Tag Archives: Space Invader

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Space Invader Art Show In Paris Invader Space Station

The.Headquarters of an inter planetary invasion led by Space Invader has been opened to the public for the first time at the Invader Space Station in Paris.

Teleporting to Paris to investigate, we discover intergalactic intrusions set in a multi level game masquerading as featureless former car park/office block.   We enter with trepidation, no one in history has ever survived a space invader attack, we are doomed to run out of lives.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Invader Space Station

It takes 9 levels to master this game but the first 4 are spent powering up.  The original much loved Space Invader arcade game rewards (or results in) fast wrists capable of extreme rapid fire button action at moments of close up battle, in the Invader Space Station strong thighs are an advantage as the platform lacks an elevating booster.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Powering up

Level 5 is where the enemy first engages.

From a deepest outer space darkness, larger than life rank and file invaders march towards us, way larger and more muscular than we remember from those ancient coin-op confrontations decades ago.  Flashing angular warriors whose amplified harmonic grunt gets faster and louder as they rip the darkness apart pin us to the edge of the universe.  Adrenaline reaching levels free from gravity and defences drained, we flee up to the next level pursued by a sound like someone downstairs has a record player that jumps back after the opening two notes of an acid brass band doing Purple Haze as a duet for euphonium and tuba.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

When the show closes come back to us, we might then have the courage to memorialise this awesome installation in video format but until then, we need to get by not thinking about it.

Entering the space station we were allowed to retain our communication devices, unlike, for example, in the black hole our phones vaporised into at a rat artist’s show in Northern climes in a previous epoch.  Our phones have been seeded with a viral app called Flash Invaders which we believe to be a “game”, our vigilance in spotting these lurking invaders on the streets is rewarded with “points” which take us up the “leaderboard” but tracking those invaders is tricky.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Most Valuable Invader Drones

The next level reveals the scale and density of the invaders local infiltration.  They are everywhere and mainly lurking in plain sight.  A location map and a matrix boasts of the visible spectrum characteristics of each invader but not their performance specs.  Some conduct their spying from roofs, some lurk at ground level.  We are obsessed with fixing their position using that app but the map of Paris on display is deliberately vague, in the real world each invader could be anywhere in the hundreds of meters that each marker covers.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

In 83 cities across 32 countries an army of (so far) 4027 invaders monitor, record, survey, report and spy.  Waves of attack on all fronts, the intrusion is global.   The next level of the Invader Space Station reveals the most photogenic invaders around the world though perhaps it is more of a spectacular large scale “employee of the month” photo wall.  Who is the best spy, which invader is documenting the most human activity through that app?

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in ParisThat question is actually answered quite explicitly on a real time monitor showing live surveillance successes.  You think we are playing the game?  The app is actually feeding our flashes back to the central hive, our location and times are tracked so that Space Invader, gloating Jabba-like in his lair, can monitor and measure the thousands of us daily pursuing the invaders embedded throughout the planet.  We are being played.

Lest we think our growing awareness of his scheme somehow levels the game, Space Invader’s next capsule mocks our puny efforts at mimicry.  A simple wall invites your counter attack but the result is an accumulation of toy-like marks and sticker.  Read, weep, don’t try this anywhere else is the overt Space Station message.   Curiously, the top of the wall houses a sequence of names, some clearly in code.  These are believed to be collaborators, if you know you know as they themselves say.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Space Invader is a master of video surveillance techniques, grainy dark footage of brief glimpses of invaders touching down in position simultaneously fascinates and strikes the fear of the unknowable into us.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

