Love It Or Hate It, Graffiti Has Always Been Part of Both Ancient And

SCANDINAVIAN TRAVELER XXX XXX

FreSh Ink Love it or hate it, grafti has always been part of both ancient and modern cityscapes. Today, London in particular serves as an incubator for the ultimate in street art

By Emma Holmqvist Deacon Photos by Oliver Martin

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More paint please

London’s grittiest districts have been transformed by a splash of color here, a social comment there. Tour and see more: londongraftitours.com

he police used to chase me away if Italy’s Ozmo and Israeli collective Broken Fingaz they found me painting on a wall are among the current contributors, while images by – now they leave me alone since Stik, Eine, Bastardilla and Thierry Noir appear else- they know street art brings busi- where on the street. ness to the area.” Cult grafti artist “tInsa has agreed to a rare interview to air his views on the exploding street art scene in London and in- troduce his latest work The Cycle of Futility. Deter- mined to remain anonymous, he peers at us from underneath a large hood and occasionally darts of to avoid being caught on camera; an eavesdropping photographer who’s realized the Insa has come out in daylight circles us persistently. The Goldsmiths’- trained artist, who comes from the North of England and has collaborated with the likes of Nike, is humble but amusingly cynical. “Grafti used to be an underground thing, now it’s become so mainstream, it’s turned Shoreditch into a street art Disneyland,” he says, rolling his eyes. The authorities’ softening on what used to be con- sidered nothing but plain vandalism has made Lon- don a more colorful place. East London’s Hanbury Street, Brick Lane and the walls along Shoreditch’s Rivington Street are particularly attractive to street artists. In the courtyard of Cargo, a hip café and nightclub on Rivington Street, two plexiglas protected works by Banksy sit alongside a slew of paintings by other notable talents from Europe and beyond;

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GETTING DOWN TO STREET LEVEL London is crawling with top-notch street artists but some stand out more than others. Here are four from the current crop of top talent, along with an iconic piece that helped put them on the map

Moving image

Download Insa’s GIF-ITI Viewer app on iTunes, point your smartphone towards the image in a magazine, or head to London and point it at the actual painting

1. The Cycle of Futility INSA: POP CULTURE & CONSUMERISM

overing half a build- the help of a smartphone from biological inception “Street art has to be only a matter of time being, The Cycle of Fu- and an innovative app to the grave – with the renewed to remain rele- fore a kid comes along C tility is an eye-open- called GIF-ITI. Insa assault of authority ap- vant – that’s why I started and covers the picture in ing painting, if only for its painted eight diferent pearing in the shape of experimenting with ani- scribbles or spray paint sheer scale. Unknown to versions of the image, baton-wielding policemen mations and GIF-ITI,” he – unless, of course, it’s the casual passerby is its shifting each layer a frac- scurrying round and says. “The act of eradicat- protected by Plexiglas. I ability to move. The work, tion before photograph- round without achieving ing one layer and replac- wanted to speed up that which took grafti star ing each stage to create a anything. Insa says that ing it with another re- process and not be too Insa two weeks to com- classic animation. the high-tech element fects the perishable precious about it.” plete, comes to life with The piece charts life also has meaning. nature of street art; it’s 28 Redchurch Street

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2. Don’t Shoot BAMBI: FEMINISM & STREET CULTURE

