nOlympics Thank you very much

I have said before that not everyone in London and especially the Eastend is over the moon about this thing called the Olympics. Some are dead against it. I was one who was nonplussed but after some campaigning by my good friend I started to feel the excitement. I am even going to the games… I am a guest of a rather large brand…. but I fear the tickets are for women’s beach volleyball… nothing could be more inappropriate for my goodself.

Another reason for liking the idea of the Olympics is the rise of streetart based on the biggest event to hit these shores in anyone’s living memory. Here is another cute and curt piece.

Toxic Olympics

Things I’ve seen….

Random things SF has seen over the weekend just gone….

London Pride just went…

This was outside a sex shop off Great Eastern Street

Wall of paint…

Off Brick Lane

A real eyefull

Think that is a Roa piece….

 

Christina St – Arts ‘n’ Sods

East London is awash, that is no breaking news but I was wondering which road is the best, in NYC you have 5Points, Berlin has many areas but Kreuzberg is pretty shit hot, East London has numerous places such as Redchurch Street but for me it has to be Christina St. The whole area is wall to wall paint, some a little out there, some looks like it might have been commissioned but some is just plane ridic.

Broken Fingaz

No idea…. have you?

eyeeyeeye

What’s all this Malarky

Worth More… little dig at Cameron me thinks

So it used to read Change and felt very in keeping with the idea of the time, Obama was in and used the word enough, we in the UK were looking for Change as well and we got it with Cameron and his diluted government.

Well Ben Eine who was rather miffed when he found out that Cameron had given Obama a piece of his work for Obama’s inauguration has now stoked the winds of change and moved to another slogan, something which I think all Londoners can understand. With unemployment, the London riots, increased council tax, wages not rising, food prices climbing and footing the bill of the Olympics… all in all we really to be…..

please continue….

always…

Fishy Lips – SweetToof

Sweet as always

Weekly installment of Mr Toof. Like this one because when you first look at it it is simply a funny caricature, very much in the style we have become accustomed to but look again, it is actually a couple of fish peeping out over the signature lips with a wee baseball hat on top. I double like this.

Between Ben Eine and Sweet Toof, who has the most shutters in the Eastend…?

Shepard Fairey / Ron English – London Pleasure Gardens

This is going on at The London Pleasure Gardens…. Looks to be turning into a very important part of the urban art scene in the UK…. plus Ron English is there. Going to check it out this weekend I think

Shepard Fairey’s big tings

Ron English clouding judgement

Not to mention Bloc festival next weekend

Damien Hirst… like. hate. respect. contempt. in awe. I could do that. etc. etc. etc.

Damien Hirst. He is like marmite, some think he is an arrogant so and so, the fact he does not actually dirty his hands with his art very often and that he gets assistants to do the pieces irks me a little bit. There are those who thinks that he is a brilliant artist, commenting on society and the world we live in and it’s issues. I half agree with both viewpoints.

Pilled up

My view changed some what after seeing the body of work and reading the background info, I went with an open mind but was pretty sure I would still think he was a bit of a twerp, someone who lucked out a little bit and had become famous more through the PR machine and his shock subject matter. Now I still think the above is true but I also think he has created some truly beautiful pieces, some very thought provoking ideas and challenged people to look at themselves and every day items in a different fashion.

Self medicate

One of the most beautiful pieces is also one of the more disgusting, I am not referring to the cows head, nor the cow cut in half, not the fly electrocuter, the one that really has an impact is the huge wall mounted circle of flies, Black Sun. To look at it is visually stunning but it also stinks, the juxtaposition of beauty and the rancid smell is quite an eye opener

Pretty Fly

Hirst’s work with butterflies is quite a sight too, beit the room with live butterflies or the huge floor to ceiling murals featuring symmetrical butterflies and paint work.

Regardless of what you think, you should go and see this exhibition as it will probably never happen again in your lifetime and the Tate Modern is a brilliant setting for it. If for no other reason than Hirst is probably in need of the cash, that can be the only reason that he is selling painted skulls for £36k…. right?

Then there is the shark, love the shark

Were going to need a bigger tank

Dr Dee – Preview

Dr Dee is the newest output from the ever busy Mr. Damon Albarn, since his days in Blur he has reinvented himself through various guises, and he has done it without ending up being a fat cheese chomping foppish cnut. Bravo Albarn for putting together this opera

Damo

Now Dr Dee or John Dee as he was also known was a mathematician, astrologer and magician amongst other things, he was supremely intelligent and his open minded ideas and search for knowledge and experiences ultimately led to his demise. Without giving the game away, his beliefs in other worlds lead to him making a decision which would ultimately cost him the one thing he loved the most.

Epic costumes

The show is visually brilliant and combines a great set with an elevated band area where Albarn sits with his cronnies, he plays guitar throughout and acts as a sort of watchman / narrator, singing some parts of the opera. With the creepy and intense set design there is a brilliant light display tracking mathematical equations against screens as the story unfolds. The second half opens with a brilliant full stage light display while the cast perform beneath, huge grids reminiscent of the Matrix build across the stage with numbers, shapes and quotage. I clearly could not take pictures but found these…

My afternoon view

This was the preview before the show has a short run at the London Coliseum, the opera came about following Albarn’s first foray into opera with Monkey: Journey to the West, the idea for Dr Dee came when comic book author Alan Moore suggested Albarn and collaborator Jamie Hewlett should use this as the basis for their opera over their original idea of superheroes. In the finish Albarn worked with Rufus Norris as Moore stepped aside for one reason and another.

My advice…. go see it. I have always wanted to see an opera and this is a good entry level one, even your heather mates might find this accessible… maybe

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

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