Tag Archives: London Design Festival

Public art by Felilpe Pantone in Greenwich Peninsula art trail The Tide

Felipe Pantone Quick Tide

The annual London Design Festival which is on right now at time of writing presents a dizzying selection of visual indulgences across London and a particularly eye catching one is Quick Tide by Felipe Pantone.

Felipe has been commissioned to add chromatic vibrancy to an outdoors stairway and cantilevered veranda arrangement overlooking the 02 Arena at Greenwich, East London.

 

Felipe has been seen in Shoreditch in the past painting dazzling abstract spraypainted murals though history is no impediment to a writer of hype, Quick Tide is according to the promoters Felipe’s first commissioned artwork in the UK, why being first in this manner should have any significance is not clear.

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The Tide is a work-in-progress 5km elevated walkway along the south bank of the River Thames heading east or, for the Captain Pugwash in you, downstream from North Greenwich and ultimately, when complete, forming a loop around the peninsula returning to the station at North Greenwich which is helpful as you don’t want to be dumped a million miles from civilisation at the end of a 5km wander.  It is not a million miles from a purpose built Greenwich version of New York’s High Line.  Felipe’s vinyl wrap Quick Tide artwork is a temporary addition to what seem to be a more permanent installation of contemporary sculptures along The Tide trail.

View of the elevated walkway The Tide with office blocks at GreenwichView of the elevated walkway The Tide towards River Thames at GreenwichQuick Tide certainly livens up what would otherwise be a fairly bland start to the public walkway.  Soft blends and rainbow spectrums in Pantone’s signature style delight the eyes.  Felipe has developed a real knack for kinetic dayglow trompe l’oeil art pieces which always make you nod and think…” yessss….clever”.    His playful use of interference patterns has made him one of the most interesting contemporary artists to emerge from the graffiti scene.

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Quick Tide seems to have been installed for London’s Design Festival which ran 17th – 25th September though it is captioned “Greenwich Peninsula Art Trail” in the LDF guide and that art trail certainly seems to be permanent.  Photos of the stairs and cantilevered structure without Pantone’s art show it to be a sterile bland exercise in municipal footpath geometry.   The signs are confusing, the signals are unclear, the abstract art deserves to live a bit longer but who can tell whether it survives past this week – to grant such a short life seems a waste and indeed an insult to the creativity that has gone into its conception.

Links:

Felipe Pantone Instagram

Art On The Tide/Greenwich Peninsula/The Peninsulist website 

London Design Festival website

all photos: Dave Stuart


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Redchurch St Street Art History

Redchurch Street in Shoreditch has changed dramatically over the years but seriously good street art has been present throughout the whole gentrification process.

As part of the Shoreditch Design Triangle, itself a subset of the London Design Festival, I was asked to survey the history of Redchurch St’s street art.   The novel twist was that OnRedchurch, the people who got in touch, set up several Cabinets of Curiosities in window fronts on Redchurch St where QR codes linked to online features, I wrote about those last week.   Here is a reproduction of my survey of Redchurch street art produced for the Shoreditch Design 2020 Triangle Cabinet of Curiosities.

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Malarky, Ronzo, 2011

Redchurch Street with its swish boutiques, street fashion, food and coffee was until barely a decade ago a cut-through lined by roofless derelict properties and empty wasteland plots.  As street art found its home in Shoreditch, Redchurch Street’s rough surfaces, dark corners and curious small spaces came to host a huge amount of street art and to play a role in developing the careers of many significant street artists.

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Redchuch St 2008 feat ATS, Peripheral Media Projects, Toasters, Jak-D and Faile

Derelict properties led to squat galleries and exterior canvasses for street artists.  The former Section Six Gallery, now the apartment block next door to Labour and Wait, sported a kaleidoscope of stencils and paste-ups and eventually was transformed with a mural by street artist and fashion designer INSA.

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Sickboy 2008

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INSA 2009

After dereliction, the next phase in an area’s development sees properties made secure and ahead of redevelopment, street art becomes tolerated and, occasionally, explicitly consented. Many Redchurch Street facades witnessed early street art pieces from artists such as Roa, Otto Schade and Jimmy C and others who have since gone onto international success.

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Cityzen Kane, James Bullough, 2015

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Mobstr, 2011

Redchurch Street still had proper corner shops until a few years ago, shutters provided prime real estate for a rolling exhibition of graffiti luminaries such as Cept and Discreet, Aset (RIP) from the ATG crew and Vibes representing the RT crew.  A significant factor was the presence of specialist spraypaint store Chrome and Black which had an entrance next door to Richmix on Redchurch St.

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Cept, Dscreet, 2009

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Mean, Aset (RIP) 2014

Redchurch St was a linear building site for a large part of the late noughties, extensive building site hoardings hosted furiously changing art stencils, paste-up, tags and murals by artists from the UK and abroad.  There is little doubt that street art was co-opted as a tool in the “gentrification” phase.

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Dr Zadok, Meeting Of Styles 2014

Jim Vision, a spraypaint artist and key figure at the more permissioned end of the street art spectrum resided for many years on Redchurch Street.  In his role as organiser of the Meeting Of Styles graffiti festival Jim Vision arranged impressive murals on Redchurch Street as well as painting massive spectaculars himself.  He also curated a number of pop up graffiti writers and street artist group shows in several Redchurch St locations.