In parallel with the main invasion action, very secret tools have allowed Space Invader to capture humans and animals, transmogrify them and imprison them in embryonic stasis in pods mockingly called Kinder Eggs.  The next level forces real living humans to revert to a state of juvenile delight at Invader’s collection of captured Kinder Eggs, oh the unexpected shock and horror.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Rumour and allegations orbited the Forumosphere that the first invaders were innocent rubik’s cubes dismembered and rearranged in horrific parody of an old game played on low res screen in cabinet devices often located in pubs and arcades. The resulting mosaics were then given the responsibility of keeping sentry on street walls in major concentrations of humans such as Paris and London.  There is clear evidence at the 7th Level of entire rubiks cubes being assembled to make blurry images of artefacts of mass public appeal.   The cunning thing about the blurry images is that they are a disguise hard to figure out with the naked eye but on a phone screen it is much clearer who invaders are, all a ruse to get humans to pull out their phones and ultimately give their location away.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Next level is a magnificent Invader pin-up hall of fame.  Prints, canvas replicas and images face off against eachother.   These are the indoor versions of the outdoor mosaics.  5 football stars, all manspread knees and flash perms leer at a quartet of stunning blondes while gun toting film directors face down gangsters and OG rock stars.   No icy winters cracking their pixels off or Summer sunburn, a life in frames beckons these pampered prima donnas of the space station.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Our efforts in clearing the 7th Level were rewarded with cinemacope presentations of longer length Space Invader propaganda.  Accommodation is rudimentary lest comfort distract you from the audiovisuals and the propaganda changes, so what you witness depends on your space-time vector, in other words the day of the week you beam up.  We watched the compelling sand advert “I Invade Djerba” (2020) and left with a yearning to visit and not just because there are (or once upon a time were) 58 Invaders to spot.  Traditionalist space travellers will be horrified at the casual desecration of the old gods’ abodes as an invader takes up station on a hut previously in real life occupied by Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi.  The force is with Space Invader these days.  Also available is the space classic “Art4Space” (2012) in which Space Invader… oh we don’t want to give too much away but defying gravity is involved and it takes place in Cape Canaveral, a spiritual home from home for the Space Invader.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

A shocking demonstration of the power of the Invaders took place a few years ago when a trio went rogue, hijacked a plane and flew around regions where humans are known generally let their defences down.   Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… they come for you from the sky!  Scenes of panic and hysteria were witnessed by the Invader’s minions and if you make it to the higher levels of the Space Station you get a glimpse into their photo archive of photos of this invasion exercise.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Invader banner

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Invading La Plage

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Invading La Plage

An optical monitoring device near the top of the Space Station fixes on the latest invader to take up station.  The 1500th invader in Paris, PA_1500 to give it its formal code, sits on top of the exoskeleton of a modern art mausoleum called the Centre Pompidou about 1 light kilometre from the Space Station as the Galaxian flies.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Centre Pompidou from Invader Space Station

Insurgents have railed against the desecration of the incumbent authority’s cultural palace but there is evidence the Pompidou Centre was complicit in their own downfall, according to a transmission detected from Space Invader the rulers of the Pompidou were practically begging to host an Invader.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Invader Space Station

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

PA_1500 flashed – 100 Points in the bag!

This invader’s height grants it immense range and it is almost invulnerable to any ground-to-air assault.  The telescope is a relatively simple concoction of lenses known to allow light to pass through in both directions, based on the evidence of the curious relationship invaders have with such devices, were we looking at the invader or was it looking at us?

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

PA_1500 through the looking glass

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

PA_1432’s telescope, often mistaken for a cloud

Any modern invasion must incorporate certain customary elements: take over the means of communication, then issue instructions, then control the populace.  The newspaper Libération, oh the irony of that title, used to be published from the very premises the Invader Space Station currently occupies.  Star log 2012 saw Space Invader enter the building and take control of the paper, subliminal surreptitious invader motifs took over the masthead and the font.   The last level of any game is where ultimate mastery is established and there at the very top floor we find PA_992 has since 2012 been transmitting into space, readily witnessed by the Google satellite.

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

Libération

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

PA_992 rooftop Invader 2012

Review of Space Invader Art Show Invader Space Station in Paris

detected by Google earth mothership satellite station

That’s it.  They said we could expect to spend 1.5 hours surveying the Invader Space Station, we were detained for over 3.   Locating the exit we turn sideways, flap our arms up and down from the elbow and do the space invader jive through the deep space portal back to London.   Game over.

