banksy, Wall and Piece

No Stopping traffic sig with added rat in a wheel by Banksy

No stopping rat race, Banksy, Bell Lane 2009 – Photo Banksy, Cut and RUN 2023

In 2018 a genuine Banksy “OAP Crossing” sign appeared in Clevedon, Somerset.  The sign needed the context of an elderly population for full impact so as a dormitory town for retired old folk Clevedon was ideal but in the absence of a suitable existing sign Banksy made the sign from scratch and placed it on the lamppost.

Two traffic stop signs subverted by street artist Mantis to read Stop Consuming

STOP CONSUMING, Mantis, Shoreditch 2008

Identical drones have appeared a number of times in the Banksy cannon including as artwork in his currently closed Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem and as part of the Gross Domestic Product shop in 2019.

Banksy artwork with drones bombing a painting of a hillsdie by Banksy in the Gross Domestic Product display, Croydon, 2019

Duck and Cover, Banksy, Gross Domestic Product, Croydon 2019

The GDP drones were advertised for sale online by Banksy and the secret of the craftsmanship is revealed in the product description.  From photos they may look stencilled but the drones are actually painted resin glued to the signs.  This gives rise to the excellent drop shadow effect and the relief structure can be seen in this photo.

product label for Banksy artwork Duck and Cover

Duck and Cover product label, Banksy, Gross Domestic Product, Croydon 2019

For about 12 hours the police position on the Peckham stop sign was they weren’t taking any action as no loss had been reported.  After a short idling period they did a U-turn to “Seeking information regarding an incident” which then gave way to “A man has been arrested”.  Miffed artists droned on about preferential treatment for Banksy and one full caps online comment screamed “SOUTHWARK APPARENTLY THINK ITS THEIRS. ITS NOT”, referring to the notion of street art being for everyone.    Well, actually it is theirs.  The thief was charged with criminal damage which is a property offence, nothing to do with it being art theft.  Street signs on local roads (sub motorway and A roads) are the council’s responsibility and Southwark could not give a flying one about the Banksy, it’s more likely that they can’t be seen to be blasé about such a high profile un-authorised street sign removal.

Other artists have augmented street signs for art and political purposes, without doubt the best known is the French artist Clet Abraham. Banksy isn’t the only artist whose subverted street signs get nicked.

subverted traffic no entry sign by Clet Abraham, Marylebone 2022

No entry David, Clet Abraham, Marylebone 2022

subverted pair of no entry traffic signs in Shoreditch, 2008

STOP CONSUMING, Mantis, Shoreditch 2008

subverted traffic no entry sign by Clet Abraham, Brick Lane 2022

Now you see Clet Abraham, Brick Lane 2022

replaced traffic No Entry sigh, Brick Lane

No sign of Clet, December 2023

This isn’t the first time I have put up a blog post on Christmas Day, in 2009 Robbo (RIP) delivered a brilliant ripost to Banksy, part of the memorable spat between the pair and blogged HERE.

Many thanks to Art Of The State whose thoughts and reminders greatly informed this post


Composite image of the front of the former Seven Stars pub on Brick Lane comparing the appearance on two dates about a year apart

Spot The Difference! Competition Time

The third London International Pasteup Festival team tactically arranged the new art submitted for the festival around existing art.  Some of that existing art was well weathered from LIPF2, the second London International Pasteup Festival.

Read all abaht LIPF3 HERE, then enter the competition.

Prize: A voucher for the Shoreditch Street Art Tour for up to 4 humans

Composite image of the front of the former Seven Stars pub on Brick Lane comparing the appearance on two dates about a year apart

Seven Stars, Brick Lane LIPF 2023 vs LIPF 2022

All you have to do is compare the London International Pasteup Festival 2023 v. 2022 images above and count how many different paste ups survived the 11 month and 6 days between LIPF2 and LIPF3.  While you’re at it, write down the names of as many of the artists whose worked survived from LIPF2 to LIPF 3 as you can.  Then:

  1. sign up to the Shoreditch Street Art Tours newsletter on the tour website
  2. go to our Instagram, comment on this picture and shout out at least one friend
  3. email your count and your list of those enduring artists you identify to our email

 

SAME SIZE PRINT:

Competition closes midnight 24th December 2023

Please do not ask for a higher resolution version of this image a rude reply definitely offends

multiples including colour variants of the same piece of art only count as 1

The winner will be the person who meets conditions 1, 2 and 3 above and gets closest to the number of surviving pieces of art the judges count.

