Things I’ve seen…. Barcelona pt.I

You have to love this city, it is vibrant, the people are cool, the music scene is good and it is home to one of the best festival breaks in the calendar…. more of that next time though.

Caught with nightlife

Got to say that the number of word pieces was immense, some cool stuff and I’ll need another visit without such a huge amount of partying to record more.

…

Little more pictorial types now. Love a good stencil at StandardFact. Love a lil bit of humour too, the world’s recent rejection of a certain Banksy

The anti-Banksy

Every shop shutter has paint on it, beit paid for street art, tagging, scribbles or original unsolicited pieces. Street art becomes the retail norm

Record shop per chance….?

More to come soon…..

Not the first time at the Rodeo….

Always nice to see a good combo at work. A lot of the street art world combine to create collaborations to devestating effects, Team Robbo must be made up of 15 plus, Sweet Toof has regular collaborators and Stik and RUN are often found in close quarters.

Latest lil combo I have seen is fairly new and on a regularly updated wall along the Lee Valley Canal in Hackney. Rodeo Skoya and TBK.

Green much

Now I kind of like it but it does feel a little too clean cut, I like something a bit more grubby, coarse and earthy…. but what do I know, maybe Fido Dido is the future

Skoya

Sweet-ness it’s my weakness

So it has been exactly one month and two days since I last did a post dedicated to our most prolific of urban artists, ol Sweet Toof. That is not to say that our gum obsessed toofy hero has been not spotted, has not been out putting his mark on any spare piece of London he can lay his mitts on, no Sir, StandardFact just took a wee break.

Sweet Skull

That was until I came across the Sweet Toof skulls, comedic whilst being a little creepy, huge and positioned in such a way that you can not help but spot them, but still a little hidden. A nice juxtaposition, bit like the big bright teeth in the skull.

Toof + a jonny

Once again the nOlympics wouldn’t be right without Sweet creating the aesthetic sound track to the journey.

Bravo

Canal knowledge

If StandardFact should say one thing, it is that you need to get yourself down on to the canals of East and North London, literally the best and most imaginative scribblings that you are likely to find.

This is my fave piece I have seen. Brass, I know little about him / her / them but will endeavour to find out more. Unless anyone can fill me a little bit.

What to say…?

Every wall tells another story, if tourists get lost on their way to the Olympics they might actually find themselves learning some truths about the Eastend, vibrant does not cover it. These two characters above would make brilliant kid’s cartoon characters… sans the swastika, unless it was the original Hindu version or the Buddhism version or the Jainism version.

Then there is this wee chap…

Like an angry westie

And finally the money shot, everyone likes the money shot

Money money money

Wall of truth

Needs not explaining really… brilliant new addition to the canals of Hackney

Not worth thinking about really…

Moss slide

Ok so imagine street art as the most eco friendly, council endorsed, granny approved and street credible thing… well that would have to be Moss art by Mosstika.

Ask me now questions

Since 2007 these amazing pieces have been popping up most regularly around Brooklyn but also as far afield as Brazil.

Brasiliant bunny

The NYC based collective are an band of eco artists who in their own words…. ‘use guerilla tactics to evoke the call of man back to nature’. A nice idea I recks. Why not make the place we live in look shubbery nice.

Wall of doves

Reminds me a little bit of the Guerilla Gardener who came to prominence in London about 5 years ago by making urban areas that little bit prettier by planting flowers and tress. Urban horticulture.

Hackney Wick – a hidden gem I say

The Brick Lane doesn’t really have any space left, pretty much every wall is covered with pieces from everyone from Roa to Banksy to Sweet Toof, to Dscreet to some lil crack head with a sharpie. It was the original but some of the most prolific graf artists in the eastend have moved on to a far bigger canvas, that of Hackney Wick, the industrial wasteland that the Olympics forgot, that the tourists rarely find and that has it’s own little burgeoning scene full of cutting scribblers, stencilers and spray can aficionados. Check it out for your self kids.

I give you….

Sweet Toof

Sweet even in a car park

Nazir Tanbouli

A Nazir bug

Malarky

All that Malarky

Hackney Wick has many art studios dotted throughout the business warhouses, yards and garages. The roads are battered and bruised but it has a certain romance to the area. Art and tags popping out from every corner plus lots of random little places to eat, galleries and some bars.

Things I’ve seen….

Liking Hackney Wick more and more recently, lots of random piece popping up all over the place. And some at a very simple yet effective level. These pieces may not be seen by our Olympic visitors this summer but heading down for a mooch is well worth your time.

EFE… who is this?

The better more creative, more thought provoking bits are never in the most populated parts of town

Hackney Love

How to build in Hackney…

Rule number one, put up some big wooden boards, then do not do a sodding thing until some natives come and put their stamp on it…

Top tache

The stamp should take influence from the locals too…

More great facial hair

Art by Broken Fingaz

The Olympics…. Every Londoner can not wait….

So it is 58 days until the biggest show on earth comes to town, everyone is besides themselves with excitement and anticipation. Well not quite…

nOlympic pigeon shitting on rings

It should be the greatest show on Earth but the over OTT approach of LOCOG and some of the sponsors no doubt runs the risk of creating a negative feeling amongst those who actually live in the Eastend and further a field.

News of Florists being forced to take down flower arrangements which are in the shape of 5 rings, food places getting into the spirit of the games being told to remove their Olympic themed offerings and even a granny fearing prosecution for her home knitted dolls at a car boot sale.

Olympic Jerk… how apt

Sponsors mean that these big events can go ahead, but should there be a little bit of humility amongst these super-sized multi-nationals? For me it is all a bit bully in the playground. Surely there is a clever marketeer out there who could maintain the benefits of sponsorship whilst not looking like the party pooper de jour?

Amazingly…. even this Olympic countdown clock has had to remove certain references…. I wonder if I might be hit with an order to remove certain words.

Can’t wait for London 2012 me….