Art shows by street artists these days tend to be regimented product displays, framed art with price tags.  “Owners required, help me shift my inventory”.  Not enough art for arts sake, more farts for farts to take.  This Space Invader art experience harnesses concept, installation and retrospective in a manner harking back to the glory days of shows by the likes of Swoon, Faile, Cept, Giles WalkerPaul Insect taking over old swimming baths, Dr D putting us on spin cycle in an open working launderette and Banksy’s Cans Festival where the art mattered, not the Profit and Loss.  Invader Space Station really brings the art back into street art and does it with style and fun.  Next level.


Space Invader: Invader Space Station

2nd Feb – 5th May 2024

11 rue Béranger

Paris 75003


Links:

Invader Space Station Bookings

Space Invader Website

All photo: Dave Stuart


2023 Street Art Memories

2023 Street art, another year down.  Did you smile more often?  Certainly the Smokers crew aka SMO did.  A burst of activity in the Summer sun included the perfect composition of “Smokers” on a railway bridge as well as the crew acronym SMO appearing all over Shoreditch but the crowning piece was their huge Smile More Often wall with the names of all 12 crew members in smoking purple contained within the blockbuster letters, see the feature image at the top.

Smokers Crew

It there was such a thing as an award for the most up crew of the year it would go to Ghost Writers, no competition.  It seemed that there was someone representing Ghost Writers with something new almost every week.  Christmas week was no different.

graffiti and street art in Shoreditch by Ghost Writers members Minto, Tizer and Trafik and also Pablo Fiasco stencil

Minto, Trafik and Tizer repping Ghost Writers plus Pablo Fiasco

graffiti and street art in Shoreditch by Ghost Writers members Minto, Tizer and Trafik

Minto and Trafik collab, Yorgos, Tizer and Trafik

Banksy’s gift for newsworthiness did not desert him in 2023.    There was the retrospective exhibition in Glasgow, lifting the veil somewhat on the process but not the person and trumping all those shit un-authorised shows of ripped of reproductions and pure fantasy re-creations.  There was the court case which the litigant over hyped as about to lead to Banksy’s identity being revealed.  There was the artwork in Kent on the building that was demolished three days after he painted it.  Then, this being a non chronological list in which the best story is kept to last, there was the “Valentine’s Day Massacre” in Margate which led to possibly the most unfulfilling street art treasure hunt ever.  I arrived just as council contractors loaded the fridge onto a truck for disposal, how much did I rue missing by a minute the train from London that would have got me there an hour earlier.  Peter The Painter didn’t miss a thing, as anyone who Banksy’s Cut and Run show will have seen.  (Actually the most frustrating treasure hunt ever was a night spent wandering the streets of London in vain pursuit of an Adam Neate free art drop in 2008.)

Margate Council truck takes away the freezer from Banksy "Valentines Day Mascara"

Dangerous freezer captured in Margate

Banksy "Valentine's Day Mascara" Street art in Margate without the original freezer

I went London to Margate – the wall went Margate to London

There were at least four occasions this year when street art’s fleeting nature defeated my ponderous reactions. Twice I missed Banksy artworks, (the Valentine’s Day Mascara above) and the Stop War traffic sign installation which was stolen less than an hour after Banksy posted online about it.  The two other occasions were brilliant paintings by Airborne Mark, his masterpieces of virtuoso spraycan technique seem fated to be painting over immediately.  I count my blessings that there were a couple I managed to get to before they disappeared.  Everything about the origami gecko coming to life with every slant and facet of the paper catching the orange and green side lighting differently is just sensational.  All street artists’ creativity has at its core the certainty that the original piece is doomed to a very very short lifespan, yet the artists return again and again unpaid yet showing a dedication to the art which in any other endeavour would be regarded as bonkers.

spraypaint Street art mural by Airborne Mark in Shoreditch

Airborne Mark Gecko and stationery

spraypaint Street art mural by Airborne Mark in Shoreditch

Airborne Mark X Wing and stationery

Russel Shaw Higgs framed his characters beautifully within this lintel, only on the streets can such engagement with a perhaps once grand façade be realised.

street art paste ups in Shoreditch by Russell Shaw Higgs and Dr Cream

Russell Shaw Higgs, also feat Dr Cream

Yorgos first appeared in Shoreditch in 2022 but his prolific output this year has beguiled all.  He paints with influences from Picasso and traces of Matisse and his use of emulsion, which is quite rare in street art, produces a very flat and crisp aesthetic.   This pair of lovers (count the hands!) share their love with a heart that snuggly matches the bike lock frame sitting a couple of feet from the wall.

