Tag Archives: Brick Lane

Banksy Street Art Zoo Breakout

London has been been blessed with new Banksy street art creation every day for the past 9 days. Call it the urban jungle, the Banksy zoo, the London Banksy safari, whatever you like, Banksy has treated London to a version of his notorious October 2013 Better Out Than In 30 day New York residency. Fans and media had been baffled by a daily expanding menagerie of animals scattered across London but with the 9^th and final creation, a gorilla orchestrating a mass breakout through a shutter on London Zoo, see above, the story acquired coherence.

Mountain Ibex, Banksy, 5th Aug, Kew Bridge

All images Dave Stuart except where noted

The first stencil showed a precariously balanced Mountain IBEX on a crumbling buttress, the Banksy magic being present in the placement, the imaginative use of the building structure, the comic surrealism of this happening in barely above sea level Kew and the perennial intrigue of how did he do it. Release of CCTV footage from that camera on the wall gave us a big insight into Banksy’s use of a cherry picker. By the way, the CCTV camera position in the photo below is after it was reset by the building occupants.

Mountain Ibex, Banksy, 5th Aug, Kew Bridge

Then a pair of elephants reaching out to each other arrived the next day in Chelsea. Curiously the painting technique in the first two images was uncharacteristically flat though some uninvited collaborator has since sorted that by giving the elephants some white stripes (not witnessed through my lens yet!)

Elephants in Chelsea. Banksy, 6th Aug 2024

All this excitement occurred 3 years to the week since Banksy took his post lockdown Spraycation to East Anglia in 2021, perhaps it’s the time Banksy books for his holidays, or could it be it’s the rest of the year is holiday and this is when he clocks on for work?

Next day came three monkeys swinging across a bridge in Brick Lane spraypainted with variations in the paintwork giving a more typical Banksy detail. Brick Lane is swinging, so are the monkeys into the trees, amazing placement and it seems he must have set up fake bridge repairs in the middle of Brick Lane to use that cherrypicker again, wow.

Three Wise Monkeys, Banksy, 7th Aug 2024, Brick Lane

Three Wise Monkeys night manoeuvres, Banksy, 7th Aug 2024, Brick Lane

Day 4, a howling wolf in Peckham silhouetted against a full moon was stolen within a couple of hours, much like the STOP sign Banksy subverted in Peckham last year. The image of the wolf howling to a full moon really required night time viewing, thanks to those opportunist thieves the world has only Banksy’s own photos to enjoy that effect to the full. Sometimes it seems Banksy likes having the only photos (London 2012 Olympics javelin thrower, “Morning Is Broken”, Herne Bay 2023).

Howling Wolf, Banksy, 8th Aug 2024, Peckham. Photo: courtesy Banksy.co.uk

A long haul on the bike out to Walthamstow was required on day 5 to locate a pair of pelicans eating the fish from a chip shop sign. Witty subversion is the takeaway (boom boom).

Fish Supper, Banksy, 9th Aug 2024, Walthamstow

The Cricklewood Cat painted on a damaged disused billboard developed into a rather interesting story with the piece firstly being attacked by a member of the public with a hammer, then a contractor turning up to remove the billboard on behalf of the owner was blocked by people sequestering his ladder turning into a real “we shall not, we shall not be moved” standoff ended by 4 police cars and a riot van! No longer on the streets.

Stretching Cat, Banksy, 13th Aug 2024, Cricklewood

Stretching Cat (do not remove), Banksy, 13th Aug 2024, Cricklewood

Placing Xs on a map of London where Banksy had now done his stencils made it easy to speculate that the 7^th and supposedly final one according to the Guardian, would be either central or in deep South East London. Sure enough, right in the heart of the City of London financial district a fish tank of piranhas appeared using a hitherto unseen mixed painting technique. The illusion of a fish filled tank was superb and the technique, unlike the tank, remains unclear. This lasted 2 days before being purloined and rehoused by the City Of London Corporation aka the council, this can at time of writing be seen in Guildhall Yard, City of London.

Piranha Fish Tank, Banksy, 11th Aug 2024, City of London

The placement on police property was deliciously provocative and the preservation of this art gives Banksy a previously unimaginable privilege of police protection, what’s the opposite of “Most wanted”?

