London street artist Bambi has created a powerful new stencilled piece of street art on a ”virgin” (bare brick, un-painted) wall in a high profile location in Shoreditch.
The subject is Michael Brown, though the image looks more like Obama (the ears?) repeated 5 times in a manner which ironically is a bit reminiscent of Warhol’s multiple gun toting Elvis image . The wall is right opposite Cargo night club and sits facing a couple of famous Bansky images, which also reminds us that Bambi has been often acclaimed (without foundation) as the female Banksy.
Bambi is an interesting artist in so far as she collects column inches by the gazzillion (have a few more on us) yet shuns the normal street art capitol of Shoreditch in favour of North London locations such as Islington and Camden. Her repertoire is dominated by popular contemporary female icons and a dry sense of hmour and this has been sufficient to win her a loyal fanbase stretching way beyond the normal “scene” collectors”.
“DON’T SHOOT” screams large blood red stencilled lettering repeated across Obama’s portrait and the logo on his clothing reads “Don’t Do it”. 100 yards away at the corresponding location on the next alley, Nikelab’s Shoreditch premises proclaim “Just Do It” on a railway bridge wall in huge letters. The raised hand brings some ambiguity to the image, is it “stop”, or is it a greeting?
The text around the images reads
“You abuse your powers again and again
Another innocent unarmed soul is murdered in your name
Filthy blue lies flow and flow
You shot him six times for just jaywalking home
Left in a pool of blood on the street
But you think it’s just another day on the beat
Come on justice must be done or anarchy will bite you on the bum
Bambi”
Update: It seems Bambi returned to make her message clearer by repeating the poetic refrain on the black surface of the building next to her stencil artwork. It wasn’t there in the original photographs, indeed it wasn’t there when we passed on Sunday at lunchtime but lo, come Monday lunchtime there was the fresh addition right under a sign warning “You are being filmed, if you graffiti our building you will be prosecuted”.
The clearer surface means we can now update the text above where it wasn’t legible before.
Sadly, the cops aren’t learning much as the news comes through today that Graffiti writer Delbert Rodriguez Gutierrez died in Miami yesterday after being mown down by a cop in a car. The president of the Miami Police union was reported to have said “..for every action there’s a reaction. If he would have not been committing a crime and then running from law enforcement, this could have been avoided.”
The owners of that particular wall aren’t keen to join in the street art fun and by Tuesday evening, the fresh work had been buffed – painted black. They have previous in hiding their sense of humour under a bushel, this retort by Smif 6 years ago didn’t last long either.
all images: NoLionsInEngland