Street art mural by Yorgos of lovers whose love heart fits into the heart shaped bicycle frame

Yorgos

Yorgos

Most of Jonesy’s creativity on the Shoreditch streets this year was in the form of original drawings and paintings, check out all the oily creatures in the detail below as well as several new bronze castings atop street sign poles.

street art illustration concerned with pollution and environment by Jonesy

Jonesy Jan 2023

bronze casting sitting on top of a street sign of a see no evil monkey with hands covering its eyes

Jonesy See No Evil, March 2023

bronze casting sitting on top of a street sign of a demon with a petrol pump

Jonesy Bronze July 2023

If I have to pick a single art piece that made my jaw hit the ground it was this beauty from Minto.  Minto is a writer more associated with graffiti lettering but when I realised the alignment of the inverted face with the architecture in the background formed a stunning tribute to rapper (and occasional graffiti writer) MF Doom it was clearly a piece of ephemeral genius.

Minto

MF Doom by Minto

Cept is a bit of a renaissance man who goes through phases alternating between gallery installations and outdoor endeavours, it was great to see thet pendulum swung back to street art and graffiti this year.

comic illustration style street art by Cept supervillain with written text confession

Cept

Dan Kitchener had a brilliant year, not just because he painted abroad a lot or in terms of the scale of his murals, he also created some beautiful specimens of urban landscapes and character art in Shoreditch.  The most interesting was the mural which veered towards abstract impressionism in a painting with a point of view sitting in a car looking out through a rainy windscreen at one of his rainy night time neon lit street scenes.  The small photo cannot do justice to the impressionist beauty in the full size mural.  I could be wrong but I think Dan painted this spot three times this year, other artists occupying this wall were Inagaki (twice) and Only E1

spraycan impressionist street scene viewed through a wet window with drip or rivulets of raindrops and car lights reflecting off wet road surface by street artist Dan Kitchener

Dan Kitchener Feb 2023

Nearly every time you turn up to photograph this wall there are huge mountains of bin bags awaiting collection which makes my failure to get the photo of this image with a stack of bin bags in front of it quite unforgivable.

realistic spraycan painting relates to the piles of commercial rubbish seen regularly on Commercial Street

Inagaki, formerly known as Enigma, Feb 2022

Esauteric continued to amaze with his energetic disregard for conventional crisp spraypainting techniques, the very experimental colour combination and of course the manner of painting on walls with irregular surfaces, corners and buttresses that mean you really have to be able to walk around the wall to experience what the art has to offer from different angles.

wall mural colourful energetic face Shoreditch Brick Lane

Esau-teric. one angle only

wall mural colourful energetic face Shoreditch Brick Lane style of Futura2000

Esau-teric. Look closely, there is a 12 inch deep buttress in this picture

ODDO is an enduring Shoreditch favourite and his prolific production of wilder and wilder characters veers towards the curious, dark and scary.   “Bamboo mole” was a recurring theme.  I made one selection of snaps that captured the contribution ODDO made to my enjoyment of street art in 2023 then on the morning of New Years Eve, two more new ODDO artworks popped up on my walk through Shoreditch and one muscled right into this selection.  In a parallel universe I would be wearing clothes designed by ODDO.

crazy clothes crazy colours on harnd drawn street art paste up by ODDO in Shoreditch

ODDO, New Years Eve

crazy clothes crazy colours on harnd drawn street art paste up by ODDO in Shoreditch

ODDO, Feb 2023

crazy clothes crazy colours on harnd drawn street art paste up by ODDO in Shoreditch

ODDO, Oct 2023

Nonose has been doing quirky, lurid potatoes spiked with cocktail sticks since forever and for a little while this year a flotilla of crash-landed sputniks could be found on the tops of bus shelters and street furniture in Shoreditch and Hackney.

a dayglo potato with cocktail sticks by street artist nonose on top of a bus stop shelter

Nonose, Jan 2023

a dayglo potato with cocktail sticks by street artist nonose on top of a bus stop shelter

Nonose, Jan 2023

a dayglo potato with cocktail sticks by street artist nonose on top of a bus stop shelter

Nonose, Jan 2023

For a former graffiti writer Shaim certainly has no fear of negative space!  His hand drawn originals and paste up copies have managed to make horn rimmed glasses sexy again.  The trio of ladies are not copies at all, each is different and for the really curious, the green splats on the wall date back to a Nick Walker show in 2008.

