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

Art Jacobs by Kidult

I like fashion, but not really high fashion, I like going to the shows but there are often people whom live on a totally different planet at them. Most of those people are the designers, which is what makes them good, but sometimes it is all so bloody serious.

It was refreshing to find that a certain Mr Marc Jacobs who on finding graffiti scrawled on his SoHo store decided to use this to take the mick and take the witty vandalism and making it into clothes.

It’s Art but not as we know it

Designer Art-shirt

Maybe should have seen it coming from a man with a Sponge Bob Square Pants tat

This was by Kidult, and was only the latest in a series of attacks. I can only imagine how pissed the anti-Jacobs chap was when he found out that his ‘work’ was now adorning t-shirts. To add insult to injury, they are feckin’ expensive at $689.

Kidult then responded with his own t-shirt selling in limited edition for €6,89

Graf Art-shirt

The cynic in me wonders if this was a clever partnership…. I’d like it if it was

Things I’ve seen…

Mooching, wondering, cycling, pondering, taking a few pics then tweaking them for your eyeball delectation….

In tribute to Dan Fenlon, or CK1, an artist from Bristol who was killed earlier this year while in Thailand

RIP CK1

No eye dear who this is…. Laura and Sally maybe?!

urban balling

And another one…

Fields of dreams

Studio in an urban wasteland, around Hackney there is the haves and the have nots. Urban regeneration is all around us, tho some some steely types who refuse to leave these condemned buildings, and this is one such guy

#NazirTanbouli

Things I’ve seen…

A few more random pictures from my wonderings around East London on a bicycle. Hackney Wick, Mile End and all the industrial estates that did not get raised to the ground because of these Olympic thingy ma jigs certainly house some great pieces of street scribbling and colouring in

Never a truer word said…

then….

Stencil by > insert here < Tag by The Toasters

Followed by a nice bit of randomness

Vlad Bwoy

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

 

Art road show in Baltimore

Ginosaurus Peddleous Sartimus or GPS

When you combine two of my interests, cycling and art then usually you get me cycling to a gallery, probably stopping off for a wee cocktail en route and then homeward for some people watching.

Not if you are Christopher Wallace (no not Biggie, he dead y’al), he managed to use GPS tracking to create his own little piece of art as he got fit. I love this for it’s simplicity and because it looks a bit like something I’d draw… albeit it better tbh.

Wallace did this is Baltimore… which is in the US of A y’al

Skull ride

This would be about as easy as finding a virgin in Essex if you tried it in London as we do not have blocks and it would look like the cyclist was a piss head with rather lax sense of direction.

Seen on enpundit

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