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.

Happy Jubilee-ation

StandardFact was never the biggest Royalist but then in the last two years the people of Great Britain have enjoyed an extra four days of bank holidays, the least in the whole ruddy world.

So here is to the Queen

Turning on the national pride

And some lovely get up too

Like Geri but much better

 

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….

Mobstr – Simplicity is the key

Took me a little bit of time to find out who it was but twas only a matter of time…

One to tick off on the London Street Art Tour….

I like this a lot, Mobstr has been a bit prolific of late, short and sweet stencil across London town, taking over sandwich boards, advertising boards and plain bricks and mortar.

More to follow…..

The uncomfortable truth is Wearing thin

I like things that are a a little uncomfortable to watch, that make you re-evaluate what you are seeing, hearing and taking away from the exhibition.

Desperate

The Gillian Wearing exhibition is very much a naked truth thing, it can sometimes be a little uncomfortable to watch, there are times when I sniggered like a pre-pubescent boy and other times when the story warmed.

Smile and the world….

The exhibition at the Whitechapel has imagery, story telling and acting, the one thing that every piece does is play with identity and our pre-conceptions. Be it through adults miming the words of a child, the artist herself photographed in the guise of others such as Andy Warhol or the rather disturbing confessions of people hidden behind elaborate masks and wigs.

Ever so slightly creepy…

One of the best pictures I have ever seen. Fact

Tha kids are all write

Skate-face

In amongst all this Olympic poppycock we seem to have dedicated a shed load of £££ on grown up sports, maybe forgetting the kids, not in Mile End mind. The Mile End Skate Park is packed with kids rain or shine. I like.

What I also like is that the place is adorned with graf, in the pool, the walls the floor, the benches. Everywhere.

Pool party

The place looks pretty good too, a real urban hangout, even if you can’t skate, BMX or any other urban sport, you can go and spray or tag.

Paint and skate

I do not know any of the artists and in my mind I like to think that are by kids, the next generation of painters who will be taking to the streets, canals and eventually galleries of London and beyond

#Banksy – Street art’s very own Mr. Marmite

Say what you will about Bristol’s finest but he makes sure people do not forget him, every new piece he stencils in London, Bristol, New York, LA or any other city for that matter.

I am not that fussed by Banksy’s work on the basis that I do not think he is doing too much to push the boundaries, bring the humour or be particularly political. The piece I spotted today is pretty, no denying, the colours make it something very easy on the eye but…..

Woe is Banksy

The idea of an artist with a ball and chain around his ankle, is he for real? In today’s day an age artists are hardly constrained, street artists can graf pretty much where they like within reason and they are making a packet from it. And why the hell not, I think they should. My question to Mr. Banksy is how the bejesus are you being constrained?! I’d wager you are sitting pretty pretty me ol mucker. Those shows in NYC and London, celeb fans such as Brangellina, the film. Banksy must be comfortable enough to be a bit more imaginative.

Also I know that is his style but something makes me wonder if he could do anything else….

See Above

 

Whoever wanted to be Dscreet?

Bird Cream – Dscreet

Dscreet, long term collaborator of Sweet Toof and an artist who pops up quite often around London, the impossible to miss owls keep watch over many corners of the earth, from Brooklyn to Melbourne.

This piece is cool as it takes a little bit of of Sweet Toof and then Dscreet takes over, It is called Bird Cream and was  a 2009 piece. Nice that it is still in good nick.

Find it for yourself in Bethnal Green near the rail lines

The Epic Adventures of Sweet Toof…. pt98

This is pretty much a weekly section on StandardFact, although I would like to say this is not dedicated to one artist and we will be making sure that other artists get a look in…. providing they up the ante

Big mouth

Sweet mouth

Any trips along the canal, on the Olympic route and around the industrial estates, Sweet Toof is seen….

Roller toof

Peg toof

He even made a cameo appearance on the Apprentice this week