Piranha Fish Tank, Banksy, 11th Aug 2024, City of London

After knowing press reports that there would be just 7 images, it was a surprise and yet perhaps no surprise – never impose your expectations on Banksy – when reports of an 8^th surfaced on Monday 12^th August. On an industrial estate in Charlton, deepest South East London a rhino has literally and metaphorically got the horn for a grey car with a cone on the bonnet. This was so cleverly staged with the rear wheels of the jalopy deflated so the car appears to be buckling under the weight of the amorous mount. Defaced early evening of 12^th and at time of writing on 13^th rumours are that the car has been towed/stolen (delete according to your conspiracy appetite).

Horny Rhino, Banksy. 12th Aug 2024, Charlton

The final London Zoo piece brought the threads of the story together and authoritatively put the lid on some of the wilder ruminations on meaning. The king of the jungle, itself perhaps an allegorical reference to Banksy, lifts the zoo shutter allowing a sea lion and an assorted birds including a humming bird and a bird of paradise to escape while unidentified creatures peer out on freedom.

London Zoo Breakout, Banksy, 13th Aug 2024

The Zoo has taken its lead from the line put out by the media at the weekend that Banksy’s whole point was simply to cheer people up, certainly zoo staff were all very positive about their Banksy Great Escape. Staff advised that their stock take is done in January which may mean escapees have a considerable time before they will be missed, the zoo does have baby gorillas but a request they be brought out for the photo op was declined, it seemed the humans didn’t want the competition.

London Zoological Society: Animals, Cages and a gorilla by Banksy, 13th Aug 2024

The idea of animals in captivity orchestrating their escape certainly has potential for a darker and more Banksy-esque interpretation. The artwork includes a nice nod to his 2006 Camden Maid aka “Sweeping it under the carpet” painted in nearby Chalk Farm.

“Sweeping It Under The Carpet”, Banksy, 2006 (after council repair)

If this is to be the last then London won’t have numerically matched the 29 street art pieces Banksy blessed New York with in 2013 but in terms of the coherence of the theme and to pull that off across 9 street art pieces without missing a beat is an amazing achievement.

It is also evident that CCTV no longer holds the terror for street artists that it may have done 20 years ago with several of Banksy’s pieces being done in the full beady gaze of the CCTV camera. Indeed in the case of the Ibex goat the word from the property owner is that the CCTC captured Banksy repositioning the camera to face directly at the goat, so the camera is component of the artwork.

I-Spy something beginning with B, City Of London, 11th Aug

Watching the cheeky monkey, London Zoo, 13th Aug 2024

Is this zoo animal themed street exhibition done? Would it be a surprise if that escaping sea lion turned up on the nearby Regents Canal? Banksy certainly knows a few spots along there.

Three Wise Monkeys, Banksy, 7th Aug 2024, Brick Lane

Stretching Cat, Banksy, 13th Aug 2024, Cricklewood

Fish Supper, Banksy, 9th Aug 2024, Walthamstow

Three Wise Monkeys and some pigeons, Banksy, 7th Aug 20224, Brick Lane

Elephants in Chelsea. Banksy, 6th Aug 20242

Piranha Fish Tank, Banksy, 11th Aug 2024, City of London

Fish Supper, Banksy, 9th Aug 2024, Walthamstow

All images Dave Stuart except where noted

London International Paste Up Festival 2

The second edition of the London International Paste Up Festival took place 20-23 October 2022. Artists from all over the world, about 300 all told, sent in paper-based artwork which the organisers pasted up on a number of walls mainly around the Brick Lane area.

Fashion Street LIPF2

Street art was put up on a total of 7 locations, or 8 if you include the numerous paste ups that accumulated around LIPF HQ on Hanbury Street during the festival opening event. None of the LIPF2 locations had been used in the inaugural 2021 London International Paste Up Festival.

Seven Stars LIPF2, Brick Lane

In 2021 all the locations bar one were legal, permission had been granted by the owners. The exception was one wall where the LIPF team thought they had permission but it turned out they were listening to the wrong person! For 2022 there was no permission and indeed at several spots the apparent wall owners remonstrated with the paste up teams with varying degrees of forcefulness. At one spot the ground floor occupant harangued the team to be followed by an occupant from the floor above later saying how much they loved the art and the constant change.