In the event of a tie on estimates of the number of surviving pieces, the entry correctly identifying the most artists of enduring art pieces will be the winner.

If that does not produce a clear winner the winner will be determined by a draw.

The judges’ decision is final

Voucher valid for one public Shoreditch Street Art Tour for up to four adults or mix of adults and juniors

Voucher will expire on 31 December 2024 or date of booked tour, whichever is earlier

Winner may change a booking subject to more than 48 hours notice.

no cash alternative.

no entries by tour guides or the LIPF organisation (including paste up team) will be counted


collaged portrait of child Syrian refugee by Federico Luvol in Paris

Street Art In Paris

“A decaying paste up in Butte aux Caille proved worthy of almost an entire essay in itself.  The subject is a young girl, looking confidently at the viewer, relaxed yet perhaps not totally welcoming our intrusion into her world.  The concentration on her face seems to ask “Is this a person I can trust or not?”

The artist is Italian stencilist Federico Luvol, many thanks to Thom Thom for supplying the ID.   The young girl is actually a Syrian refugee at school in Italy and the message concerns the appalling treatment dished out to refugees who have fled war, horror and ethnic cleansing in their homeland only to face a different kind of abuse in supposed countries of refuge.   The paste up art is a composite of stencilled image and cut paper negative lightly overlayed with splattered spraypaint.  Over time the paper has decayed and in a couple of places, down the right arm and the back of the head, the paper has torn away leaving a blank wall silhouette defined by the paint overspray, this adds a third component to the collaged image.    This is the kind of street art discovery that revives tired limbs, jaded eyes and gives me the motivation to kick on and find more.”

Extract from “Paris Street Art – Part Deux” on sister blog Graffoto

photo: Dave Stuart


Space Invader LDN_133 mosaic street art at Elephant and Castle

Space Invader Flashing and Flashed

Space Invader last strengthened his invasion of London in 2016 and from a peak of 150 the number of Invaders stationed in London has slowly diminished.  Some have been kidnapped and a number of those have been held to ransom on Planet Ebay.  Some went dark, contact lost as they simply disappeared.  Some deteriorated and decayed with time.   The lucky few however returned to their sentry posts restored, refreshed, reinvigorated and reactivated by Space Rescue International.  They prefer “Reactivation.”

Space Invader LDN_133 mosaic street art vigilant at Elephant and Castle

Space Invader LDN_133 Reactivated – see also top image

News of recent reactivations prompted a bike ride this morning to wildernesses south of the river where a number have resumed their stealthy monitoring activities.

mosaic space invader street art near waterloo London

Space Invader LDN_84, grumpy so-and-so

mosaic space invader street art near waterloo London

LDN_84, perhaps not happy being south of the river

Space Invader LDN_134 mosaic street art through the bushes close up

Space Invader LDN_134 stealthily observes London

Space Invader LDN_133 mosaic street art vigilant at Elephant and Castle

Space Invader LDN_133 scrutinises alien craft

Space Invader LDN_131 mosaic street art near Kennington

Space Invader LDN_131 eternally lurking

Space Invader LDN_131 mosaic street art near Kennington

Space Invader LDN_131 going nowhere

The most far flung was way out in Brixton, its remote location prompted an invader health check with one of the supreme reconnaissance group on the leader board of Invader’s smartphone game “Flash Invader”.  This guru advised that LDN_42 had actually been sighted and recently cleaned by another Master of the High Score screen, Mr Steam and as a result, the signal was strong.

