Hackney Wick

Hackney Wick Coca Cola mural with the Olympic Park stadium in the background

My interest for street art takes me to new places and my two last trips to London have introduced me to a very interesting part of London: Hackney Wick. This area have a long industrial history. Huge fabric buildings made of yellow brickstones dominates the area. Once filled with thousands of workers, now, made into residential buildings, cafes, galleries, art studios and store houses.

Hackney Wick is the neighbour to Queen Elisabeth Olympic Park.  The development of modern facilities for the olympics contrasts the old and partly derelict area of the Wick, but Hackney Wick have something that the olympic park doesn't have. A vibrant cultural life, street art and Lee Navigation (or River Lea).

The canal served historically as a major transport route of cargo and goods to London. Nowadays the rives is used for pleasure boating and many riverboats serves as homes for people. It's a relaxed life along the river and people uses the walkway to exercise and for leisure walks.

    
The place is perfect for art and street art and colourful graffiti gives the place a an alternative and vibrant look.

it's a beautiful day and a relaxed atmosphere. It's perfect for a pizza and a beer at one of the cafes along the river. A riverboat comes up and gives us music. A street artist comes up and finnishes his piece. The work is good and people gives him a interested and chilled look as nothing unusual have happend.

It's a good place for photographing and there are works of street art everywhere. I can just wander around and enjoy.

Fresh from Leith Edinbugh

It's not often I stumble upon totally fresh works, but today I was walking in Leith and right by my bus stop the artist Russel Ian Dempster was finishing a mural. I stopped by took some photographs and had a chat with the artist.

The portrait is of Eduardo Paolozzi near his birthplace. Poalozzi was born in 1924 and is known as one of Britain's leading post-war sculptors and a figurehead of the Pop Art movement.

The artist told me that it was his first huge mural outside, and it was interesting and challenging to do. The work is planned to be finished this afternoon and inspired the artist to do more outdoor work. Dempster is a really friendly guy and I hope to see more of his works around. It's a great piece of work and makes Leith a more interesting place

Belfast, a city of walls, fences and barbed wire

At first glance Belfast is lively and peaceful city with modern shopping streets and centres. People in town are like elsewhere on a Saturday morning, drinking their coffees and look inside shop windows. However, when you look more closely you'll see that fences are somewhat higher and equipped with different types of spikes and barbed wires. Then you see murals, symbols, slogans and flags. There are two kinds of people living here: The Republicans which are usually ethnic irish catholics, and the Royalists or sometimes which usually are ethnic english and protestants.

In Victoria Square Shopping Centre, everybody shares the same ideology: Consumerism

There is a historically long and chronic conflict between the parties, and the recent history of the conflict is referred to as "The Troubles". "The Troubles" started in the late 1960s and ended with Belfast Good Friday Agreement in 1998. The warfare and violence was led by paramilitary groups on both sides. 'The Provisional Irish Republican Army'  (PIRA, or mostly known as IRA) is  internationally most known and regarded as a terrorist organisation by the Brittish Government.

When IRA let down their weapons in 1998, the 'Loyalists' put up this mural sending a message that they did the same.

Both parties and their paramilitarian groups uses murals in their propaganda which still are highly visible in the city.

UVF is the most known and violent 'Loyalists' paramilitarian gorup

Bobby Sands was a PIRA leader who died in prison after hungerstriking for political rights  

Wall separating Republican neighbourhood and Royalist area are painted with graffiti

When walking in parts of Belfast, one is constantly reminded of the conclict. There are huge areas of 'No Mans Land' or peace lines between Republican neighbourhoods and Royalist areas. These areas is frequently patrolled by heavily armored police vehicles. In addition the government have set up huge gates around which easily can be closed and separate people if something should happen. 

Belfast Police car, made for 'peace keeping'

The walls are perfect for graffiti, and artists and organisations from all over the world have decorated the peace lines with graffiti and street art, often sending a message to the people of Northern Ireland.

International organisations for peace and human rights works for stabilizing and develop the peace

There is relatively quite when it comes to political violence in Belfast nowadays, but it does not feel peaceful and I got this feeling of walking around in a huge open prison because of the walls and fences. There is probably a very long way for the people of Belfast to reach a level of trust that could tear down walls and fences .

urbex: The MUNCK building

It's a facinating building and part of industrial history here in Bergen. The building was was abandoned in 2005. The owners moved into more modern and efficient premises. The Bergen Art Academy was supposed to take over the building with 7000 square meeters for the students and their work. But the security of the building was assessed  to be bad, and the costs to secure it was to high. It was left to decay.

 The building is quite functionalistic, but the window works is quite unique and gives the building a touch of Art Deco. The huge windows probably was made to give the workers as much day light as possible.

Sverre Munck started his business in 1924, trading with electrical equipment. In 1949 Munck enteprises buildt their own factory right outside Bergen and became Munck Cranes. The idea was to make electric trolley buses, escalators and cranes.

 

When Munck Cranes moved out in 2005, the state bought the property. The plan was to demolish the building in 2007 and build a new Art Academy on the property. For some reasons the plans have been stalled and the building is still standing.

The building was designed by the architect Per Grieg (1897 - 1962). Per Grieg was educated an architect in Trondheim in 1922 and set up his own private practice in Bergen in 1923. Per Grieg have drawn and designed numerous monumental buildings and houses in Bergen and the Munk Building is part of his legacy. 

When 'masters' of fine art couldn't work there for security reasons, the graffiti artists didn't care so much about that. This was a perfect space for aerosol masters. The huge space and blank walls are perfect for graffiti.

Homeless people also appreciate a roof over their head.

Rumors tells that now is the time to demolish the building and give space for a totally new building for the Art Academy. Industrial history will vanish, the homeless and the graffiti painters have to find new places to be.