Results matching “paint”

Thirty-five statues in London and Manchester have come to life, courtesy of Sing London. Writers and actors have contributed to making these statues live, and each has their own story to tell. This is a fabulous idea because many times I have walked by a statue and have paused to look at it, but only a plaque bearing the name of the statue (or individual depicted in the statue) exists. The plaque normally does not tell the story about the statue or the person, so the importance of the statue is unknown and thus a bit meaningless to the visitor without this knowledge. 

Goat

Talking Statues allows visitors to use their smartphones to swipe a tag near to the statue or to type in a website address to make the statue "ring" the phone and speak to them. Some statues speak about the historical importance of London and their significance as a part of it or witnessing the world and people evolving around them.

Eye-I

I discovered a few of these statues and guessed the website for their audio clips for the remaining ones that I did not visit so that I could hear them. The audio clips must be accessed with a smartphone. (For more technical readers, simply change your User Agent in your browser to a mobile device of your choice.*)

I have included the list of audio clips from the talking statues in London and in Manchester:

London

• Hodge the Cat: speak2.co/Hodge
  • Hodge was a beloved and spoilt cat that his master used to feed the best shellfish. This commentary talks about Hodge.
• Sherlock Holmes: speak2.co/sherlock
  • This commentary discusses the famous character Sherlock Holmes and separates fact from fiction, such as the portrayal of the detective and his thoughts of standing facing the exit/entrance to Baker Street station and watching people.
• Isaac Newton: speak2.co/isaac
  • Isaac Newton talks directly to the viewer and discusses gravity and science, including some of his discoveries and his childhood. According to the scientist, the world will end in 2060...
• Whittington's Cat: speak2.co/cat
  • Dick Whittington bought his cat Tommy for a penny. Dick was not wealthy but heard the bells of Bow church with a message that he would be a mayor. He ended up making a lot of money from his cat's ability to catch mice, and he became mayor of London three times.
• Hugh Myddleton: speak2.co/hugh
  • This witty commentary describes who Hugh is and why he deserves a statue. He got a statue because he brought clean water into London. 
• Peter Pan: speak2.co/peter
  • Peter Pan tells a little bit of his story and addresses the viewer, appealing to their childhood.
• Goat: speak2.co/goat
  • The goat statue (pictured above), stands in Spitalfields. This commentary talks about the "melting pot" and evolving culture of Spitalfields.
• The Broad Family: speak2.co/broad
  • Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams voices the commentary for this statue, which is told through the eyes of one of the blocks (the one with feet) and her adventures climbing the stairs next to the statue and experiencing how quiet the City is at weekends.
• Eye-I: speak2.co/eye
  • This abstract sculpture (pictured above), discusses all of the people that pass by it each day. The statue sees everything.
• Rowland Hill: speak2.co/hill
  • Rowland Hill invented the postage stamp, the Penny Post. As you may know, letters were sent but the receiver had to pay the cost. The idea of the stamp came from Rowland as he witnessed a girl receive a letter from her lover, but she handed it back as she was unable to afford the cost. The government was originally against the idea of the Penny Post, but the public supported it. 
• Ariel and Prospero: speak2.co/ariel
  • These magical characters were based on a Shakespeare play, and they are located on BBC Broadcasting House. The statue caused controversy in its time because the statue is nude.
• Brunel: speak2.co/brunel
  • The architect/engineer Brunel provides commentary and discusses his work on the trainline from London to Bristol, which was constructed because he wanted to create public transport for the masses.
• The Unknown Soldier: speak2.co/soldier
  • This soldier was the focus of World War I poetry earlier in the year. The soldier reads a letter from his mother, which has been written into a poem.

Manchester

• John Wilkes: speak2.co/john
  • John Wilkes discusses conducting and music during the first war, and he played on the Western Front.
• Lincoln: speak2.co/lincoln
  •  This statue of Abraham Lincoln addresses the people in Manchester and talks about American history during the Civil War. Manchester, an industrial town, would not purchase cotton from the southern states because of its use of slavery. As a result of not buying the cotton, Manchester suffered because its mills closed.
• Alan Turing: speak2.co/alan
  •  This stuttering and troubled statue is dedicated to the codebreaker of the German code in Bletchley Park during World War II. Apparently and despite all the breakthroughs he made, he was prosecuted for homosexuality and treated extremely poorly. What a sad story.
• The Reading Girl: speak2.co/reading
  •  Voiced by Doctor Who companion Jenna Louise Coleman, the Italian statue of a girl describes watching people in Manchester and reading books.
• L.S. Lowry: speak2.co/lowry 
  • L.S. Lowry is an artist and was inspired by painting industry. 

