A lil Dscreet Roa

Couple of things I have seen en route recently

A Dscreet hoot

And then….

Roa bird

A few pieces off of Brick LAne, the centre of street art in the Eastend

Stik it to you

Stik. One of the most visible artists in town, especially around the Eastend, these are not new ones but they have not featured on SF before.

Cute sleepy one

Zzzzzzzzz Stik

The lookout one

eye Stik

A SF fave for simplicity and and conveying emotion through something ever so simple, in a world of political art and the plain shite, this is a refreshing change. props Stik.

<3 Kate Moss & Hate Mr Brainwash

La Moss still looks hot

So where does my sentiment lie? I love Kate Moss, if I was a woman then I’d be her. Ok she made a boo boo with the drugs, or was it just getting caught with that druggy rat fink Doherty? We all have dabbled. She has managed to say nothing but say everything and become a cultural icon by maintaining mystique while being one of the most famous faces in the world. Being accessible but totally inaccessible. Genius.

Then you have Mr Brainwash, a man whose opportunism can either be admired or found to be totally nauseating, I fall on the latter. By showing additional pieces I am giving him credence but at the same time it is attention seeking. O how torn!

If you fancy seeing his exhibition then check out here... as much as it is recycled ideas from everyone who has ever put paint to canvas… it is a touch intriguing.

Ps. Kate Moss – Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels

David Bailey’s Eastend

Soaking up Bailey

The combination of David Bailey photographs and the Eastend should be a match made is visual heaven, and that was true to a point, a rather limited point.

Reflections…

The exhibition housed out at Compression House on the Royal Albert Docks was rather like a entree, the main meal seemed to have been with held back. Sold as charting 60 years of the Eastend of London was a bit of an over sell, there were some brilliant shots form Bailey’s youth with his family members and him as a child, which were amazing, beautifully aged and dog eared, with an amateur feel that added to the romance of the shots.

The brilliant old shots of Canning Town, Bethnal Green and Brick Lane in the 60’s are striking. To see how the Eastend has and hasn’t changed in the course of half a century was truly striking and beautiful.

Off Spitalfields and Commercial Road

The colour shots of the 60’s mostly in boozers were another highlight, featuring normal Londoners in their natural habitat with a pint or a Babycham, fag in hand. But why limit it to six shots? The story of how Bailey spent time with the Krays in the inner sanctum at safe houses is quite an intriguing one which is covered in one, albeit beautiful and sinister shot. The colours and the looks on the despicable twin’s faces tell a thousand stories but it left me wanting more…

The most disappointing part though was the more modern shots, the 1980’s seems to have missed out on how colourful the times were, there political unrest and the amazing fashion faux pas of the time.

Into a new Millennium and again pretty thin on the ground. The Eastend and Canning Town in particular has undergone huge chances, for a start the whole Olympic experience has not really been reflected.

The shots in the collection are beautiful and emotive, as you would expects from one of the world’s most celebrated photographers, using a combination of film and digital camera, in black and white as well as full colour, covering landscapes and people. Bailey is an iconic photographer for our time, self taught and a real Eastend hero, for the shots he has there it is worth seeing, but for £7…

Bailey B+W

One final gripe, the collection was hung in a room with huge lights which reflected off of the glass, ruining the impact of the images. Basically Bailey was let down on this on.

All my family and are originally from London and I was hoping to get more of a snap shot of the Eastend that my old Nanny May May and Granddad lived in, worked in and left many years ago. Now what the hell do I know about curating an exhibition but maybe a little more depth is needed?

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