3 black and white female faces on a wall at Old Street Shoreditch by Stephen Haim Shaim

Shaim

Ed Hicks remains the master of painterly gothic street art, he had a productive 2023 and there wasn’t a single piece I saw that I didn’t love.  It’s a puzzle that his masterworks tend to have much shorter lives than equivalent efforts from his peers, the artwork on the Grey Eagle St wall lasted barely a week before giving way to Smile More Often.

double height door gothic light and dark mural on Brick Lane by Ed Hicks

Ed Hicks

street art mural of fiery explosion, Brick Lane, Ed Hicks

Ed Hicks, Nov 2023. 1 week only.

Shoreditch visitors

Shoreditch continues to magnetically attract brilliant visiting artists working from small paste ups to the largest murals.  Alex face painted literally a scorcher, controversially short lived as it was painted over by an advert on a wall which has never hosted an advert before.

burning faces mural by Alex Face from Thailand painted on a wall on Brick Lane

Alex Face, Thailand. Jul 20263

Drash visited London twice this year and her colourful detourned fashion mag pages got brasher and Drasher.

Colourful Street artist Drash La Krasse from La Rochelle next to her art in Shoreditch

Drash La Krasse

Colourful Street art by Drash La Krasse from La Rochelle on derelict window old Shoreditch tube station

Drash La Krasse, with additional LDashD sticker

Niafase, Key and Naths Ice visited from Mexico and got stuck right in painting with some talented artists at various spots around London with Niafase contributing some technically brilliant 3D lettering.

part of large mural with goldfish, portraiture and 3d graffiti lettering

Niafase with Curiouser and Curioser

collaborative wall mural with spraypainted street art and graffiti

Moonkey, Niafaze (Mex), Achezink, Naths_Ice (Mex)

3d graffiti lettering Stockwell hall of fame

MoonkeySP, Solo, Nifazse, Casem, Ezra Kemen, Vladarts, Void One

On My Travels

The years since we were all put in detention have been spent frantically travelling to make up for lost opportunities.  This year wonderful street art was discovered in Manchester, Paris, Southend, Lisbon, Port Talbot and Glasgow.

Manchester’s street art bristles with self confidence and inventiveness.  Hornby train set art?

Geese in a Manchester streert with sign saying on the 6th day God created Manchester

On the 6th day, God created Manchester – Trafford Parsons

Street art made from model railway and figure dressed like Kevin Rowland from Dexys Midnight Runners

“Dexy’s Midnight Roller”  with miniature Kevin Rowland, Jungle Angelo, Manchester

Paris blew me away, over 1000 photos of magical street art was a fraction of what I saw and the task of selecting a few to share proved too painful to contain within just one blog post.  So I wrote two.   Paris is blessed with magnificent murals but there is way more than 10 story murals to Paris’ street art.  B-Toy Andrea’s mural makes the cut just because I loved the way a bit of light painting and long exposure melded the decoration in the subject’s hair with the blossom on the trees.  Paris of course has the largest collection of Space Invaders but I fell in love with the really esoteric things like Tegmo’s glass sculptures and mosaic arrangements.

Tegmo, Paris

2 street names, 5 legged confusion. OJI, Paris

BToy Andrea, Paris

Southend is so easy to get to from London and the Southend City Jam seaside circus has now grown to one of the coolest, happiest and indeed largest gatherings of street artists, graffiti writers and fans in the world.   I wonder what happens to all those boards?