 
Broad Family

To listen to these recordings while looking at the statue in its surroundings is a treat. The Broad Family commentary used the statues and its surroundings to construct a story as told by the "child" in the family. If wandering past and not in a hurry, take a moment to listen to the statues.

* Firefox browser has an 'add-on' for User Agent Switcher, and after this is installed, an XML file of user agents can be added in order to switch. This mimics a different browser or device.

Street artist Fintan Magee painted a large wall near Old Street in London last summer, which I photographed and posted here, along with a lot of other street art. The artist returned as he had an exhibition in London (Oceanic Exhibition with Askew One). A couple of new pieces appeared on the street at this time. I enjoy seeing his work as it is detailed and realistic, and the depth makes it 'pop' off the wall that it is painted on. Often, it depicts motion and common themes include two figures in a struggle of some sort.

According to the artist's Facebook page, the astronaut work is titled "Two Men Fighting Over the Moon" and it appears in a high profilic wall on Hanbury Street. It shows two astronauts floating in space with a small moon and planet Earth.

The collaboration with Askew One appeared on Great Eastern Street for about a week and featured Fintan Magee's name.

For more information about Fintan Magee, visit his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/fintanmageeart

Last year, Ronzo was busy pasting up a lot of multi-colour pigeons and dinosaurs in east London (New Street Art From Ronzo), but the artist has been quiet recently until I spotted these recent paintings on Fashion Street off of Brick Lane. The pieces feature clouds vomiting rainbows with slang "sick" and "innit" thrown in the mix. I recently covered the artist here: Street Art: Ronzo.

These walls have graced the artist's work for awhile, but they had been being painted over quite a few times and were just looking old and in need of replacement. The last piece was a collaboration with Conor Harrington (covered here).

The artwork above on the shutter has been there for a longer time, but I never posted it, and the new one is right across the street from it.

A couple of months ago, Whitecross Street in London hosted a street party. This is an annual street party, and activities, street food, and street art feature on the day. The street part, Rise of the Non-Conformists, began in 2010. I recently covered this at: Street Art on Whitecross Street. The festival always takes place around the middle or end of July. This year, street artists such as HIN, HenHarrierDay, Inkie, Teddy Baden, and Paul 'Don' Smith were a few of the street artists to take part. Below are several photographs that I took about a week after the street festival took place. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend it this year to get photographs of some of the other street art and artists at work.

Street art and market on Whitecross Street

LZY

HIN, Ves, HenHarrierDay

Sean Worral

Teddy Baden and unknown

Unknown

Inkie and Mohammed Sami

Unknown 'take it from the chimps, graffiti is for chumps'

DS and DONK

Artist Paul 'Don' Smith, who paints portraits around London and is well-known, contributed to Whitecross Street with a few new portraits, including model Cara and actor Stallone.

Paul 'Don' Smith

Brazilian street artist DecoLife recently returned to London to paint murals on Brick Lane and Pedley Street. It has been awhile since the artist had created new work in the city, and all of the pieces completed originally had been painted over. Seeing new work by the artist was welcome. These new pieces are a slightly different style than the original geometric shapes that the artist used to paint. The geometric shapes and bright colours are still present, but there's more figures and less of the geometric patterns in the work. His older artwork can be seen here:  Street Art: Artista, DecoLife, Binty Bint, Ino, Irony, Pixie, SeaPuppy.

I have always been a fan of the Beatles, particularly their earlier work. In university and High School, I was inspired by the 1960s music, fashion, and freedom. When I came to visit and work in London for my work exchange internship for university, I made the pilgrimage to Abbey Road to see the famous crosswalk and the Abbey Road studios where the Beatles recorded their music and also sang on the rooftop late in their career. This was in the year 2000, and there was not really that much to see; I did not see any other tourists when I visited it then, and I did not see much Beatle-related grafitti.

Abbey Road crosswalk

Last summer, I made my second pilgrimage to Abbey Road as we had dinner at a hotel not too far away from it. The atmosphere was much different than all those years ago, and the area was particularly busy with tourists. The tourists were getting their photo taken at the famous crosswalk used on the album cover. I also saw a classic Volkswagen Beetle drive by, but I failed to get a photograph. It would have been great if it had been parked up as there was one of these parked up in the original album cover where the Beatles were walking across.

Tribute wall

Outside the Abbey Road studios, visitors now leave their messages and tributes to the Beatles and others who performed in the studio here. This was new as I do not remember seeing the grafitti in the year 2000 when I visited. I remember seeing some on an Abbey Road road sign, but that was all. I remember seeing a news article once about complaints related to visitors drawing on the signs.

I read some of the messages and watched many others walk by and read and contribute to the messages. The messages were left by people from all over the world. The wall is also painted over regularly so that others can add their own messages.

