It was almost a year since i was in Japan, recently a friend i met in Osaka, the amazing Ken has made a beautifully filmed short film for Mocatv about a few of the street artists that are working out of Tokyo and i thought i’d share it with you. If you ever want to paint in Japan then Ken’s your man!
I had a great time at easter with Widewalls, unfortunately those tricky guys at Saft films managed to convince me to front the bloody thing. I’ve worked with Saft many times before and soon the camera kings Zoomintrude and Nano shakes and myself fell into our old Rinky Dink Productions habits. The Final 6 minutes 66 second version should be released some time over the coming weeks.
I Got the call around mid February, How do you fancy a week in the sun end of March painting an old ice cream parlour/cafe/hotel? The only snag being that the Hotel was being demolished soon after and this was the last weekend available to paint the thing inside and out…. oh and we were going make a movie about the 48 hours we had to do it.
Mission improbable it was, but with a good local team. Chris and Heinz, Roberto the local paint guy, the spray paint shop Linea6 and the wonderful Edith, her twin daughters and son, we might just pull it off. Easter of course brings it’s own problems, it often rains. Flights and hotels become problematic and the whole island shuts down for the most sombre event in the christian year.
With everything set on the thursday before Easter the artists started to arrive, we had a little over 48 hours together with the clocks going forward on sunday night, tight was only screwed tighter. Flying in for the weekend were Loomit, Zadok, Sickboy & Kelster, Nick Walker, Lucy Mclaughlin & Matt Watson, Conor Harrington and myself with Banek and Ezequiel
Collaboration between myself, sickboy and Zadok
Saft films and ian Wallkandy tore around the site frantically documenting through a smog of paint and beer fumes. The setting was incredible and the house came alive, the oldest part of the building was at its core a hotel and the layout of the rooms, the vanished ceilings and exposed beams, lent itself well to our use of it as a ruined gallery. A maze of dark dead ends and tiny corridors that opened into crumbling courtyards.
Although the pressure was on, in such a wonderful location with amazing local food and people popping round, a lot of fun was had. We had a few near misses but we all survived. The local guys Ezequiel and Banek tore it up, zadok painted till his taxi took him to the airport. I haven’t laughed as much for a long time, and can’t wait to see the short film that comes out of it. Ended up popping something up on Hotel Zhero…they did ask…Honest. For more info on the project and to find out when the film will be released check out Widewalls or catch up with them on Facebook.
So i’ve been mucking around with some old masters, poor old Holbien gets it this time, if you listen very closely you can hear him turn in his grave. Skulls and drapes, it’s curtains either way.
So those nice folks at Widewalls have invited a load of artists to paint up an old ice cream parlour on the beach that is due for demolition. Easter in the sun…Now thats more like it.
Spelling it out, the shhhh, the I and the T triptych, 90cm by 90 cm canvases,
With the Ritz just out the window, thought they needed a little extra security. Thanks to Ian Cox for the great photos
Early test print of a new Single colour stencil of a german KVB train (1.4m) on white fabrino paper. Excuse the toes.
Thanks to all who came to the show at REed proJECTS Gallery on the 9th for my show “High class trash”. A great night was had by all, fixing vodka martini’s in a grey plastic bucket oiled the wheels for Martyns inspired idea of having a costume competition for 10 free prints. Which coupled with the Trashtini’s brought the best and worst out in so many of you. The idea was to come as a Toff or trashy, with all too many of you opting for the classy end of the spectrum. I Think if it was in London we would of seen more cheap chains and shell suits, at least i know it would of been the outfit for me and my crew. Below are a selection of the winners of the best and worst dressed. Thanks to all who came, got trashed, also a special thank you to Martyn, Tore, Camilla, Anastasia and Jon who made it all possible.
Lassa and son.
Lina in her vintage Chanel
Miss Stavanger in sequins
Even the dog got a prize in this very fetching recycled jacket.
Again thanks to all who came, drank, bought and had fun. Shows open till the 9th of December.
Well it’s been a great few days, the weather has been great, St Ottilien is an amzingly peaceful and beautiful spot and the people have been amazingly helpful, chill and entertaining. Arrived after a hectic couple of weeks in Stavanger for Nuart and a really break neck stop in London on route to Munich.to say this monastery is a change of pace is to understate it. Curated by Vis a Vis with the hleping hand of Loomit the mission for 12 artists was to paint large scale works around the Monastery outside of Munich. Yes thats what i thought, crazy. as it turns out not so crazy the works work well around the place and the artists have really taken the theme of heaven meets earth into their murals….I know what your thinking…what on earth was i going to paint….me too. So i squared it with them first that it would be ok to paint a massive pile of trash. So far so good. So half way through a massive pile of trash, its 12 feet high, (see pics below) i had just finished for the night when the producer of the festival a nice guy called Al;exander came up to me and said “where’s the rabbits?”
“That’s funny” i said “the guy who’s wall it was was asking where the rabbits were too”. (hes a butcher and the building is a slaughterhouse, makes good sausage apparently) The producer says “you said you were going to paint a pile of rabbits”I nearly shit myself laughing, No mate a pile of Rubbish!
To bring it on message with the projects title i added the boy writing “we were given paradise” as much to make a comment on them letting me paint as to make trash on their walls as the general decline of the world into detritus entropy. (just a construction shot below to give you some scale)
Thanks to all those who made this possible especially Father Cyrill, Christian, and Alexander who has more rabbit than sainsburys.