Pink haired woman in front of mural with matching bright pink details

Bublegum, Southend City Jam 2023

Street art from Southend City Jam 2023 Asur work in progress

Asur work in progress, Southend City Jam 2023

Street art from Southend City Jam 2023 Elno

ELNO, Southend City Jam 2023

Street art from Southend City Jam 2023

Epic1, C.A.S.E.M, Southend City Jam 2023

Lisbon has an amazing city wide distribution of street art and graffiti.  Star locals Vhils and Bordalo simply can’t be left out of any Lisbon highlights but even in a city noted for its tiled décor I was delighted with the surprise find of a massive tiled mural by Monsieur A whose parents are Portuguese.

Junk street artist Bordalo studio in Lisbon

Bordalo studio, Lisbon

huge tile mural in Lisbon by street artist Monsieur Andre

Monsieur Andre Tiled mural, Lisbon

huge tile mural in Lisbon by street artist Monsieur Andre

Monsieur Andre Tiled mural, Lisbon

Mural portrait half and half collaboration in Madrid between Shephard Fairey and Vhils

half and half Shepard Fairey, Vhils collab, Lisbon

Glasgow had been invaded by the usual suspects visiting the Banksy exhibition so at that moment it was an effort to track down the local talent rather than same old Shoreditch habituees.

Stencil street art in style of Banksy of falling couple by The Rebel Bear

The Rebel Bear

clever stencil juxtaposition appears to show girl balancing on thin handrail in Glasgow

Rogue Oner, Glasgow

And so, with another New Years Eve photo A Chance Of Creatures kicks out the old and welcomes in the new, may you all have a healthy wiser better more peaceful 2024, fill it with joy and art.

New Years Eve street art 2023 2024 by A Chance Of Creatures In Shoreditch

A Chance Of Creatures – New Years Eve

All photographs: Dave Stuart


Space Invader LDN_133 mosaic street art at Elephant and Castle

Space Invader Flashing and Flashed

Space Invader last strengthened his invasion of London in 2016 and from a peak of 150 the number of Invaders stationed in London has slowly diminished.  Some have been kidnapped and a number of those have been held to ransom on Planet Ebay.  Some went dark, contact lost as they simply disappeared.  Some deteriorated and decayed with time.   The lucky few however returned to their sentry posts restored, refreshed, reinvigorated and reactivated by Space Rescue International.  They prefer “Reactivation.”

Space Invader LDN_133 mosaic street art vigilant at Elephant and Castle

Space Invader LDN_133 Reactivated – see also top image

News of recent reactivations prompted a bike ride this morning to wildernesses south of the river where a number have resumed their stealthy monitoring activities.

mosaic space invader street art near waterloo London

Space Invader LDN_84, grumpy so-and-so

mosaic space invader street art near waterloo London

LDN_84, perhaps not happy being south of the river

Space Invader LDN_134 mosaic street art through the bushes close up

Space Invader LDN_134 stealthily observes London

Space Invader LDN_133 mosaic street art vigilant at Elephant and Castle

Space Invader LDN_133 scrutinises alien craft

Space Invader LDN_131 mosaic street art near Kennington

Space Invader LDN_131 eternally lurking

Space Invader LDN_131 mosaic street art near Kennington

Space Invader LDN_131 going nowhere

The most far flung was way out in Brixton, its remote location prompted an invader health check with one of the supreme reconnaissance group on the leader board of Invader’s smartphone game “Flash Invader”.  This guru advised that LDN_42 had actually been sighted and recently cleaned by another Master of the High Score screen, Mr Steam and as a result, the signal was strong.

Space Invader LDN_131

Space Invader LDN_42, old school Brixton resident

It’s not about the stats or the ego of soaring up the high score chart but five invader’s inspected, 100 points scored and a huge 678 place rise smashing into the top 40,000 on the leader board made this a very productive hour!  It took my flashed London Invaders into treble figures, 101 of 150 mosaics flashed, this is the kind of stats fetish that satisfies the inner nerd.

screengrab Space Invader Flash Invader game high scores

Lost in Space (but getting higher)

LINKS

Read more about the work of the Reactivation Team in our 2016 interview with this highly secretive group of space operatives here.