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Probs 2009

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Jim Vision 2014

The cottage at the junction with Club Row hosted some stunning murals by Roa, James Bullough and Jim Vision as well as a long running relief sculpture by artist Cityzen Kane installed with permission as a poignant tribute to his deceased son.

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Roa 2009

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Cityzen Kane, James Bullough, 2015

As is often the case galleries sprung up In advance of the arrival of boutiques. The event space at the junction of Ebor St, in its guise as the London and Newcastle Gallery was the venue for pop up exhibitions by street artists such as Borondo, Insa and Shoreditch’s own Pure Evil as well as graffiti writer group shows.  Its outside wall was the location of a piece of INSA’s pioneering “Giffiti”, an augmented reality mural which with a smartphone app would reveal a squad of policemen chasing eachother in  “The Cycle Of Futility”.

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INSA 2014

Urban Angel at the junction of Redchurch St and Chance St had very distinctive shutters declaring themselves as ART, as indeed they were having been painted by EINE in 2008.   Doomed by the coincidence of its opening and the financial crash of 2008, its brief existence saw it host shows by Remi Rough, Hush, Copyright and Best Ever.

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EINE, 2008

It is hard to believe that 11 years have passed since Graffiti legend and renown musician Goldie had a two floor solo show with live painting demonstration at the Maverick Showrooms.

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Goldie, “The Kids Are All Riot”, 2009

At the time of going to press the London Mural Festival is in full swing and London Design Festival favourite Camille Walala has provided a huge makeover to the rear of Richmix at the eastern end of Redchurch St.

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Camille Walala, London Mural Festival 2020

The logical trajectory of combining property development, street art and expensive shopping reaches its unavoidable conclusion with spraypainted adverts appearing where once there was street art, though having spent years honing their spraypainting skills in the riskiest circumstances, who would begrudge artists a living.

Among the niche fashion houses, beauty treatments and designer furnishing accessories Redchurch Street has not lost its edgy cool, a stroll will still yield brilliant stickers on lampposts, freehand non- permissioned portraits, art paste ups and for the especially observant, illegal bronze castings by street artist Jonesy.

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Zomby, Type, 2011

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Stormie Mills, 2009

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Duk, 2010

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Jimmy C, Alo, Cartrain, T.wat, Cityzen Kane 2013

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Pure Evil, 2012

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C215, 2013

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NEOH, 2012

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Unify 2014

All photos: Dave Stuart


Shoreditch, Urbanart, streetart, shows, gelleries, extinction rebellion, End Of THe Line, NomadicCommunityGardens, Core, Fanakapan, Voyder, Aches, Jim Vision

Shoreditch – So Much To Do

It has been a long time since we did this but the dance card for the next few days is chock full of fantastic events you might consider adding to your diary.

The ever brilliant BSMT Gallery in Dalston marked its re-opening last week in better  premises with a group show called Dystopia dedicated to Extinction Rebellion.  Tonight Wednesday 18th September BSMT hosts the first of a series of related workshops.  Following a talk about the mission of Extinction Rebellion there will be an introductory workshop in regenerative culture, which will discuss and provide some of the tools and approaches one can use to maintain one’s physical and psychological well-being in the face climate catastrophe. A specialist in this field from Extinction Rebellion will lead the workshop.

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Extinction Rebelion at BSMT, Photo courtesy BSMT Space

You will also get to see an exciting collection of urban art including some amazing bronze castings by Jonesy

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Jonesy

Thursday is packed.  Subdude has his first solo show at the atmospheric Monty’s Bar and I hear he is premiering a range of new previously unseen political lightning bolts.

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Subdude Wall Of Fame!

Up in Hoxton Donk, Rider and Skeleton Cardboard join forces for ”Dream Bigger Better Wierder” at Wellhung Gallery.

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Rider/Donk collabs above, Skelly below

Anna Laurini has a stunning show at The Old Bank Vault, 243 Hackney Road and Thursday is a late evening opening.

Shoreditch, Urbanart, streetart, shows, gelleries, extinction rebellion, End Of THe Line, NomadicCommunityGardens

Anna Laurini, Old Bank Vault

Finally, the big one this weekend is the Graffestival at the Nomadic Community Gardens, organised by Jim Vision/End Of The Line.  Two “flyers” for this, one being an absolutely stellar collection of spraycan artists from the graff and street art spheres, the second is the music.  This is likely to be the last major spraycan event at this location which has hosted numerous editions of the brilliant Meeting of Styles under same management.  We here the feature wall is going to be something very special for signing off from this spot.

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Nomadic Community Gardens, Hayley, Roving Cafe – we loved you so much!

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Graffestival artists lineup, nomadic Community Gardens

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Graffestival music lineup, nomadic Community Gardens

Lest we forget, London Design Festival LDF19 runs until the 22nd of September and there is so much of this located in the Shoreditch area, my fav (so far) has to be this Lee Broom installation which is yards from where our street art tours end

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Lee Broom installation, LDF19

There ya go, don’t say nothing ever happens.

photos: Dave Stuart except Graffestival and BSMT flyers courtesy respective organisations