SanArt

Earlier this year Ronzo created some incredibly detailed replicas of the dragons that mark the entrances into the City of London – albeit with the exception that they had been re-formed to be sculptures of Ronzo’s making rather than the emblem of one of the world’s leading financial districts. He called the silver painted figures clutching coins ‘Crunchy’ and explained at the time that they marked the point where we should be celebrating the end of the recession (the economy had reportedly just grown by an altogether not too convincing 0.1% just as the bolts were being driven in to the pavement to secure the pieces). I managed to track down a couple of survivors (and found the remnants of one that had been lost) a couple of days later. Sadly none now remain but Ronzo has now released a three part video showing their installation. Interesting viewing – especially as this area is one of the most closely monitored square miles in the world. Pictures of the Crunchy’s appear under the video link below.

Ronzo’s Pity of London part one, part two and part three

Old Street

Aldgate

Aldgate

Maybe a bit more subtle in approach than this effort but David Cameron’s rather smooth face is still attracting the attention of London’s billboard hi-jackers. This one in Dalston is the work of Dr D (where you can find a lot more of this kind of work).

Dr D ‘Suck My Goldman Sachs’. I’m not really that tall – this was taken from the number 76 bus.

Saturday March 6th is the last day (and last chance) to see Eelus’s solo show ‘The Colour Out Of Space’ at the Blackall Studios (73 Leonard Street, EC2A 4DS). I finally managed to check out the gallery yesterday and was really impressed by the ideas, art and execution of a well put together body of work. As well as a wealth of major new pieces there is kind of a retrospective feel – basically everything Eelus has put out over the past few years is represented here in some way. It’s great to see the progression made over the years and the development of a distinct style. If you can’t visit in person I’d recommend for a truly comprehensive look around the show Wallkandy’s excellent Flickr set and also RJ from Vandalog’s video interview where Eelus reveals inspiration came from both early Santa’s Ghetto shows and heavy metal stalwarts Iron Maiden(!)

Lung mixture (detail)

Firestarter (detail)

Icarus (detail)

Icarus (canvas on right is an edition of 3)

Proper Banksy interviews are rare things indeed so its a surprise to see two appear together. Of course its hardly a coincidence that they’ve come along at the same time as the Banksy film ‘ Exit Through The Gift Shop‘ is due to go on national release in the UK from March 5th. The movie itself has been running for the past few days in a specially constructed cinema in a tunnel under Waterloo station where the dripping walls and the rumble of suburban trains certainly add to the experience. Not to mention the burning pile of historical figures next to that nice little old lady HRH Queen Elizabeth unveiling an Anarchy symbol (more pictures on artofthestate.co.uk when the limited film run finishes).

Time Out London’s Visual Arts Editor Ossian Ward has conducted an interview with Banksy which is due to be published in the March 2nd issue of the magazine. The cover of the magazine will feature a unique Banksy ‘mixture of spray paint and self portraiture’ and is going to be available to be purchased as a magazine (with all the usual text cover lines removed) and as an edition of 5000 posters (unsigned and costing 10 UK pounds each). Time Out promise that the proceeds from each sale will go the Haiti Earthquake relief effort. You can buy the poster and / or the special edition magazine directly here. The full image itself won’t be released until Tuesday but in the meantime here’s a teaser:

The Sunday Times have also been running a campaign to advertise their interview with Banksy using ‘reverse stencil graffiti’. Flickr stalwart Annar 50 found one of these stencils in Shoreditch with the wording ‘Exclusive Banksy interview and artwork in this weekend’s Sunday Times’ so get down the newsagents early on Sunday if you want to get a copy.

From the agents of change:

An exhibition by some great and kindly artists to raise money for the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
This cause needs all the support it can get so please come down.
There will be amazing artwork from all price ranges!