Space Invader

Reactivation Team

All photos copyright Dave Stuart


Manchester Street Art

A couple of weeks ago I made a trip to Manchester to explore that city’s street art.  Manchester has great architecture, a distinct exciting personality adn plenty of locations where stencils, stickers, paste ups and graffiti flourishes.  There are also some impressive murals.

This next gallery is a sample of the roughly 800 photographs taken over a 2 day exploration.

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Space Invader aficionados will doubtless be aware of the Manchester invasion that took place in 2004, 47 street mosaics were left lurking and without too much effort 31 of them were located and dutifully “flashed”.

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These are just a small number of the photographic highlights, this is a SHOREDITCH blog after all!!  The full write up can be found on the Graffoto blog.

All photos Dave Stuart


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

 

 

 

 


London, Street Art, Tour, Walk, Space Invader, Reactivation, UK Reactivation Team, Art4Space, mosaic

Space Invader Strikes Back!

In our regular street art updates we have talked a couple of times about disappeared ancient Space Invaders reappearing, the so called “Reactivation”.   We were very lucky to secure the first ever interview with the UK Reactivation Team, check my other blog to see how and why these passionate extra terrestrial art restorers are doing what they do.

London, Street Art, Tour, Walk, Space Invader, Reactivation, UK Reactivation Team, Art4Space, mosaic

LDN_058 Reactivated

Bonus news – back in 2012 I was fortunate to be in a select audience for a one evening only private showing in a London hotel of a 24 minute documentary made by Space Invader.  It was an exciting little movie about his attempt to send one of his Invaders into space and film the result.  This week Invader has finally released the documentary to the public and it is very interesting.

Photos: Dave Stuart

Video: Space Invader


London, street art, Shoreditch, guided tour, graffiti, Space Invader, RessurectionTeamUK, Protect Them, mosaic

Reactivated Invaders Pt II

A little while ago we discovered that the legendary street artist and star in the Banksy film Exit Through The Gift Shop was putting back old classic Space Invaders in London, written about HERE.

London, street art, Shoreditch, guided tour, graffiti, Space Invader, RessurectionTeamUK, Protect Them, mosaic

#Protect Them! Ressurection Team UK

We found another one this afternoon.  After this morning’s tour I decided to cycle home via Spitalfield’s market and as I leaned into a corner I spied a Reactivation Team sticker on a lamppost.  “They’re usually close to Space Invaders” I thought so I pulled over, walked back and pretty soon found another reactivated Space Invader.

London, street art, Shoreditch, guided tour, graffiti, Space Invader, RessurectionTeamUK, Protect Them, mosaic

LDN_68 Reactivated!

The impressive thing about this one is its location, although the lip of the canopy it is located on is pretty deep, you have got to have both the ability to get up to that lip and also the willingness, or the “cojones”.

London, street art, Shoreditch, guided tour, graffiti, Space Invader, RessurectionTeamUK, Protect Them, mosaic

LDN_68 Reactivated!

Yesterday, immediately after a tour with a school group I discovered another long lost Invader classic.

London, street art, Shoreditch, guided tour, graffiti, Space Invader, RessurectionTeamUK, Protect Them, mosaic

LDN_97 2016

This is what it looked like when I photographed it in October 2007, though I can’t vouch for when it disappeared.

London, street art, Shoreditch, guided tour, graffiti, Space Invader, RessurectionTeamUK, Protect Them, mosaic, Nick Walker, Stencil

LDN_97 2007 (feat Nick Walker)

So, two “reactivated” Space Invaders in 2 days, I better go through my library of old Space Invader photographs and start visiting “Il disparus”.

 

UPDATE (Dec 2016) – despite the presence of a reactivation sticker, LDN_068 at Charterhouse St is actually the original, not a reactivation.  The Cargo Invader LDN_097 is a fruit of the Labour of the UK Reactivation Team.

 

All photos: Dave Stuart


London Space Invaders Resurrected

Guests on a tour a couple of weeks ago will recall the excitement of spotting a curious new Space Invader sticker.

London, Shoreditch, Ladbroke Grove, Kings Cross, Street art, Space Invader, mosaics, reactivation, ressurectin, stickers

Over a classic Union flag invader was the legend “Reactivation Team UK” and the motto #protect_them.  A little bit of digging resulted in finding 5 Space Invaders which have been “reborn”, in other words they are old classics which had disappeared from their locations due to the ravages of time, authority, disgruntled property owners or plain old sticky fingered fans.

