Tag Archives: Orrible

Covid 19 Shoreditch Street Art

You didn’t think a killer virus was going to stop street artists did you?  Shoreditch witnessed an outpouring of street art addressing the Covid 19 pandemic and its surrounding issues from a number of angles.   It’s amazing what a street artist could achieve with that one hour outdoor exercise license non-shielding people had during lockdown.

One of the most prolific artists was Nathan Bowen whose suitably masked characters appeared all over from West to East.

“Stay Positive/The NHS Warrior” – Nathan Bowen

“Thanks NHS” – Nathan Bowen, Harry Blackmore; Oxford St

Nathan Bowen, Harry Blackmore, Ernest Obi – Shaftesbury Avenue

Almost as active as Nathan were Deanio X and Seen K26, often in the company of Tasnim Mahdy

Stay Strong – Deanio X, Seen K26, Tasnim Mahdy

“Stay Strong” – Deanio X, Seen K26, Tasnim Mahdy; Picadilly Circus

“Stay Strong Key Workers” Deanio X, Soho

Our weekly clap for carers, which was a beautiful collective thank you, has stopped but it is clear that many street artists remain grateful on our behalf to the NHS, to the carers and other key workers.

“A quiet prayer holds over London…” We Love Our NHS – Robert Montgomery

Thank You NHS – Jimmy C

Is it just me sees concentric stained glass hearts in shades of NHS blue in this homage by DRT?

DRT (with Nathan Bowen & Co. in background)

Graffiti Life

On the flipside from the love for the NHS comes blame flinging and conspiracy theory. The UK’s elected political masters and their un-elected advisers repeatedly preached one thing but practiced another to the point that anyone else would have felt embarrassed by. Street artists can be quite merciless when political hypocrisy becomes apparent and they proved yet again how swiftly street art can respond to current affairs.

In some countries the political response was based on denial or even deceit, Subdude latches on to those moments quite brilliantly.

Corona Credit Score = 0, Subdude

On the revelation that the NHS workers Boris thanked for his care in St Thomas’ Hospital were immigrants who now under the conservative government’s mooted minimum wage threshold would not qualify to come and lend their skills to the UK’s underfunded understaffed health service:

So How DO You Like Us Now Boris, Subdude

If you need to know what “Dominic Does Durham” is pastiching, ask your Dad

Dominic Does Durham, Subdude

The early days of the UK response to the Covid crisis were characterised by simple clear messages and this apparent clarity was reflected in the referencing of the messages in the art. K-Guy found the graphic design and linguistic shorthand of those official three stanza instructions we saw on the podiums at the daily Coronavirus press conference in England lent itself to highlighting political neglect as an amplifier of the spread and impact of the disease through hospitals and care homes.

It’s A Testing Time, K-Guy

“Infected frontline policies”, K-Guy

“Intensive Don’t Care”, K-Guy

The surprising move to abandon testing and tracing and the awful situation regarding inadequate PPE provision featured in several pieces. Frankie Riot references the famous press conference where World Health Organisation head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus offered the simple “Test, test, test” which many developed countries decided to ignore with pretty devastating consequences.

Protect NHS Workers – Frank Riot

China again:

Covid Eau de Virus – ‘Orrible

Stay Safe, Remain Free – Artist Not Known

As Shoreditch Street Art Tours has emerged from lockdown doing very small private street art tours for the same price as the public tours, just so you know, the single piece of pandemic art everyone appears to be aware of is, not surprisingly, Banksy‘s nurse superhero painting on canvas “Game Changer”, donated to Southampton General Hospital.

“Game Changer” – Banksy, Photo: Banksy website

Banksy has done three pandemic related artworks: the aforementioned “Game Changer”; his earlier skit on the idea of the elusive rat stencilist working from home and most recently his brilliant makeover of a London tube with rascal rats parachuting with PPE face masks, rats tagging with sanitiser gel and rats sneezing all over the carriage in a lurid echo of the animation played frequently on the UK TV of the dispersal of vapourised snot from a sneeze in a train carriage.

Snot rat, Banksy

You don’t mask you don’t get – Banksy

You don’t mask you don’t get – Banksy

Among all the inspired pandemic related art and the positivity towards those who placed themselves in way of potential harm for our care, one artist was creating pro NHS art years before it became fashionable. Ben Wakeling recovered from his own mental health issues to channel his efforts into art as a therapy for people with mental health issues and his therapeutic work and his Outsider Gallery have proved so effective that his art therapy can now be prescribed by GPs.

To end this lockdown lookback on a positive note, could any message be more appropriate than Mark Titchner’s “Please believe these days will pass” plea.  Let’s hope the optimism is well founded.

“Please believe these days will pass” – Mark Titchner

Artist Links (additional):

Harry Blackmore

Ernst Obi

Robert Montgomery

Jimmy C

Graffiti Life

Frank Riot

Orrible

All photos: Dave Stuart except courtesy Banksy where noted


Street art, street artists, Shoreditch, London, snow. smiles

Stop Street Art Cos It’s Cold? No Chance!

The trains may be up the spout and the motorways down to a single lane slush slalom but it takes more than a cold weather to stop street art activity in Shoreditch, or indeed to get in the way of our awesome guests!  The feature shot at the top of this post shows a solid group of hardcore street art fans, they are 3 hours into a tour during which the snow barely paused yet here they are, cheerful, smiling and standing in front of an equally hardcore piece of graffiti by legend EINE.

Through the snow we found quite a lot of new street art this morning put up by artists determined to remain active despite freezing temperatures over the past few days.

I was particularly impressed by this Jake character by Losthills, it may look like a paste up which is his usual medium on the streets but this is actually a relief sculpture.

Street art, street artists, Shoreditch, London, snow, paste up,Losthills

#Jake by Losthills

Nice to see new stuff from Orrible in Shoreditch with the stencil on paint rat paste up.

Street art, street artists, Shoreditch, London, snow, paste up,Orrible

Orrible

Mowcka was also new since yesterday and as with nearly all of this small, clandestine street art the beauty is as much in roughness of the layers, colours and textures in the surround as it is about the actual art piece.

Street art, street artists, Shoreditch, London, snow, paste up,Mowcka

Mowcka has a natural connection

RIP Smith has been making regular trips up from the West Country this year, this Slimshady stencil was spotted yesterday.

Street art, street artists, Shoreditch, London, snow, stencil, letterbox, RIP Smith

RIP Smith

A fresh addition roughly pasted over some beautiful abstract colours comes courtesy of dmstff.

Street art, street artists, Shoreditch, London, snow, paste up, DMSTFF

DMSTFF

Broke Art‘s fresh piece comments on the huge increase in dependency on foodbanks, particularly among those whose part time employment means they fall out of the state support system yet find the work does not provide a living wage. Plus it’s always good to see street art appearing over advertising.

Street art, street artists, Shoreditch, London, snow, paste up,Broke Art

Broke Art

Even Invader LDN_106 was looking blue from the cold today.

Street art, street artists, Shoreditch, London, snow,mosaic, tiles, LDN_106

Space Invader LDN_106 in the snow

Some of this art came from a group of regular London paste up provocateurs who had a group show this weekend (only) at the 5th Base Gallery on Heneage St.

Winter is coming but it isn’t stopping the street artists nor the Shoreditch Street Art Tour guests!

Links:

Losthills Instagram

Orrible Instagram

Mowcka Instagram

RIP Smith Instagram

dmstff Instagram

Broke Art Instagram

Space Invader website

All photos: Dave Stuart