Category: street

Categories
collaboration Festival Friends norway Rude Kids street

Kål Festival

Visited Kristiansand a couple of weeks ago for the Kål Festival by good friend and the curator of the thing Vlek. Its a cool festival as they state on their website “The Art of Living is a festival that focuses on the connection between visual art and public health.
The festival addresses themes such as: freedom of expression, equality, inclusion and user participation.
The festival produces street art, organizes workshops and contributes to debates”

I was honoured to be asked as they have had some of my friends an heroes paint around the town in previous years the likes of Roa, Issac Cordel, Cbloxx, Dot Dot Dot,Martin Whatson and Mark Jenkins and many more. So it was nice to make a mark in the same town as them. This year i was joined by Ben Eine, Espen Henningsen and Stay one as part of the festival.

First up before Ben landed was a piece i’d been working on for a while. Dritt is a less offensive Norwegian word for shit (the type of word a naughty kid would use). The wall was a makeshift hodge podge of re bar and ply in a tumble down plot behind the theatre. We chopped down the undergrowth with a chainsaw and dodged our way around the rubble and the holes. The new rude kids had posed for each letter back in London, their names are from left to right Rudi, Jaigo, Boudica Wren and Sadhbh. Thanks as ever for the kids patience while i took their photographs for the studies for the works.

It took a while but i even managed to pop a Rude kid up high, his name is Laser Ray.

Then Ben arrived and we set about a large wall in town, by Smash burger (which we lived out of (great burgers)). We were blessed with great weather! Working quickly we knocked it out in a day.

Onto the power station that was trackside for another days painting.
Rose and Lilly with their Father Ted phrases seemed to fit perfectly on a set of stairs by a power station (careful now!).

Finally we headed out of town to paint in a place that reminded me of Tou Scene in Stavanger but instead of beer this factory produced paper, the company was Hunsfos Fabrikker on Hunsøya island in Vennesla since re purposed as hive of cultural production. I Adapted my new Rude Kids Wren, Rudi, Sadhbh and Rudi to write a more acceptable word for the small creative community thats grown within the factorys grounds.

It was a great week in a lovely town with good friends. We came we saw we painted. Thanks to Arne for all his hard work and super slick production. We left our marks and hoped the locals liked them.

Categories
Festival street

Waterford Walls

What a wonderful week in Ireland, thanks to all the crew that made the week a slick production experience. A special thanks to Gabe, John, Kerri, Luke, Raphael, Madison and Soak7. There were more involved of course but as an old tipsy man my memory fails me. I haven’t experienced such a shared responsibility amongst a team for a long time, congratulations to all of you, you should be proud of what we all achieved.
I cut some new things specially for the festival that were a bit out of my usual schtick. Hope they worked for the local audience as they were cut for you.

Photo by Street Art Atlas
Photo by Street Art Atlas

The kneecap image was mediated thing i have ever painted, i’m a plastic Paddy (london irish) married to a Dubliner, taking a provocative image from a Northern Irish band to a southern Irish graffiti festival, i planned to just paint it around the place on unsanctioned walls and not ask permission. However with all the other factors that i’ve mentioned, i actually checked with all involved to see if i wasn’t stepping on too many toes. The band and the festival said yes and with the wife happy i was not being a bull in a china shop i was set.

I only explain this background to temper the uk interpretation of this image . I am not ignorant of an irish dialogue which may make this image problematic. But as a street artist its more of a tribute to Mr B’s flower thrower than anything else. It is after all me in a tracksuit pulling the same pose with a can of paint.

Faced with that, the location Waterford and the whole street art shtick. I thought of doing it my way with a localised message . It was first painted in much hit spot in Jenkins lane car park, keeping the look of a tagged wall to contextualise the tagging that is bound to appear after i have left. Thought i’d contribute to their wall than go over it with something more mural like .

Photo by Street Art Atlas

I painted it a second time at the Waterford walls paint jam. I love a good knackered wall, something with a personality. There were a loads of great charcoal drawings and kids chalk drawings all over it and i thought i could add a couple of kids or something would of added to what was already there. The artist i ended up going over was a nice guy called Maurice Caplice who drew the seahorse, he explained a French girl had written the Free Palestine on the wall and the spot for DJ Próvai was found.

Photo by me

Rather than paint a mural in the town, Waterford walls were kind enough to find some smaller spots dotted around town. Its a big ask, a lot more talking to folk and finding walls that work with my style. But they pulled it out of the bag with 8 or 9 nice folk that allowed me to pop up some old fashioned street hits.