Space Invader LDN_131

Space Invader LDN_42, old school Brixton resident

It’s not about the stats or the ego of soaring up the high score chart but five invader’s inspected, 100 points scored and a huge 678 place rise smashing into the top 40,000 on the leader board made this a very productive hour!  It took my flashed London Invaders into treble figures, 101 of 150 mosaics flashed, this is the kind of stats fetish that satisfies the inner nerd.

screengrab Space Invader Flash Invader game high scores

Lost in Space (but getting higher)

LINKS

Read more about the work of the Reactivation Team in our 2016 interview with this highly secretive group of space operatives here.

Space Invader

Reactivation Team

All photos copyright Dave Stuart


Brick Lane London pasteup street art for the 3rd London International Pasteup Festival

London International Pasteup Festival 2023

The 3rd edition of the London International Pasteup Festival was a magnificent, colourful, creative and chaotic success.   Following an open call art came from all over the world including Australia, New Zealand, Italy, France, Germany, Norway, USA, Jordan, Greece, Uruguay and Preston to name just a few places that aren’t London.

The art included every imaginable format capable of being pasted up with the LIPF special blend of wallpaper paste and PVA.

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Pasteup Street art on wall on Brick Lane for the London International Pasteup Festival 2023

Soandso PDX, with Vegan Flava (Swe) and others

ACAC All Cops Are Clowns stencil street art pasted up as paste of London International Pasteup Festival 2023

All Cops Are Clowns says Yo Pecador, spraypaint, single layer stencil on party tablecloth paper

In several spots the pasteup crew met with “Concern” from property owners, which kind of adds to the fun.  At Fashion Street occupants praised the art, saying they were always delighted when the art on their walls changed.

Fashion Street London before the London International Pasteup Festival updated the street art

Fashion Street Before LIPF3 – including survivors Mowcka, Toastoro, RX Skulls, Quint, Neon Savage

Fashion Street London after the London International Pasteup Festival refreshed the street art

Fashion Street After LIPF3. So and So PDX, Zelda Bomba, Doodlher, Wrdsmth, UltramarineDream, Emzo, Sincanvas, Planet Selfie, Catscult, Paddywaggon, Oddo, Jola, Jace, D7606, Coloquix, Diva Dog LA, Number Six Prints, Amore, Art Tits

Check out a short clip of the pasteup team in action on a few of the walls here on the Shoreditch Street Art Tours Instagram

Eight locations benefitted from comprehensive LIPF3 makeovers and several of the LIPF2 locations  received minor tarting up.

Fashion St London pasteup street art for the 3rd London International Pasteup Festival

Fashion St, the big picture

Blackall Street London pasteup street art for the 3rd London International Pasteup Festival

One part of Blackall Street: Yo Pecador, RX Skulls (2022), Vegan Flava, Easyone, Orrible (pre festival), The Ass Cream, Did by Rua, Slow Shrug, My Pen Leaks, Jane and Rik, Pixelpunk, Mnky, Doodlher, Paddywaggon, Blackligma

Puma Court detail: Katrine Beth Reigstad, Koko Bayer, Toastoro, Apparan, Goldloxe, Nudehead, PInk Boneyard, Neftnik, RX Skulls. Voxx Romana

Buxton St London pasteup street art for the 3rd London International Pasteup Festival

Buxton St: feat. Yo Pecador, Pmntowl, Jola, My Pen Leaks, Sincanvas, d7606, Visionox, Mort art, Subdude, Wrdsmth, tweet_streetart, tanzt_die_orange, Lidia Lidia, number six prints

Pasteup Street art on wall on Seven Stars yard, Brick Lane for the London International Pasteup Festival 2023

Seven Stars Yard fragment (see top image for full wall): Tweet_street art, TV Head ATX, Toastoro, Scrapyard Specs, Mkny, Jace, Did by Rua, D7606, Banga Street Art, Perishable Rush, blackligma; also David Guest, Brocolli Man, Raddington Falls

