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

Lego + Graffiti = Great success

Every kid loved lego, building stuff and making ridiculous things just from a load of random bricks and your imagination. It has got far more sophisticated these days and the pieces are made in a multitude of sizes, shapes and it is all becoming a bit too perfect in my humble opinion.

Just recently I made an airport, with a boat port, a zoo, guarded by monsters (this was for my 5 year old bro)

I digress… Things I like, lego and streetart, the combination of the two was bound to be fecking cool. I like the simplicity in it, I like the fact it is in such a public place and I like that it doesn’t seem to be a brand thing. Lego is one of those brands who get coverage for everything they do, there are a few who do not have to try, examples… Lego, Marmite, Apple.

Anyway…. before…

Nolego

And then…

Tadalego

Shupa…

Now I am off to build a lego super car

La Moss – Haute Coiffure

For anyone who has followed SF for a while will know that Kate Moss is held in pretty high regard. You see SF likes beautiful things, with an edge, that are dangerous, that are forever young, that you would equally find on a wall on the dirty underpass as you would hanging in the home of a rich fashionista. She has the spirit of ne’er do well but with buckets of cash. Plus she is a dirty bit of kit…. Got to love la Moss

Nothing tastes as good a coiffure looks….

Jonathan Kroppmann – Ahem

F

Jonathan Kroppmann…. Literally just stumbled across this and thought it was beautiful. Love indie tattoo men… that is all…. For some photography book…

U

C

K

me

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