London, Shoreditch, Ladbroke Grove, Kings Cross, Street art, Space Invader, mosaics, reactivation, ressurectin, stickers

Space Invader LDN_01 – the first!

London, Shoreditch, Ladbroke Grove, Kings Cross, Street art, Space Invader, mosaics, reactivation, ressurectin, stickers

Space Invader LDN_27

London, Shoreditch, Ladbroke Grove, Kings Cross, Street art, Space Invader, mosaics, reactivation, ressurectin, stickers

Space Invader LDN_28

London, Shoreditch, Ladbroke Grove, Kings Cross, Street art, Space Invader, mosaics, reactivation, ressurectin, stickers

Space Ivvader LDN-45

London, Shoreditch, Ladbroke Grove, Kings Cross, Street art, Space Invader, mosaics, reactivation, ressurectin, stickers

Space Invader LDN_88

More information and photographs is on the Graffoto blog

London, Shoreditch, Ladbroke Grove, Kings Cross, Street art, Space Invader, mosaics, reactivation, ressurectin, stickers London, Shoreditch, Ladbroke Grove, Kings Cross, Street art, Space Invader, mosaics, reactivation, ressurectin, stickers

All photos: Dave Stuart

 

UPDATE   (Dec 2016) – despite the presence of a reactivation sticker, LDN_027 at Bayfield Road is not a reactivated Invader, also LDN_028 was activated by the French team.  Also, the Union Flag Invader was not reactivated by the UK Reactivation Team.


Whats On: Street Art gallery shows Nov 14th and 15th

Quite an exciting end of week for gallery related street art work.  Or is it street related gallery work.  Or perhaps Urban Art.  Who cares, good art, friendly faces and possibly some free liquid refreshments thrown in.

 

Pure Evil Department Store

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Pure Evil has long been a corner stone of Shoreditch’s street art scene.  From the murky leafs of his address book all kinds of radical international street art talent have had their first London break through the Pure Evil Gallery.  Names like Roa, Pablo Delgado, Artiste Ouvrier, Spectre and Robbo had legendary solo shows in the Pure Evil dungeon.   Always seeking the novel and bizarre, Pure Evil has decided to open what he calls a department store just a couple of doors down from his own gallery.  Expect carpets, sports equipment, cookery and a perfume counter just inside the front door …hang on a minute….no, sorry, that’s a normal department store.  Actually, the only thing to expect from Mr Evil is the un-expected.

Pure Evil Department Store

96-98 Leonard St

London EC2A 4RH

 

 

D Face One Man And His Dog,

Stolen Space Gallery

20131115 dface_1man_special_edition

Banksy hasn’t returned the calls from his publisher for quite a while so perhaps the most significant street art literary disclosure for many years will be DFace’s book.  They call it a monograph but I don’t know what one of those is so on account of the covers, pages, words and pictures I am sticking with “Book”.   Certainly there should be no lack of material regarding the man, his art and his contribution to the London street art scene to make this a fascinating read and we look forward to doing just that.  Hang on…isn’t Banksy’s publisher…Banksy?  So what’s his excuse then?

While there punters can also take in the work of Gregory Euclide’s “Whose Land We Laid Down & Wiped Away” show, which continues.

STOLENSPACE GALLERY
17 Osborn Street
London E1 6TD

 

 

Space Invader – Art4Space

 

On Friday Lazardes hosts the London Premiere of Space Invader’s film Art4Space.  Shoreditch Street Art Tours guests will be familiar with the work of Space Invader .   All we know thus far about the film is that the mosaic meister does somehow genuinely invade space.   It will be interesting to see if Space Invader avoids the arrest episode which accompanied his time in New York recently for a screening there.

Lazerides hosts but the film is being screened offsite at Soho House.  There are two fully screenings which we understand are likely to have been fully booked and there is rumour that a third 9pm screening has been added.   RSVP definitely required (info@lazinc.com)

20131115 art4space-invite