Shoreditch street art in is in a state of permanent constant flux and two consecutive public tours last weekend really bore witness to that truth.
This is not about the huge set piece murals beloved of blogs and the media and the globe trotting arterazzi, that is street art with permission by amazing trained and full time artists. Here we are discussing what street art was from the very beginning always meant to be – art by anyone for everyone, independent of the art world’s exclusionary, selective and wealth driven system. Art without permission, street art that causes a sharp intake of breath on the encounter with the unexpected.
Saturday’s public street art tour had a surprise chat with the talented and emerging street artist Shallow Lagoon who pushes art technology to breaking point and beyond, then pastes his frenetic art works on the street.
The legendary Broccoli Man was then spotted approaching down the pavement muttering “Broccoli broccoli broccoli” en route to an emergency appointment with an ice lolly. Probably not broccoli flavoured.
We love a bit of adbusting and Himbad had been out augmenting multiple art works and adverts – all fair game and we found a trail of Himbad interventions from Brick Lane to Old Street.
A railway bridge on Wheler street had several graffiti writers preparing to indulge their radiant coloured can skills in the creation of new graffiti on the frequently changing surfaces.
Quint had also been out creating some art. His stencil based figures are quite often stencils on paper but this time the approach was hardcore stencil direct on the wall.
Another mastic based yellow line writing piece was discovered on the same bridge. The creator is still the subject of curiosity and conjecture but this specimen teases with a hint of a tag appearing in the love heart, if you have any ideas and can identify the artist – let me know!
We also found that the OMYDENO “Gnats” mural which was the subject of a blog post on Saturday had acquired a few graffiti tags and one rather rude word, it was quite possible that the artwork’s end might be fast approaching.
Surely Sunday’s tour couldn’t compete for numbers of new street art could it? Think again!
There were new pasteups by Old Bones, Sez La Vie and Shallow Lagoon.
On Saturday we had spotted a David Speed painting which had the addition of a luminous balloon like number 6 added to it. David Speed have evidently returned and on Sunday morning you would never have known his classical bust painting had been disfigured – if it wasn’t for our diligent documentation of the street art!
That fresh graffiti on Wheler Street bridge oozed style.
The negative space on an illegal billboard had acquired some tags overnight.
Our suspicion that the Gnat piece was in its final moments proved unexpectedly justified, Eroik added a cool refreshing blue graffiti throw which brought to mind a dive into a cool refreshing swimming pool, which in last weekend’s temperatures was just what was needed.
One unfortunate round of changes concerned some regrettable and immature political daubings based on ill judged hate speech and offensive insignia which thankfully we have complete discretion to not replicate here. One such piece of provocative and moronic defacement was over Stik’s iconic Brick Lane Couple. We alerted Stik and he had repaired it by 2pm – hurrah for the good guys. Our mutual friend Shafiur posted a critique of this defacement on social media on Sunday and expressed beautifully the positivity in Stik’s mural which attracted the attention of the mindless opponents of shared humanity and connectivity. We can also courtesy of Stik and Subdude share a video of Stik repairing the mural BUT BEWARE TRIGGER WARNING regarding offensive insignia.
Final thought – on Saturday evening the secret band at Glastonbury turned out to be one of my favourite bands #Pulp and on stage they had a speaker decorated on all sides by…..HELCH!!! Here is a photo of my tv.
all photos: Dave Stuart