A big thanks to Hannah Judah and Street Art Atlas who captured my visit. Thanks to Hannah for my inclusion in her wonderful book signing ( check it out, available from all your usual suppliers ). Thanks you too all those who came and suffered my quite sweary artist presentation. Sorry! Had a great week, painted a fair bit, drank a little too much, i blame the Buzzballs!

Photo by Street Art Atlas
Photo by Street Art Atlas
Photo by Street Art Atlas

The Kid above is actually called Luca and is an old friend of the family. He’s a bit sweary but the coincidence was appriciated by the nice guys in the record shop.

Lads from the oldest tattoo shop in town. Thanks guys. Photo by me.
Photo by Street Art Atlas
Photo by Street Art Atlas

Made a few weird versions of the Dj Provi stencil on some old newspapers that are available online at Stella Dore if your interested.

Categories
london street

Park St Cronx

I Painted a wall in Croydon on Park street a good number of years ago, think someone said it was 6! The space was agreed by the owner and was part of a larger number of works in the area. To be honest id forgotten about it, till someone posted a horrible picture of it a few weeks ago

Thats of google maps, I dont know which is worse to be honest.

I had 10 liters of black paint, left over from something and needed some 600ml cans for ‘Yes we can show’ at Atom gallery for the 9th of November. Once ordered i had to empty them (instructions from the gallery, something about postage)…so had 6 large cans to empty. Given the state of how the wall became , i need to create something bold that would cope with subsequent additions.

Black and white, dots kids and wallpaper while you wait for the bus.

The biggie was developed for a show in Tokyo with Hand inc. Ken last year, i haven’t painted them on the street in the UK, bet he gets a moustache and glasses, an arrow at least.

Of course i had to do a Indigo to replace the one i painted over, almost did the kids in primary colours , but chickened out. The different blacks work ok and a shadow goes a long to separate them.

Had a fun couple of days painting ending on Halloween, during the painting i re connected with the lovely lady who gave me the permission the first time i painted it, to be honest i hadn’t checked, (thinking something togo over the top of what existed was better than not painting it). Friendly place Croydon, had some good encouragement. Still have a large mural from the same time round the corner

Categories
Festival Nuart street

Nuart 24

It was a with great pleasure i accepted an invite from my old friend Martyn Reid to participate in the Nuart festival in Stavanger Norway (They also do a Nuart Aberdeen ). I worked on this festival for over a decade being first invited as an exhibiting artist (when it was more of a New Media festival in 2004) and coming back year after year in a progression of roles from curator to artist and production manager. The year after we met Nuart started to focus on street art, the budget was small and the possibilities of painting round the city were non existent. We ended up painting some abandoned buildings in a down at heel part of town as well as staging a small show up at the arts centre Tou Scene in 2005.

Since then the Festival has grown, huge murals appeared around the town, logistics grew, cherry pickers were hired with a huge volunteer task force who’s amazing help allowed the thing to grow into a world leading festival of art on the street, drawing camera crews from CNN from the USA, Google it. With amazing artist line ups from across the globe, the curation of each years participants tells you a lot about the way street art has developed over the years, covering most aspects of public space art intervention. From situationalists to muralists, wheat paste to spray paint, key artists from the history of the medium as well as show casing the breadth of the techniques happening on the street today.

I did a decade of production and have visited them a few times as an artist over the years, so it with great pleasure to be invited back for this years ‘Intangible’ festival. A back to basics approach to urban mark making. A what you can carry method of production on un sanctioned spaces. Not a mural in sight. I have always been a fan of floor based works that you come across when walking round a town. It all seemed to start with that for me. Over the years people have worked out logistics for larger and larger works. Rollers on poles, fire extinguisher and extendable ladders, anything you could carry on public transport and then over fences but it rarely involved a cherry picker or a scissor lift.

For 5 days i wandered the city with a hi-viz popping up life size works, i used a ladder once… it was lovely. I have a good knowledge of the city built on my years of production of the festival which meant i had a good idea of places i wanted to paint and images i wanted to drop there. What a wonderful week thank you Stavanger, a sea of thumbs ups, Coffee and cake, even two six packs and a packet of fags! Most importantly i didn’t get chased once.

A couple of things didn’t fit the walls chosen, and were painted over, sorry for that. But i think that much of it will stay and brings a certain something to the places chosen, but like all street art it’s councils and maintenance contracts that are the curators of our public space.

Categories
film mural Rude Kids street

In the Borders

Spent a week up north on the Borders, in Carlisle and Newcastle, I love this part of the world and visit regularly. On this trip i Painted a Tattoo Parlour Eclipse Ink for Eden arts and Blank wall Assasins.