ambi has been called the female B Banksy and she’s just as elusive as her male counterpart, although some insist she is Te ‘earth’ wihot pop singer Paloma Faith. While most of Bambi’s ‘art’ i js ‘eh’ ... 3. Grafti Painter aka Velasquez stenciled pieces have been statements on roy- alty and Hollywood stars, the new darling of Lon- BANKSY: POLITICS don’s street art scene has taken on a political bent. & HYPOCRISY In December last year, a hand in the air, feet rest- mural reminiscent of ing on a skull rather than Andy Warhol’s repetitive a football. Each fgure is ythical grafti art- There have been a exist are protected by pop art series appeared accompanied by blood ist Banksy is a big great many Banksy Plexiglas. One of Banksy’s on Rivington Street in red stenciling with the M reason prices for casualties over the years; most iconic works, Grafti Shoreditch. But instead words ‘Don’t Shoot’, a street art have soared in some have been cut out Painter aka Velasquez, of a quartet of Elvis fg- reference to the fatal recent years. Having man- and passed on to any auc- can be found on the ures, Bambi lined up a police shooting of aged to remain anony- tion house or dealer auda- corner of Acklam and row of identical boys with 18-yearold Michael Brown mous since frst surfacing cious enough to sell them, Portobello Road in Nott- one in Ferguson, Missouri. in the early 1990s, all that while others have been ing Hill. The image pokes Nike’s signature tick is really known about the eradicated the way grafti fun at the divide between adorns the youths’ guerrilla artist is that he usually is: out with the old, grafti artists and those sweatshirts, along- – or she, or perhaps them in with the new. In 2007 with a more classical Also keep an side an alternative – hails from Bristol in the Transport for London fa- training by showing a eye out for slogan, ‘Don’t Do It’. UK. mously painted over a key grand master painting the Bambi’s famous A damning poem Satirical and darkly hu- work featuring Banksy’s word “Banksy” in a red Amy Winehouse calling for justice morous, Banksy’s work is humorous take on a scene font. The work has report- mural on Bayham appears to the created using stencils and from Quentin Tarantino’s edly been sold for right of the line-up, spray paint, and has Pulp Fiction, with Samuel £200,000, although it Street, Camden underneath which cropped up in every imag- L. Jackson and John Tra- was still intact behind a Town Bambi’s signature is inable public space across volta wielding bananas sheet of Plexiglas as we stenciled in black. the world, from New instead of guns. went to press. 76 Rivington Street Orleans to Melbourne. The few works that still Acklam Road

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OTHER NOTABLE 4. Big Mother STREET ARTISTS STIK: SOCIETY & CHANGE

hen wandering enormous woman and used as his canvas is to around London’s her child, solemnly look- be demolished in 2016 to W hipster enclave ing out over their sur- make space for luxury Shoreditch, you won’t go roundings. Painted with a fats – an all too common far before coming across bright yellow background, scenario in London today. Stik’s distinctive fgures. the towering mural cov- “Social housing in Britain Gangly and with curiously ers the entire side of is under threat. This piece expressive faces, the sim- Charles Hocking House, a is to remind the world Aito ply executed characters 38.2-meter-tall building that all people need have formed part of the within a social housing homes.” Poignantly e Mobstr Londoner stenciling witty messages London-based artist’s estate in South Acton re inforcing Stik’s message, on walls, foors, and billboards repertoire for over a de- that is visible from the a tiny stick family of four e Aito known as The Japanese Banksy cade. A tiny one peers Heathrow fight path. It huddles underneath the e Plastic Jesus LA-based creator whose work down from a billboard by can also be seen when mother and child at the centers on world news events the Old Street round- whizzing past on the foot of the building. e Futura Started out in 1970s New York and about, while another Piccadilly line. Big Mother is part of a still active. Pioneered abstract street art stretches out across a It’s an uplifting image, wider project brought e Thierry Noir Allegedly the frst man to paint beautifully ramshackle though the meaning be- about to brighten the on the Berlin Wall. Known for his brightly townhouse on Pitfeld hind it is rather more area around the estate. colored fgures in profle Street, just a stone’s downbeat. “My role as a ATM is among the other e C215 Frenchman celebrated for his stencil throw away. Another two street artist is to recog- participating artists; he portraits of people and animals lurk on Rivington Street. nize what is going on in has opted in by contribut- e SAM3 Spanish artist specializing in large and East London may be society and refect it as ing with two intricately small silhouettes, and shadow-like motifs Stik’s natural stomping art,” says Stik, going on to rendered large-scale e Bastardilla One of the few female painters is ground, but his most sig- explain that Big Mother, birds, chosen on the Colombian talent Bastardilla with her intri- nifcant work was com- for which he was com- grounds that they are on cate images, some of which are enormous pleted in November 2014 missioned and painted for the brink of extinction. e Cranio A Brazilian artist known for his on the other side of town. free, brings attention to Charles Hocking House, cartoon-like and often surreal work Figuratively called Big the fact that the high-rise Bollo Bridge Road, Mother, it depicts an block of apartments he South Acton

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