Alias Arts

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

The Watford Observer reported a sighting of a possible new Banksy in the local town centre on Monday. The paper retained a sound stance of sitting on the fence on whether it was a Banksy or not but 47 year old local IT Security engineer Charles London thought it “definitely…genuine”. One look at the picture in the article made me certain it wasn’t a Banksy but seeing as I was in the town today to see an old friend I tracked it down all the same. In real life it was much larger than expected and seemed to be hand painted rather than stenciled onto the wall. More interestingly I found another similarly styled figure nearby in a more public location which was in my opinion a much more technically accomplished piece. Tagged with the name ‘matey’ it seemed to have been completed freehand and showed a nice line of shading (especially in the detail of the face). Maybe over time we’ll get to hear more about the artist and their reasons….

Matey “It’s The Queens Orders”

Detail of ‘Matey’ piece in Watford

The original artwork reported in the paper

This used to be pretty much my favourite wall in London directly opposite the 2012 site.

That was until the graffiti removal team went to work on it recently buffing back to brick everything below an 8 foot line. Anything else probably was beyond the power of the jet wash team. So now we get left with the ridiculous view of just the top bit of the art. Oh, and Tek33 / Burning Candy already reclaiming the space!

I’m a bit late in putting this unofficial Banksy video on artofthestate. I’ve not mentioned it yet but hooked blog, arrestedmotion and slamxhype have already posted it so seeing as I made it I guess I’d better post it too! Anyway, it’s a 1 min 20 second walk through of the latest Banksy pieces on the Regents Canal in Camden; ‘graffiti wallpaper’ incorporating a pretty trashed but legendary Robbo piece, ‘I don’t believe in global warming’ on the waterline of a block of flats, ‘fishing boy’ under Oval Road and ‘aristoc-rat’ on the canal bank.

Banksy in Camden video

Now the piece in the picture above has stirred up a real hornets nest. For a recap of the whole story revealed so far head on over to graffoto.co.uk for details of how when Banksy incorporated a 25 year old graffiti piece by King Robbo he enraged many already pissed off hardcore London graffiti writers into open hostility. And you’ll get to see the classy riposte by King Robbo which has incorporated the Banksy piece into his work. Interesting reading indeed.

Following on from December 19th’s post another way to separate the two types of graffiti writers has appeared. “There are two types of writers. Those who paint Christmas Day and those who don’t. For one it is a chance to eat mince pies with the family, for the other its a chance to take advantage of a tube network standing still and on skeleton staff”.  

Paving slab and bow photographed near St Paul’s, London (holly added courtesy of Flickr)

Banksy’s had the dinghy out for his new work in Camden…more to come later. 

Fishing boy by Banksy in Camden

Banksy ‘I don’t believe in global warming’, Camden

Roa’s back in town and creating more of his giant creatures. These two are a bit special and have appeared in London in December.

First up is this lenticular effect piece in Curtain Road, Shoreditch where Dr D originally carried off the same trick earlier in the year. Its interesting to watch the reaction of passers by as they slowly twig what is going on as they go past. It puts a smile on peoples faces which isn’t a bad thing to do when the temperature is sub zero at the moment.

from the left <      > from the right

Roa in Curtain Road from the front

Armed with a location from the all seeing Nolionsinengland I arrived at the second spot (there’s a third to be discovered as well) to be confronted by a man marching towards me shouting “Oi, did you do that?”. Turns out he likes it and was working on the housing estate site next door. “Much better than your normal “Kev shags Lynda” or “Up the Spurs” innit? I mean its not exactly a pretty wall” he comments. It’s a common reaction to Roa’s work. People like it and get it. They don’t see it as graffiti but in many instances it quite clearly fits the legal description of it. The question ‘What Is Graffiti?’ has been running round forever but my favourite quote on the subject of graffiti is from the excellent ‘Crack and Shine’ London graffiti book:

“You see there are two types of writers, those who paint trains and those that don’t. For one it is a weekend hobby performed with other Dad’s, for the other it is an obsessive way of life that can sometimes feel like being in a bad marriage where all your clothes, property and freedom can be whisked away from you by a knock on your door”. TPG

more from Roa:

Running every day until the 23rd December the Fiesta Resistance at the Commercial Road premises of Pictures On Walls is a fine chance to see work by Mexico’s Saner and Smithe amongst others. The usual rows of hanging prints have been replaced by corrugated iron and wooden structures to recreate an admittedly very clean little bit of Mexican slum life in Aldgate. The in store Banksy ‘No Ball Games’ prints may have all gone but Pictures On Walls have a whole raft of excellent new prints available online and in store (check out the Dran one!) with more to come before the show finishes. There’s also a wealth of original artwork on sale.    

Images from the show below.

The Fiesta Resistance at Pictures On Walls. December 4th to December 23rd 2009. 46-48 Commercial Street, London E1, nearest Tube Aldgate East

Anyone who stooped down to go through a little door and into a grade 2 listed Tramshed last year knows that Sickboy can put on a show. ‘Stay Free’ was blessed with its own unique style which combined the red and yellow of Sickboy’s trademark temple graffiti with some altogether more fine art pieces (not forgetting the sweet factory house)! For those who missed it here’s a reminder of what that show looked like:

This December 16, Sickboy is back to present ‘Logopop’, a special one-night-only solo exhibition of new limited edition work and site-specific installations in east London. It only lasts three hours so if you want to see it RSVP (and be quick about it as its less than two days away) to: rsvp@thesickboy.com

(Image by Viktor Vauthier)

‘Logopop’ by Sickboy, December 16, 2009, doors: 18:00-21:00 (invite needed – see above) Location: The Rag Factory, 16-18 Heneage Street, London, E1 5LJ. Nearest Tube: Liverpool Street.

Sickboy ‘Logopop’ show