Grimsby St LIPF2

In 2021 all the LIPF surfaces were virgin surfaces or tarps tied to walls. For the second event all bar one of the LIPF walls had long term prior history as paste up street art walls. The paste up festival waved a transformational wand at each wall, bringing complete more or less change in a single moment to surfaces more accustomed to perpetual evolution through gradual change. Last year’s art was essentially one layer deep whereas this year LIPF2 looks all the better for layering onto each walls accretion of texture, patina and depth. Also there were no gaps where original wall surface can be seen. So this year’s locations just looked more like street art from the wild compared to last year’s festival.

Puma Court LIPF2

Street art lends itself to collaborations, interactions and augmentations. Emo Ryan screenprints portraits of punk version of Queen Elizabeth garnished with Jamie Reid/Sex Pistols influenced wording, a recent paste up of the Queen by Silvio Alino had the right scale and similar text providing a perfect juxtaposition. The lily was well and truly gilded with the later addition of an artificial flower.

Silvio Alino, Emo Ryan and Me and Blue, Hanbury St

Coloquix/Appaaran collaboration for LIPF2

Paste up street art put up for the London International Paste Up Festival Second Edition

Tsunami_Mignonnerie / Raddington Falls interaction

One paste up spot with a long history of street art got the LIPF paste up team into spot of bother with an un-appreciative owner. Stik painted the Brick Lane Couple on Princelet Street in 2010. The adjacent wall was decorated in fine style with a succession of stencil images by Otto Schade from 2014 and paste ups really started appearing in large numbers in 2015. Someone in the property had a tirade against Benjay Crossman in 2019 leading to this sought after artist mulshing out his own art and leaving little doubt as to his feelings towards the owners. It would appear that the same person objected to the LIPF team decorating this long running spot and scrapped off the paste ups within his reach (short arms, stiff knees?). In the process of destroying the art he created a truly unsightly mess. Ironically, within the vague unwritten rules of paste up culture, ripped, torn, peeling and destroyed art gives a free pass to other artists to place fresh art over the desecration.

Princelet Street LIPF2 before the anti art attack

Princelet Street after the art desecration

2019 Benjay Crossman

Tweet_streetart from Melbourne collaborated with Metraeda from Dusseldorf on a balloon breathing faceted dragon. A barred gate locked to a wall provided appropriate context for several artworks including Palley’s R2D2 which was kept company by a rocket taking David Bowie to heaven and Cultof.XYZ’s “Allow access”. Old School street artists who submitted artworks included the famous London Police and West London writer CodeFC.

Tweet_streetart & Metraeda

Coloquix/Apparan collaboration for LIPF2

Puma Court – including Jace, 33WallFlower33, Tuby, Broken Hartist, Corrosive8, Cultof.xyz, Knapple

London Police, Uberfubs

Keith Flint and Queen Elizabeth by CodeFC. Also feaet No.rules art & LT66

Street artists are used to surrendering control over the fate of their art once they leave it on the streets. The London International Paste Up Festival begs artists to relinquish more, they are absent from the placement process. On the whole, with the exception of some artists who assisted with the pasting up or who attended some of the events in person, the gift of placement was in the hands of the team who spent many days pasting art on the walls. The aesthetic of the resulting walls was determined by opportunist interactions, intentional and chance colour combinations and a preference for chaotic randomness rather than disciplined straight edged borders and overlaps.

The Viaduct – early stages

The Viaduct LIPF2

Homo Riot, Vision Ox, Oddo, Punk Flamungo, Raffaele Giovani, DaddyStreetFox, TFA, Vermin, Pissandvinegar art, fiftyseven designs,Slow Shrug, Grimsby St, LIPF2

So.Schoen.Immer.Weider, Cameron twins, Hello The Mushroom, Taxed, Olly Walker, Apparan, Zelda Bomba at Puma Court

The LIPF2 spots are live and active street art locations, they remained dynamic and constantly changing even over the period of the Festival itself as new art was added by artists. K-Guy had been a participant in the 2021 LIPF but in 2022, having not managed to get ready in time for the submission deadline decided the best means of getting involved was simply to pop up and add his contributions himself. Those contributions were themselves subject to very rapid augmentation by another reliable contributor to the Shoreditch street art smorgasbord, Alex Arnell.

