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.

Banksy at 40

Banksy have never made his identity or real name public. Most sources can tell that he is probably born in 1974 (or 1973).  Since the beginning of the millenium he has had a remarable career as an artist, publisher and a movie maker. Few, living artist experiences that their works are sold for millions of dollars at auctions. Collectors and investors opent their wallets wide for relatively modest pieces of work from Banksy's hand. I'm not a collector and don't have the kind money needed for purchasing his works, but I must admit that I do admire him. For some reason I think I would like him....... He is smart and his creative talent is way higher than his fellow colleagues working in the streets and in addition he likes Massive Attack :-). Involentary, maybe, he has also become the street artist that mostly sumbolizes big money, fame and commercialism in street art. And Banksy at 40 constantly fights that image.

His Master's Voice (photographed in London 2012)

The subversive artist probably identifies with the dog. Banksy at 40 may have an identity crises. 

London Calling II

On a few square meeters you'll find works of Invader, Donklondon, Otto Schade, Roa, Phlegm and more

When it comes to street art, nowhere else is like London. I just love to walk around in the eastern part and look. And every time I come, there is something new, something fresh in the streets. The street art scene is renewing it self continuously.

Murals by Faith47, Ian Stevenson and Rone

I walk around for hours, visiting places and spots I've been before, and check out new spots. East London is probably the most popular place in the world when it comes to street art, both for famous artists and new talents, and street art photographers, as my self, which try to follow the devolopment.
 

Dale Grimshaw

'Rat looking out' by Roa

 Miss Van and Ciro Schu

The streets of London have become an important outdoor exhibition scene for artists that promotes their work and activities in their studios, galleries and on internet. Making a living of their work. Thousands of bloggers, facebookers and instagrammers post their art directly from the streets every day, and thereby gives the artists free and valuable publicity.

Murals by Alexis Diaz, Martin Ron and Roa

Hhuge Shepard Fairey "Obey Giant" mural

In addition street art in London have become part of the tourist industri. Official and commercial intersts use street art as part of huge advertising campaigns to attract tourists. A numerous of agencies offer guided 'Street Art Tours'. Street art in London is big business. Good sites for updated info about street art in london are Street Art London, Inspiring City, LDN Graffiti, Alternative London and Global Street Art.

Osch aka Otto Schade: Experimenting in The Streets

"I'm motivated by the idea of producing something interesting, different 

and unique, experimenting with shapes and materials" 

(Otto Schade).

Osch aka Otto Schade  is a multicreative artist with a successful career as an architect and a surreal painter and sculptor, so what the hell is he doing vandalizing the streets of London with graffiti?

Otto Schade, a german sounding name, is born in Chile in 1971 and live and works in London. I've only seen his work in the streets of London, and yes, he have an unique style developed over years and his stencils, somtimes simplistic and sometimes so complicated, both in shapes and colours. He uses warm and bright colours, and therefore easy to spot and recognize.

Surreal street art

A simple and small, but great stencil found in London

 So why do a relative aknowledged and award-winning artist work in the streets? The reason may be in his combined background as architect, painter and skulptor, doing public installations. Doing street art is an environmental act, transforming the the city aesthetics and challenge our minds. Doing street art nowadays is also a great way to get publicity as an artist. In Shade's words "I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I think the path is the exciting thing and not knowing where my work is going makes me happy. I think recognition from people is an important thing I am looking for,...." On my last trip to London, I found several of his more simple, but ingenious circle formed stencil works which I will call "The Innocence and the man made danger" series of some I post below:

Please visit Otto Shade's website here!

Conor Harrington: The old and the new

Conor Harrington, originally from Cork in Ireland, combines his graffiti background with his training in fine arts. A common theme in his works are conflicts within modern masculine identity in the urban environment. He lives and work in London and have gallery exhibitions and do street art work all over the world. The picture above I took in East London. Harrington's works are not common in the streets, but when you spot one, you'll get surprised and just know it's his work. Last summer he also did work in the north of Norway. You can see more of his work and projects on conorsaysboom. 