Visitors to the area are also informed that there is a webcam on the famous crosswalk, and they can visit a website to download their photograph taken in the crosswalk. When visiting, simply remember to look at your watch or mobile phone to check the time so that you know when you walked across.

I wonder how Abbey Road will change in the next thirteen years.

I recently watched a new piece of street art go up on one of the high profile walls on Hanbury Street. The artist of this piece is Eelus, who is based in Brighton, and this is his first piece of street art in four years! This piece is titled "An Angel for Ruby" and is dedicated to the artist's daughter. Unfortunately, there is a sad story behind this piece as the baby daughter passed away shortly after her birth earlier this year.

On his blog (1), the artist stated that he tried out some new techniques, and he wasn't 100% happy with the results as the wings and the shading on the face were a little rushed. However, this still is a striking piece of art, particularly the detail in the torso and the shading on the lower part of the face.

1) Eelus: http://eelus.com

2) Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/eelus

This summer, South Bank hosts the "Festival of Love". This festival celebrates all aspects of love and romance, and the Same Sex Couple Act in particular. To celebrate, there is a group wedding taking place at the end of the month. Other events include music, art, poetry, workshops, burlesque, cocktail-making, caberet, and so much more. There's also the Museum of Broken Relationships. (The Museum of Broken Relationships displays items donated by the public that were a memory of a failed relationship.)

"Temple of Agape" is a wooden structure painted with bright colours and 1960s-1970s style typography. The artists behind this, Luke Morgan and Morag Myserscough, were inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.

There are also several brightly-coloured boxes made of neon ribbon along the river that offer a little bit of privacy.

A couple of slides also offer family fun, and these are located at the top of the South Bank area. The Temple of Agape can be used to climb up to that area instead of taking the stairs up and then back down again.

Located on the south side of the Royal Festival Hall where the South Bank market is located are several streamers, known as Tanabata Fukinagashi decorations. These commemorate the Japanese festival of stars. The story is about two lovers represented by the stars Vega and Altair, who are only allowed to meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month by crossing the Milky Way.

Tanabata Fukinagashi

There's various works of art with love associations that can be found both inside and outside the buildings on South Bank.

More information about South Bank's "Festival of Love" can be read here: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/festival-of-love

Londoner Cosmo Sarson painted a couple of murals in east London this summer. A new mural appeared on Bacon Street off of Brick Lane this spring, and another one appeared on Pedley Street. Cosmo Sarson has been compared to Banksy, and his interests as a child were in grafitti and breakdancing. These had inspired his work, such as a breakdancing Jesus in Bristol, and depictions of student rioters in London a few years ago.

The artist took a break from street art for most of the 2000s and late 1990s, and he also paints film sets and works as an art director.

The most recent London piece by Cosmo Sarson was finished just after the "Meeting of Styles" event last month, and this features a street fight that portrays the individuals as looking like gladiators. I even caught the artist finishing the piece on the Monday morning after the event (below).

His murals seem to be influenced by the Romantic style of painting but with a modern twist. The one below appeared on Bacon street, and it features a subject seen in Romantic-style paintings with the inclusion of modern technology. The figure, wearing a toga, is holding up a severed head and taking a selfie with his mobile phone. 

For more information about the artist and to see more of his work, visit http://www.cosmosarson.com

It was just over a week ago that the high profile grafitti artist 'King Robbo' passed away. The street artist is well-known and loved around London and got even more attention for a spat with Banksy. This led to street art rivalries between certain street artists. The rilvary started when Banksy painted over one of Robbo's pieces of street art that had been on the wall for a long time. Banksy perhaps did not realise that painting over the older piece would cause offense because street art gets painted over all the time; however, it kicked off a rilvary between the two street artists. 

Robbo, often referred to as "king" was busy tagging and creating grafitti in London from the 1980s. Since then, one group has sided with him and another has sided with Banksy's work, which has gone more commercial. Perhaps this is one reason for the resentment. Perhaps another is that street art belongs on the street and is meant to be uncensored. Whatever the reason, there are different viewpoints about what street art and grafitti is, and this can be quite a personal subject.

Of course, we do not know Robbo's real name or any personal details (similar to Banksy) as he could get into serious trouble. 

Robbo was ultimately involved in an accident and unable to bring his artwork to the streets, and according to his Team Robbo website, he passed away on July 31st due to health complications.

This blog entry shows just some of the street art tributes that have been appearing in east London over the past several days after the news was announced.

There are quite a few of these about, showing that Robbo is still loved in the street art community in London.

For more information about Robbo, visit the Team Roboo page: https://www.facebook.com/TheOfficialKingRobbo

Some of the rilvary street art between the two can be seen here: http://www.stylist.co.uk/life/street-art-rivalries-run-deep