K-Guy

Fashion St

People immersed in the street art scene, in particular the practitioners, the artists may ponder what gives someone the right to take over whole walls and go over existing art in the name of a festival. Specially one in which very few of the participants are active in the installation, necessitating an element that might be construed as curation. If there is a conceit at the heart of the method, the actual achievement in elevating the appreciation and status of paste up street art justifies it.

Princelet St Oct 2022 pre LIPF

Princelet Street LIPF2

Shoreditch Street Art Tours had the pleasure a few years back of introducing the artist Apparan who is one of the main organisers involved in conceiving, managing and generally pulling off the London International Paste Up Festival to the charity Urban Heart Guate. Urban Heart Guate promotes various forms of therapy including art to support a better life and environment for young children growing up in communities in Guatemala blighted by poverty, crime and gang violence. A free street art tour by Shoreditch Street Art Tours on the last afternoon of LIPF2 raised donations to support the work of Urban Heart Guate. The official link to contribute via LIPF to this fabulous cause can be found HERE

The organisers of the London Paste Up Festival are continuing to raise funds in support and have partnered with Pepita Coffee to raise funds from purchases of reusable coffee tins packed with luxury ground coffee and featuring a collage of photos of LIPF1 art, they look stunning!

Collectors edition Pepita ground coffee for for the London International Paste Up Festival Second Edition

Collectors Edition Paste Up Festival coffee jar by Pepita Coffee

Message London International Paste Up Festival on Instagram for more details on how to get your mitts on one of these beauties.

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With apologies to the 300 artists who participated in LIPF2, it would be wonderful to provide links to all artists or indeed to identify everyone whose art features in the photographs in this summary but sadly this isn’t practical.

The 2nd London International Paste Up Festival was supported by:

Shoreditch Street Art Tours

Brick Lane Shisha Lounge

All photos: Dave Stuart

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 1^st 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

Shoreditch – More Than Street Art Apparently

Shoreditch is our stomping ground and street art is our passion but it is good to be reminded that when you have finished your street art tour there are so many other things to see and do in Shoreditch. Our recent guest Lizzie has written a wonderful blog post “So You Think You Know London? – Brick Lane” which reveals Shoreditch in its broader context for visitors.

Photo by Lizzie on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour

Have a read of Lizzie’s words for some great suggestions for post tour possibilities.

I know the feature photo at the top of the page looks like a photo of a car but it is actually a snap I snatched during the actual tour Lizzie was on last weekend.

Stik Sticks Around

One of the most popular works of street art on the Shoreditch Street Art Tour is the couple holding hands by artist Stik from London. In fact this particular piece of street art proved generally so popular that in a survey it was identified as the UK’s 17^th favourite piece of art. And we don’t just mean street art, we mean all art.

Visiting artist Falko from South Africa was in the country a few weeks back and Falko added a tiny elephant to Stik’s iconic piece, quite a bold move for someone whose art we don’t recall seeing on these shores before. In an interview with Graffoto Stik generously described Falko’s intervention as a forced enhancement. Stik knows how the game plays with street art, nothing is sacred (no pun intended) so he hasn’t flounced down to Princelet St in a fit of pique to make good the additions, though it will happen eventually.

Street art, Shoreditch, London, Stik, Falko, Falko1, street artist, street art tour, guide, couple holding hands, brick lane, interracial harmony

Stik with Falko1

Falko’s addition provokes curious thoughts: is there a religious significance the elephant? Well an elephant would be considered Haram under Islamic principals so the elephant is not going to be eaten for sure, it must be some kind of pet elephant albeit a bloody small one. The simple leash Falko has added binds the elephant to the couple, without that it would just be a small elephant superimposed on a couple holding hands so the lead is very important. At the tip of the elephant’s trunk it looks like the elephant might be holding a marker pen, even pet elephants getting up on doors these days, though perhaps the elephant is colouring in the background to Stik’s work, in a way signalling to us that Falko actually did the restoration work this time around. Clever that.

