Tag Archives: Street Art. street art tour

love hearts carved in trees photographed by artist Grete Hjorth-Johansen pasted up as street art on walls of Shoreditch

Lovehearts On Shoreditch Streets by Grete Hjorth-Johansen

Radiant lovehearts paste ups first started to be seen around Shoreditch in about February this year.   As a bit of a sucker for super saturated colourised photo edits this series was in equal amounts intriguing and beautiful.  A recent chance encounter with the artist Grete Hjorth-Johansen revealed a fascinating story to the art.

Grete is in the habit of taking walks in her local woods where she chances upon tree trunks scarred with the amorous carvings of lovers initials entwined in love hearts.  These existential protestations of affection, some testifying to mutual passion others perhaps declaring an ambition rather than any prevailing actualité inspired Grete to document these remote and often hidden love charms.  Does shortening to initials rather than full names confer a degree of anonymity or does brevity reduce the time take to gouge the text into the tree bark?  These considerations have challenged graffiti writers and street artists throughout history.  That’s before we get to the matter of font design, which is the essence of graffiti.  There is also something wonderfully old fashioned and almost permanent about these carved markings in a world of fleeting social media impressions.

love hearts carved in trees photographed by artist Grete Hjorth-Johansen pasted up as street art on walls of Shoreditch

Grete Hjorth-Johansen #Lovehearts

These myriad unknowable possibilities inspired Grete to return and take photos at night, illuminating carvings from above with a torch, that iridescent loom of light in each of the photos is Grete’s torch.  This technique is much favoured by archaeologists struggling to read the shallow, time worn inscriptions on building foundation stones and gravestones (try it!).  The photos are then rendered to transform the muted shades of the woods into highly solarised and charming colour forms.

love hearts carved in trees photographed by artist Grete Hjorth-Johansen pasted up as street art on walls of Shoreditch

Grete Hjorth-Johansen #Lovehearts

Grete has recorded some 900 different carvings giving her an extensive library of imagery.  What do you do with a project that has built on so much time and work but you don’t have an exhibition?  You can go back to the very basic premise of street art, you find a space on a wall, put your aart up yourself and you curate and hold your own exhibition.  Admission free.   Grete took charge of her own destiny, did things herself and no waiting for anyone else’s consent created her own public display of these wonderful images.  This is about as punk as it gets and it’s what street art was and is all about.

love hearts carved in trees photographed by artist Grete Hjorth-Johansen displayed on digital advertising board at Old Street in Shoreditch

Grete Hjorth-Johansen #Lovehearts

As well as the art aspect, Grete’s project places her as recorder and documentarian of the lovers’ efforts to immortalise and publicise their affections.  If you’re the type of person poking tree trunks with a knife this is possibly the best outcome you can dream of.  Imagine you’re D&C and you come round the corner in Old Street to find your passion memento lit up in neon.  Not bad, although possibly not good if the carving was 20 years ago and affairs have moved on.

love hearts carved in trees photographed by artist Grete Hjorth-Johansen displayed on digital advertising board at Old Street in Shoreditch

Grete Hjorth-Johansen #Lovehearts

It be great to get a statement from one of the original Romeos or Juliettes but one of the points of these relics is that the message is public but the protagonists remain private, again the similarities with graffiti are inescapable.  Step forward H and S please!

love hearts carved in trees photographed by artist Grete Hjorth-Johansen pasted up as street art on walls of Shoreditch

Grete Hjorth-Johansen #Lovehearts

This chance encounter with Grete actually took place at the very spot on a corner of Old Street roundabout where I stood in April 2008 to begin my very first street art tour.  We were under a digital billboard which every 30 seconds displayed a collection of Grete’s lovehearts project at about 1000 times life size.  Leaving aside the matter of art washing by the advertising businesses, these images brought colour and joy to Old Street for a whole fortnight, well done Grete. As long as lovers continue to love and boys and girls take knives on dates then let’s hope Grete continues to provide our streets with the beautiful photographic #Lovehearts paste ups.

Grete Hjorth-Johansen Instagram

Grete Hjorth-Johansen Website

All photos & video: Dave Stuart

love hearts carved in trees photographed by artist Grete Hjorth-Johansen pasted up as street art on walls of Shoreditch

Grete Hjorth-Johansen #Lovehearts

love hearts carved in trees photographed by artist Grete Hjorth-Johansen pasted up as street art on walls of Shoreditch

Grete Hjorth-Johansen #Lovehearts

love hearts carved in trees photographed by artist Grete Hjorth-Johansen displayed on digital advertising board at Old Street in Shoreditch

Grete Hjorth-Johansen #Lovehearts

love hearts carved in trees photographed by artist Grete Hjorth-Johansen pasted up as street art on walls of Shoreditch

Grete Hjorth-Johansen #Lovehearts

love hearts carved in trees photographed by artist Grete Hjorth-Johansen pasted up as street art on walls of Shoreditch

Grete Hjorth-Johansen #Lovehearts