Alias Arts

Robbo’s well documented take back of his original eighties piece location and the taunting slogans painted on a further three Banksy works on the Regents Canal all received a new twist late last week. Where he had painted ‘King Robbo’ three letters (‘Fuc’) have been prefixed to the front in a similar style giving it a new meaning. Now pretty much guaranteed to be buffed in the near future it will be interesting to see whether they decide to remove the whole thing, leave just Banksy’s painter or remove only the recently added ‘Fuc’. Someone in the councils going to have to make an artistic decision. And that is normally bad news….

Further along the waterway Banksy’s fisher boy has received a second modification. Originally he was fishing a tag out of the water but this was changed by Robbo to a sign saying ‘street cred’. Now he’s pulling in what looks like a fishing prohibited sign.

On the site previously occupied by the ‘I Don’t Believe In global Warming’ slogan a completely new stencil has appeared. A solitary bird with a paint roller for a head watches the wall where Banksy’s and later Robbo’s slogan appeared apparently waiting to pounce again and erase any further work that might be added.

Finally the text around Banksy’s rat in top hat and tails has been removed and to my eye has improved the look of the rat itself who now appears illuminated in a spot light. I love Banksy’s rats so it was good to see one of the little fellas make an appearance in London after a gap of of a few years. 

What isn’t known for sure yet is who did the above alterations. Were they really the work of Banksy himself or some avenging street art fan (with quite a bit of organisational skill)? We may never know but you won’t find many who think this will be the last installment in this long running and to be honest at times tedious battle. 

The original ‘Forgive Us Our Trespassing’ poster (source: Don’t Panic)

Don’t Panic gave away a limited edition Banksy poster with their most recent free arts and culture pack.  They first teamed up with the then relatively unknown stencil artist a full 10 years ago with a ‘Stop Esso’ poster (now trading on Ebay for considerable sums of money) and this tie in with Banksy’s film sees them reunited. I thought I’d missed the boat on this freebie but I managed to track down a copy yesterday afternoon in an office’s reception area so there are still some out there!

The image features a praying boy (see below) and via artbelow a copy of the Don’t Panic poster was for a short time on display in London Bridge Underground station. Now Transport For London have a pretty infamous ‘no graffiti’ rule for any advert on their property to the extent that even printed pictures of graffiti are banned. This recently caused problems for the band Massive Attack and might also be the reason that the poster (reproduced below) for Banksy’s film ‘Exit Through The Shop’ on display at the Leake Street cinema never appeared on the Tube. Just in case you’re wondering there is a point to this story so bear with me because here it comes. The poster on display in the station had it’s graffiti halo removed to fit TFL’s guidelines but someone has since come along and added the halo back on in spray paint. Pretty neatly too as they’ve masked off the hat to avoid spraying it and allowed a drip to go down the back of the head just like on the original image. TFL, in their ultimate wisdom. have had the poster removed (I wonder if someone had the sense to keep it) and there’s now just a white space left where the poster was. Which, ironically, is a red rag to a bull for any passing graffiti artist…. 

The modified Don’t Panic poster on London Bridge Station with its hand spray painted halo (source BBC)

Banksy ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ alternate poster on display in the ‘Lambeth Palace’ Leake Street cinema.

Finally it would appear that the text advert for the film that appeared scrawled across both an advertising hoarding and the surrounding wall on Portobello Road was an illegal hit. A more recent picture shows that the board part has been covered up with the advertising agencies standard blue paper while the text sprayed onto the wall remains untouched(!). See Phil Dicken’s photo on Flickr for how it looks now and below for its original look.

Eixt Through The Gift Shop Advert on Portobello Road

  There’s been a fair bit of debate on whether the advertising for Banksy’s film is hypocritical given his stated hatred of advertising designed to make you feel inadequate in the past. I can’t really be bothered to add anything to this played out ‘sell out’ argument that’s been around for years now other than to advise you to read the whole advertising quote in his books.  There is more I could say on this matter and the current state of street art in London in general but I’ll save that for a future post. For now I’ll just say this is hardly the worst thing thats happened in recent times and for people to claim that one piece not even claimed by the man denegrates his entire body of work over more than a decade is just ridiculous….

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)