Falko1 Elephant

On my other blog I have written a sister to this piece which includes a look back at the original creation of the couple holding hands by Stik and it also looks at a lot of the other temporary changes made to the art piece since it was painted back in 2010.

Links:

Stik Website

Falko1 Instagram

Graffoto post

All photos: Dave Stuart

Caution Clet Abraham Overhead

A new haul of Clet Abraham traffic sign stickers has appeared overnight on Brick Lane. Clet Abraham is always a favourite on the street art tour with a number of his stickers dating from 2013 surviving. Clet Abraham’s stickers have appeared on previous visits in many parts of London including Shoreditch (of course), Soho, Putney and even that well known street art hotspot Belgravia.

This set of 8 stickers were all spotted close to the location of Moniker Art Fair, the urban art satellite fair taking place this weekend as part of London’s art week. I have seen only one of this set before in London, it’s always a delight to find a new clutch from this talented street artist.

Clet Abraham has work on the Graffik Gallery stand at Moniker Art Fair, details of which were mentioned in a blog post a couple of days ago.

Graffik Gallery have announced today what they curiously describe as an official party to take place at Graffik’s premises in Portobello Road on Saturday 17^th October, 7pm – 11pm. No prizes for guessing where Clet Abraham might be this evening adding his humorous intervention to traffic signs.

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Clet Abraham flashbacks;

London 2103

By The River, Putney 2013

Graffik Gallery,

284 Portobello Road, London W10 5TE

Moniker Art Fair

Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London E1 6QL

hasty “walk by” photos: Dave Stuart aka NoLionsInEngland

Night Street Art Photography is Back

The nights are drawing in so our unique Night Street Art Photography Tours being again. The first one was last night and what fun we had.

London, Shoreditch, Brick Lane, Night photography, street art, artists, graffiti

Of course there was a lot of new art created since last Winter to photograph.

London, Shoreditch, Brick Lane, Night photography, street art, artists, graffiti

Airborne Mark

And we photographed some old favourites which I haven’t photographed at night before, it certainly brings out a different aspect of the street art.

Jonesy – looking more sinister and ferocious than ever

Conor Harrington

The Night Street Art Photo Tours are organised as and when we can pull together a small group. You can of course arrange a private Night Street Art Photography Tour just for yourself. More details HERE (link opens in another window)

Neoh, Lily Mixe and others

Best in brick Lane!

Cranio Rainforest Indian on Brick Lane

Cranio from Brazil has been back in town! He has repainted one of his favourite spots with a new version of his Amazon rainforest Indian.

London,Shoreditch,street art,graffiti, tour,tour,walk,walks,Cranio,Brazil,Brick Lane, Amazon,Rainforest,Indian

Cranio – Brick Lane, 2015

Previously Cranio painted versions of the Indian on 2013 and 2014. Notice the cunning little trick in the 2012 and 2013 versions which made the Indian appear to stand in front of the wall, can you see how he did it?

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Cranio 2014

We will be sure to keep you posted on any news from Cranio on this visit but meanwhile, you can check out his show in the pop up gallery Fun Factory on Bethnal Green Road in 2013.

All photos: Dave Stuart

Sell Out’s Doggedly Inventive Installation in Shoreditch

Yesterday afternoon the Shoreditch Street Art Tour found plenty of evidence that the Street art provocateur Sell Out had been out conjuring up new butterfly installations. The centrepiece of his latest installation isn’t actually a butterfly, it’s a multi coloured manically slobbering canine who is doggedly (boom boom) careering around on a scooter trailing a slipstream of butterflies in its wake.

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This isn’t the first time that the presence of this motorbike has inspired creative clandestine sculpture making:

Sell Out

The tour also found that further up Brick Lane Sell Out had been active creating a beer swilling fixie riding skinny trousers wearing Shoreditch hipster out of a notice board on a wall.

Brick Lane – great place for a drink

Hats off to an artist who works without permission in daylight, accepts members of public will collect souvenirs from his art and who yesterday happily signed butterflies for some of the younger members of the tour group!