All money raised goes straight to DEC – http://www.dec.org.uk/
Or alternatively you can donate money here – http://www.justgiving.com/ausecours

SUNDAY 21st Feb. 4 – 8PM
@ Blackall Studios, 73 Leonard Street, London, EC2A 4QS

To request a PDF and price list please email – haiti@agents-of-change.co.uk

http://www.ausecours.org/ 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ausecours/

On the same subject Above has created a site specific work in Haiti raising awareness of the situation from a Cuban perspective. To be honest you’d have to be living under a rock or reading the Daily Express* in the UK to not know about the plight of Haiti but its good to see street artists moved and concerned regarding the victims of this tradegy. See Above’s video here.

* The Daily Express didn’t even put Haiti on their front page on the day when it was thought 100,000 people had died – shame on them. They went with yet another exploitative Madeleine McCann story (again).

Banksy film ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ out in UK cinemas 5th March

LONDON Soho – Curzon, Hampstead – Everyman, Islington – Screen On The Green, Barbican, Dalston – Rio, Notting Hill Gate, Clapham – Picturehouse, Brixton – Ritzy, Greenwich – Picturehouse, Wimbledon – Curzon BRIGHTON – Duke of Yorks, CAMBRIDGE – Picturehouse, OXFORD – Picturehouse, NORWICH – Cinema City, SOUTHAMPTON – Harbour Lights, BRISTOL – Watershed, BATH – Little Theatre, BIRMINGHAM – Electric, MANCHESTER – Cornerhouse, SHEFFIELD – Showroom, NOTTINGHAM – Broadway, LIVERPOOL – Fact, YORK – City Screen, NEWCASTLE – Tyneside, BELFAST – QFT, LEEDS – Hyde Park, EXETER – Picturehouse, ABERDEEN – Belmont, SHEFFIELD – Cineworld, CARDIFF – Cineworld, GLASGOW – Renfrew Street, Cineworld, DUBLIN – Cineworld

David Cameron’s “I’ll Cut The Deficit, Not The NHS” poster campaign is annoying in the extreme. The adverts just scream ‘do something to me’. Even people fully intending to vote conservative often have a problem with Cameron.

Now you could think of something intellectual and modify the wording on the poster. Hell, you could even spend hours cutting an intricate stencil juxtaposing him with a hoodie and a bottle of Bollinger to make a point. Or you could spend 20 seconds writing ‘Fuck Off Back To Eton’ in red spray paint across the bottom.

Job done I think.

Roll on the Gordon Brown advertising campaign….

Loving these collabs between Shok1 and Alert in Walthamstow and Shok1, Alert and Skore in Mile End

‘We Hate You’ (Alert and Shok 1, Walthamstow)

‘Cold So Cold’ – Skore, Alert and Shok-1, Mile End (below)

Yesterday Banksy announced via his website that a Banksy Film ‘Exit Through The Gift Shop’ will be coming soon to cinemas. The brief information on his site reveals the film has a ‘mental age’ of 13 and runs for 85 minutes. This has confirmed a massive amount of recent internet rumour and the movie is scheduled to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah in the next week.

According to the response to the Guardian’s enquiry Banksy’s identity will not be revealed in the movie despite rumours to the contrary. It does, however, promise to be ‘the worlds first street art disaster movie’ and looking at the trailer it seems to have taken at least some of the footage from the ill fated Life Remote Control project. The BBC report the film will open in UK cinemas on the 5th March.

As part of the build up to the films initial screening Banksy has been busy in Park City with a series of new pieces going up in the area. Here’s a taster from Banksy.co.uk where you’ll find more work. 

Also on the website Banksy has placed an image which provides a little bit more perspective to the recent ‘Banksy Versus Robbo’ incident. To be honest I’ve avoided commenting on recent events regarding this because there was a distinct lack of facts available. Now both sides have in their own way made their positions a bit clearer which helps moves things on a bit. The way some sites / newspapers have reported this you’d think it was an all out street art / graffiti war and for some it is but not it seems for the two principle protagonists.

Banksy’s website also now contains an image of how Robbo’s piece presumably looked before he went to work on the location. Robbo’s work is still clearly visible but it’s hardly in perfect condition.

When Banksy did his thing over the remains of Robbo’s piece the intention looked to me not to obliterate it but to incorporate what was left in a new piece that looks like the worker is pasting up graffiti wallpaper.