Took a few days even managed to off set the mural with a couple of more traditional street hits at West walls Brewery Nice place! They supplied a wall, pizzia and a beer! Film By ARJ visuals.

Had a super nice few days in the town, met some great people and painted some walls, even made local TV. Film by Stuart Walker

Seeing i was so far north, i decided to pop over to Newcastle to see some friends, so popped a few things up around Ouse Burn. By chance Seven Stories the National Centre for Childrens Books was on the route, so Popped a #Rudekid on the front of the building and it seemed to be received very well and may stay. film by Jamie Dobson @jamiesgotacamera

Categories
street

Wash it up

The local phone box was hang out spot for local ne er’ do wells who
used it as a base (excuse pun) to smoke crack throughout the night.
Often loud and very funny these impromptu party events were often a
daily occurrence starting at night and often ending as the school run
started in the morning.
I thought it was about time that both the occupants of the box and the often stunned locals deserved a break from each other in this relic of telecommunication.

‘Wash it up” mixed media installation in the heart of #Dalston
A series of staged photo’s and videos with myself as the model.
Photo’s taken by @streetartatlas a big thank you to The Pea for cutting the stencils and Betti for the support in making it happen!

Categories
street

VOTE

So it’s election day, and my! What a choice there is ! A Myriad of promises, logos and strap lines. Its like your at a market on a Sunday where everyone is selling knock off goods. They all look legit but after a few washes the the signs of forgery are sure to show themselves in time. Inspired by the lies and images that accompany them and a desire to see how paint works on glass, led me to a practice paint on this much loved phone box / voting booth in Dalston (well loved with the late night crack crowd and your voting crack). so here it is !  A pic n’ mix of logos, slogans and lies that it doesn’t matter which way round they are arranged and organised in the end up in the same old message. Promise the world if its secures you power. Then you have 4 years to line your pockets. Personally i’m up for spoiling it, faced with the candidates my choice is to register a protest after all spoils get counted. We need a dramatic change, not a pick of the same coloured hue of bullshit

Categories
Japan Mallorca Paris prints show street

Trash Tour

Trash tour: High-class Trash coming to a street near you..

Following the London launch of Dotmasters new Dior Monochrome Edition, announcing three very special international events:

  • Palma, Mallorca,18thNovember: Dior Purple Edition and End-sheet editions  launched at the 2B Gallery, Carrer Falconer, 19, 07171 Portals Nous. 
  • Paris, France, 25th November: Dotmaster Dior Gold arrives at the GCA Gallery, 2 Pl. Farhat Hached, 75013 Paris
  • Tokyo, Japan,10th December: Dotmaster Red Edition goes big in Japan.

The London Monochrome edition release runs until 17th November, so if you want to paint it black, get in quick…  Available her for a limited time.

From the 18th, the next edition, The Palma Pinks and Purple will be exclusively available to buy from the 2B Gallery. 

International launches will be accompanied by local shows, titled “One man’s Trash is another’s treasure”. Check your local dealer for details..

Dropping prints, painting walls , doing shows.. Trash world tour, innit.. Duz what it sez on the tin..

Follow me and my releases around the world. Www.dotmaster.co.uk

or www.Instagram.com/dotmasters

Categories
commission street

Burgundy Lion Montreal

First trip to Canada

Film by Dan Esteban

Had the chance this week to visit Montreal, i’ve always wanted to go to Canada so i jumped at the chance. Thankfully Louis Jenson from Spraying bricks hooked me up with a local Fred Caron who found me a wall behind an amazing pub The Burgundy Lion. Its a great spot! great food, good beer and plays all the premier league matches live, which is great when your away from home. Any how thanks to all involved and especially Paul Des Baillets. Loved Montreal and will be back.

Categories
murals norway Nuart street

Framed

A half finished mural

Some beautiful night shots taken by B Tallman

So i’ve been painting a series of underpasses in Stavanger over the last few years, the latest collaborating with Martyn Reed . The idea is to make the wall look like the Summer show at the RA. The Royal academy Started in 1768 with a the type of show that was in style across Europe hanging the works with much of the walls covered by hundreds of frames these rooms were often called Salons shows.

The difference with this install is that all the easy to reach frames are empty waiting to be filled by passers by. It took 3 and a half days to put up close to a hundred frames. Thankfully i had help from Helga, calum and The J0n. On the last morning people had started to fill the frames with collage , acrylic paint and Pen. Looking forward to how this wall is going to progress, bit nervous too.

photos by Brian Tallman