Conor Harrington in Dublin

Some years ago I was sitting on a city tour bus i Dublin and had just passed st. stephens green and in a blink of a moment I spotted a painting on a wall in distance. What was that? I jumped of on next stop and went back to have a closer look. It was a mural of a 18th century man sitting in a chair with a sword in his hand and a dead animal in front of him. "Pity!" I thought. "Why have they ruined it?" Well, first of all the the old time figure on the painting seemed misplaced in a modern urban environment. Second, maybe the mural just where old, a kind of sign, logo or commercial for a guest house of some sort, or.... a whiskey?. My next thought was: "Why ruin it in this manner? Didn't look like vandalism. Aha!.., maybe it's not finished. Yeah, It's an ongoing work..... Nah,...this blue colour didn't quite fit in as a grounding colour. Hm... maybe its supposed to be this way? My god! This piece is rare and brilliant!" I was quite astonished and looked at it for a while. A figurative and abstract post-modern piece. It changed my perception of street art as form and what kind of possibilities and themes which are possible to do in the streets. A socio-psychological theme about masculinity, the old and the new, the urban environment as a hunting field or a battleground for archaic male figures. Harrington calls his work for 'post-graffiti'. I think Conor Harrington certainly takes street art in a new and interesting direction. The picture below (from London) is made together with Ronzo and made me laugh.

 Together with this piece I go for Gorillaz with 68 state. (Click on the link or the 'play' button in the box below).




 

Roa: London Calling

I love Shoreditch, the main place for Street Art and Graffiti in east London. Street Artist from all over the world have left their works for us to see in the streets like a big open air gallery. The big bird on the picture is made by Roa. Roa makes big, mostly black and white, art works of birds and fury animals on derelict buildings. Alive, dead or sleeping animals, sometimes slaughtered or "x-rayed". Raw, provocative and weird murals placed very visibly in the city environment. Roa comes is from Belgium and became known in the UK when when the local council wanted his painted Rabbit removed from a wall in the Hackney area in 2010. A campaign by local residents forced the council to change their mind. Read more in The Guardian article here.

I took this picture in London february 2012 and was astonished by this and other art works in the area. Roa has a very distinct and different style in the street art world and reaches a broad audience. Even if his weird and naturalistic figures seems misplaced and sometimes brutally displayed, they are beautiful, graceful and spectacular. They strum archetypical strings burried deep in our minds. See some more of his art work here!

Along with Roa comes "London Calling" with The Clash!  (Click on the link or the "play" button on the box below to play the song).

Eine: Letters into words that make you think!

Im a big fan of Eine. Ben Eine have done graffiti and streetart for about 20 years and have been arrested a numerous times for his graffiti works around London. His interest in typography tranformed him into a street artist who work with big letters, typography and usually forming words or small sentences. Ben Eine is the "street artist who made it to the white house". When David Cameron visited Barack Obama in July 2010, he gave Obama a screen print made by Eine which read "TWENTY FIRST CENTURY CITY". A brilliant peace of work and Ben Eine later, in an interview, said:

"It's quite mad, really," says Eine whose early creative life as a particularly productive graffiti artist earned him 15 or 20 arrests, five convictions for criminal damage and, on the final occasion, a narrow escape from jail. "But it's OK. It's not the kind of recognition I seek or get every day, but Cameron seems quite a positive kind of guy and Obama's a dude. I would probably have had issues if it had been for Bush."

I first saw Eines work here in Bergen on the wall of the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), which read: "CONTROVERSIAL CALCULATE CASH”. Big colourful letters. First, I thought is was some kind of commercial. But the text did not make immediate sense and did not refer to any known brand or product. I became curious and photographed the wall (See the work here). I did some research and discovered Ben Eine.

On a trip to London in february 2012, I spotted the work pictured above right ouside the tube station on Old Street. I just love it! See more of Eines work at Eine Diary. Together with Eines work I have chosen "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan (click the link or the "play" button below!)

Big Letters! Ben Eine

Ben Eine started as a graffiti writer in the underground street art scene of London in the late 80´s and 90´s, and is a friend of Banksy. Both are now superstars in the street art movement. Art curators is of course part of their commercial success, organising street art shows in combination with gallery exhibitions in major cities world wide. Ben Eine is lives in London and his works is very present and visible in East London (Shoreditch), and when I´m in town it´s a pleasure to visit and photograph in the street art areas of East London. It´s like having the biggest open air art gallery in the world!

Ben Eine and his works are frequently featured in major trend magazines and music videos by big bands. In July 2010, President Barack Obama was presented with a screen print by Eine, Twenty First Century City, as an official gift from the British Prime Minister David Cameron. I'm not sure if Cameron knew about Eine´s criminal record from his graffiti years when he was arrested numerous times.

Ben Eine is present in my hometown Bergen too: On a wall at NHH (Norwegian school of Economics). Visible from the highway were thousands of cars passes every day, and hundreds of students walk by into the campus. I think many do not recognise this as a piece of art at all.

At first glance it looks like a collection of letters. A commercial of some kind? A big board announcing something? The letters are bright, clear and colourful. The letters make three words: «controversial» «calculate» and «cash».

The wall was spray painted by Ben Eine during a few summer days in 2011 as a part of a festival on Capitalism by NHH.

Please visit the Eine Diary (One of the coolest web pages on this planet).