Grimsby St London pasteup street art for the 3rd London International Pasteup Festival

Grimsby St, the big picture

Grimsby St London pasteup street art for the 3rd London International Pasteup Festival

Small portion of Grimsby St walls: Apparan, Creative-Electric, Subdude, Raf Urban, Diva Dog LA, Bento Ghoul, Streetvulven, Visionox, Jace, Wrdsmth, Tripsandpieces, Jace, Briliant_gr, Jola, Lidia Lidia, Homo Riot

Calvin St London pasteup street art for the 3rd London International Pasteup Festival

Calvin St: City Kitty, Greatboxers, Green Taxonomy, Nasty, Briliant_Gr, D7606, The Artful Fro, Mowcka, Lidia Lidia, Eduard Dinic, Toastoro, Fra Quendo, Pre LIPF: Darkevil Arts,Neon Savage, Boxitrixi, Donk, Corrosive8

It took a revolving gang of paste flingers led by the artists and principal organisers Apparan and Subdude 4 long days of action to paste up the art prior to the festival.

several Street artists adding art to a wall on Brick Lane for the London International Pasteup Festival 2023

sunny days pasting art at Grimsby Street

The festival included fundraising, a paste up workshop run by the legend Mowcka and a pop up art shop at the notorious and popular Monty’s on Brick Lane.

People making art for the London International Pasteup Festival Pasteup Workshop

LIPF3 Pasteup Workshop .  Photo: Apparan

People making art for the London International Pasteup Festival Pasteup Workshop

LIPF3 Pasteup Workshop . Photo: Apparan

LIPF3 marked a further development in the organiser’s approach to arranging the walls.  In 2021 LIPF1 (review here) involved placing the art on walls with permission and in several locations the art was pasted onto vinyl tarpaulins which were tied to permission walls.  LIPF2 (review here) in 2022 saw the team focus on pasteup halls of fame with tacit approval or tolerance, except one location where an occupant took extreme umbrage with the pasters and a cake slice to the walls.   The absence of permission and the placement on existing pasteups gave the display a more authentic feel, something closer to the true spirit of pasteup street art.

This time, LIPF3, the team extended the number of walls decorated and worked around and with existing pasteup art, retaining large amounts of art already on the wall so that a spectrum of paper art from different stages of the street art life span could be seen.  This meant that rather than a uniform brand new appearance of art all the same age, there was rips, textures and elements of the natural aging process present.

Pasteup Street art on wall on Brick Lane for the London International Pasteup Festival 2023

Seven Stars Yard

The pasteup team take great pains to try to avoid the walls looking like formal gallery hang arrangements, Uberfubs contributed significantly to the overall aesthetic adding her colourful circles to break up the depressing tyranny of the long straight edge.

Colourful circles by Uberfubs connect and break up art by many street artists at The London International Pasteup Festival

Uberfubs between Doodhler, ODDO, Fra Quendo, Jola, D7606, Toastoro, Nasty, Tweet_streetart, Katsukai Collective, Subdude, DaddyStreetFox

The paste up crew didn’t just retain existing art, they even repaired some beautiful pieces that were on the verge of giving up the ghost.  No charge 😉

The next video is a homage to the London International Pasteup festival featuring close to 70 shots of the art displayed on a number of the walls around Shoreditch.

London International Pasteup Festival was held on the weekend of 16th and 17th of September.  The display survives but diminishes over time as new art goes over old.

The London International Pasteup Festival are congratulated on doing such a fabulous job at keeping this often overlooked and dismissed element of street art culture alive and relevant, as well as producing a wonderful update to a large number of walls around Shoreditch (and beyond through related projects)

As is the case with all street art except murals, participants in LIPF3 were not required to identify as artists,  anyone could send in paper art and that could be you next time!  Follow the London International Pasteup Festival for future news of further opportunities to join in the fun.

Click for LIPF3 Locations Map

London International Pasteup Festival Instagram

All Photos: Dave Stuart except workshop photos courtesy Apparan