Yes, I know –  that is still ’going over’ and yes that’s going to piss a lot of people off because this piece has been there around 25 years (but to be honest I’ve seen far worse dissing than this). Robbo hit back with great style making Banksy’s worker paint his name. He’s neatly reclaimed the spot and despite the date written to the right of this latest intervention (see the text ‘1983 to 2009′) I think he’s continuing holding the wall down well into 2010 now.

Last week it was reported that this feud was still running when this piece was also modified (see the original here).

I guess it may not be the last time a Banksy gets hit up but its worth reading a very recent interview Robbo did in which he discusses the spat with Banksy. Here’s a quote:

Beside of the matter of principle, do you consider your conflict with Banksy as “war” or “fun”?

Robbo: I consider it fun, I’m playing him at his own game and winning. When i was younger i would have looked at the situation differently and i would have been really PISSED and taken out all of bnksys work with no respect.

A nice bit of perspective. You shouldn’t, however, take that quote on its own – you can read the whole interview here (Robbo’s career is a lot more interesting than just a spat with Banksy) and make up your own mind. I got pissed off with the whole spat thing when I saw a piece by Arofish had been on the receiving end of the anti Banksy campaign. Someone had slapped ‘Robbo’ over it in a style not good enough to be by Robbo. Arofish didn’t deserve this. He never started out on street art as a career move but out of a genuine case of using it to get a message out because he gave a fuck about people. 

Graffiti and street art are often wrapped up in the same category. Certainly in past times the eyes of the law viewed them as exactly the same – straight up criminal damage. But times have changed and street art has become pretty much publicly accepted and law enforcement attitudes have moved around to seemingly turning a blind eye to it while some councils are more likely to apply for a preservation order than press for charges. The same can’t be said for graffiti that is born out of a different need. I’m talking about serial tagging, spray paint on the steel sides of trains and tubes and throw ups on the side of walls where the owner certainly never emailed in a request for a “street artist to do their thing”. This is where last years ‘Crack and Shine‘ book comes in. Ordered before Christmas it’s a book I find myself going back to again and again. There’s no stencils, paste ups or ‘installations’ in here. No, this is a fiercly independent take on the underworld of ‘real’ London graffiti. And it’s by far the best graffiti book I’ve read all year.

There’s a world of difference between sneaking into Shoreditch from the home counties to put up a paste up in Blackall Street and the events detailed in this 212 page full colour book. Trespass is a civil matter in town but when you jump (or boltcutter a fence) to go trackside it instantly becomes a criminal offence. This book talks to writers who have seen the old days when a simple saunter off the end of the platform into the rail system after school could be achieved through to todays ‘military grade’ security in London Underground’s fortified depots. It charts the times when station staff turned a blind eye and trains could run for weeks with graffiti etched into their sides to the crackdowns and the frequent busts of the 90’s that nearly killed the scene. It’s style and tales are part Cass Pennant, part Brinks Mat but its always full on detailing the best of times and the worst of times. Teach offers up some of his vast photo collection, Elk explains why getting to Brixton’s lay up was his ‘Everest’ and Grand tells of when he hit the yards hard and then stayed around to watch and explore. You also get to see Mr C DDS keeping it real by racking clothes, boltcutters, paint and Champagne (Moet & Chandon, natch) and Bozo DDS’s run through of his Farringdon trip turns from a climb, drop, crawl story to a full on burglary.

There’s a wealth of photos taken in the yards but some of the best are taken the morning after when the trains are in service. Marking the train on the front writers know when their cars are coming through and catch them in photographs as they arrive to puzzle (and sometimes delight) commuters – check the whole car ‘Britney Spears Is The Devil’. Extra special are the portraits of the artists themselves taken by photographer Will Robson-Scott. He captures Mr P up on a roof top in Hackney Wick, Cosa in Whitehall and ATG at home amongst a mass of quality portraiture.

photo: Will Robson Scott

No other book gets inside a graffiti scene like this one. Subway Art documented a time and place that seemed far away at the time. Crack and Shine brings it home and then some.

Crack and Shine, published by FFF London, ISBN-10: 0956242308, ISBN-13: 978-0956242303