Alias Arts

Yesterday I managed to have a look around the preparations for One Foot In The Grove. I don’t really want to put a load of pictures showing exactly what’s in there so here’s a few teaser pics.

Cancel all leave on 9th October 2009. It’s just over a week to ‘One Foot In The Grove‘ which sees last years standout event ‘Mutate Britain’ set up camp in London again. Heading West this time its taking over one of the original graffiti hotspots to be found in the UK – the point where the Portobello Road goes under the Westway. Mutate’s blog promises 12000 square feet of street art, sculpture and installations featuring: Joe Rush / Obey / Alex Wreckage / Fark FK / Dotmasters / Pete Dunne / Zeus / Snub / Cyclops / Sweet Toof / Best Ever / Part2ism / The Krah / Nick Walker / Teddy Baden / Dr D /Bleech / zadok / Giles Walker / Remi Rough / Bortusk Leer / Blam / Pure Evil / Milo / Andy Seize / Carrie Reichardt / Milk / Dora / Dep / Alex Fasko / Stickboy / Mr Insa / Mac1 / Miss Buggs / Strappa / Josephine / Mr Wim / Swarm / Misecellany / Joe Black / Auction Saboteur / Busk / Bonsai / Rabodiga / Probs.

Now that is a line up!

You can watch the second teaser video here:

And here’s a few bits of recent street work from some of the artists in the show:

Teddy Baden

Part2ism & Miscellany

Bortusk Leer

Mutate Britain – book them and they will come

Banksy.co.uk has recently been updated with new work which has led to some frantic hunting around London to find several pieces not previously seen before. The KFC head piece (Islington) and the roller warden (Lewisham) are known to have disappeared already but the ‘Eat The Rich’ anarchist slogan reworking has been found alive and well in Deptford.

AOTS link: Banksy Eat The Rich

Shok1 has also been busy again – this time with a new piece in the Stockwell halls of fame. Loving this style seen earlier in the year at the Cans Tunnel, Alexandra Palace and on a rooftop in Shoreditch.

Shok1 – Stockwell

Shok1 – Stockwell Detail

Shok1 – up on the roof

Banksy heads North after his recent visit to Croydon with a great street version of ‘No Ball Games’ appearing in Tottenham in the last day or so.

It’s in a much higher traffic area and right under a CCTV mast (which typically is facing the wrong way). It’s already created a lot of local interest with the local paper taking an interest and residents already getting together to stop the council buffing it.

More views of ‘No Ball Games’ near Seven Sisters….

And finally here’s the (different) canvas version displayed at the recent ‘Bristol Museum Versus Banksy’ exhibition

AOTS link: Banksy No Ball Games

Yeah I know that Croydon has hardly been high on Banksy’s hit list but take a look at this new piece fresh out of the can and tell me who else could have done this?

A punk struggles to get to grips with assembling a Large Graffiti Slogan from IEAK.

Fantastic detailing and colouring (check the shading on the hoodie and box for starters) and a witty statement juxtaposing the difficulties of assembling flat pack furniture with getting a revolution off the ground mark this out as nailed on Banksy piece. The reference to IKEA stretches further than may be immediatley apparent – in the view of the piece below you can see the twin towers of IKEA’s Croydon branch with their distinctive yellow and blue rings.

A little bit more about the location itself; it’s sandwiched between billboards and next to a tram stop. It’s already picked up a bit of extra detailing but lets hope it lasts a bit longer than other recent ground level pieces….

AOTS link: Banksy IKEA Large Graffiti slogan Croydon 

Cordy House (the home of last years Mutate Britain show amongst a host of other events) is to be closed and knocked down imminently. Oh goody, more ‘urban living’ apartments no doubt. Dr D has returned there for probably the last time to rework the shutters once more. Viewing them from one dirction reveals a piece of ‘rampant self publicity’ whilst from the other direction a reworking of the old “Home Taping Is Killing Music” logo now reads “How To Kill Lady Ga Ga”. Nice (but the photos would have maybe looked a bit better if the shutters hadn’t been left slightly open)!.

It’s the last few days of the Invader show at the Lazarides gallery in Rathbone place (closes September 12th). I finally made it down to have a look around and also had a hunt around a bit for some new street pieces. My two favourites have to be these large pieces found above head height in Shoreditch.

The gallery show itself occupies the ground floor of the Lazarides gallery in Rathbone place. It’s all been superbly documented on Wallkandy’s flickr stream so head on over there for a comprehensive look. In the meantime here’s a couple of photos of the large Rubik’s cube piece occupying the back room and a bit about the quick code pieces on display:

I liked the way Invader had constructed pieces out of tiles that can be read by camera phone bar code readers. If you’ve got a camera phone on your mobile you may even have the software to read these pictures without realising it. On my Nokia I found a barcode scanner under Office applications and it’s a simple case of opening that up and pointing it at the picture – you should even be able to ‘read’ these pictures by pointing your camera at them online as well (especially the one I‘ve simplified at the bottom). When one of these 2D barcodes is recognised the reader will translate it into text or a link. 

Who could have done this piece

It’s old news now but yesterday I went to take a look at the highwayman up on the roof of the Great Western Studios complex near Westbourne Park. The location of the piece itself is quality – it’s situated between the snarled up elevated section of  the A40 London artery and the main rail line into Paddington (and clearly visible from both). As a high traffic spot to get seen there’s few better locations (the fact that it was visible to anyone attending the Notting Hill Carnival is also an added bonus)!

Highwayman on the A40 ‘Westway’

There’s some clever work going on here that may not be instantly obvious. First up the circle in the centre used to be the sign for the Great Western Studios (which are now relocating). It’s been repainted to match the colour of the tower and coincidentally looks like a setting sun or moon behind the figure. The stencil itself neatly ignores the fact that there’s a recessed window behind the horses head. That’s a nice trick to pull off. The sheer scale is also something else. Whilst the figure and horse is similar to a Zorro image the face resembles more of a traditional highwayman – with the addition of a paint roller… On the reverse of the building a simple text slogan is painted in pink reading ‘Live Fast, Drive Slow’.

Highwayman (picture taken from the nearby rail line)

Have a look at this more than impressive artist line up for ‘One Foot In the Grove’ where Mutate Britain moves to a West London location – coming soon so keep an eye on the behindtheshutters blog.

watch the One Foot In the Grove artist trailer here:

Artofthestate is currently ‘out of the office’ – well, he would be if there was an office . Back soon.

masts: aots flickr

I always love seeing artists at work and this large stencil cut from CodeFC at Alexandra Palace in a time lapse video fits the bill perfectly. It’s been too long since I heard Tricky’s Black Steel that accompanies the vid too.

View the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF2zC288MEA&feature=channel_p

And I’d be interested to hear what people think about this showreel from a company that maps their projections onto any surface. I don’t normally show stuff from companies like this but the effect on street pieces from CodeFC (I think) and Banksy is kinda interesting (though a bit like Graffiti Research Labs).