It’s taken a little time but those guys at widewalls have made a pretty sweet movie to remind us all of what happened that easter weekend in Mallorca. With so many friends both in front and behind the camera its a family affair, with Saft films shooting and editing it, Hidden sound doing the audio and of course Nick Walker, Lucy Mclaughlan, Conor Harrington, Zadok, Sickboy, Loomit, Banek,Eziquiel and myself painting any surface available.
Trash painted on reclaimed london fog rain coat
‘ABOVE THE RAIL’ The White Canvas Project comes to Cheshire street!
On Thursday Beyond Retro’s Cheshire St store will host the highly acclaimed ‘White canvas project’ in association with fashion-lifestyle brand Supremebeing.
This exciting and energetic exhibition will see an array of captivating pieces of art created by : Pinky / Will Barras / Jim Vision / Mr Penfold / Sheryo / The Yok / Mr Hicks / Neist / Grossmary / HoldyourTongue / Dotmasters / Stendec / DrZadok / Elfin / Mateus Bailon and Guy McKinley. who will work on canvases made from Beyond Retro clothing, stretched cut and sew denim, patchwork fabrics, over a period of five days. The ‘Art Jam’ as this has so famously become known worldwide will run from the 2nd July within a custom made studio at Beyond Retro- Dalston. Once complete all pieces will be hung ‘Above the Rails’ for public view and purchase in the engaging setting of our east London store for a unique exhibition on the 11th July from 5-9pmwhere they will be beautifully displayed amongst similar items of which the canvases were created.
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 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.
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.
A show of beautifully hand crafted stencil works that discover the beauty amongst our trash. Photo real renditions of humble bin bags & high class labels painted on a decades worth of bin and skip raiding. Up-cycled objects, grannies cushions, nothing avoids the Dotmasters’ magpie eye. Mixed media assemblages pop off the wall in a faux 3D skid row tableaux. The frames are off, and work spills from the walls like the piles of trash they depict.
The irony of stencilling piles of rubbish is not lost on us. Rubbish, we all do it… leave it out on the street, either once a week or at random times when consumption out strips our storage. For many it’s their only contribution to the public space. We all contribute to this shifting sea of street sculpture with the rhythms of the weekly bin round. Its an ordered chaos, of suddenly unowned & worthless things.
You can tell a lot about an area from its rubbish, the people that live there, what the eat, what they wear. High Class Trash takes it’s inspiration from the galleries location, that particular mix of trash and glamor that make Notting hill so famous.
The first 13 visitors to the show on the 13th of September will be rewarded with a limited hand finished six colour silk screen print, a release of only 13. Sometimes 13 can be a lucky number.
Private view 13th of September
Show runs till october 5th
284 Portobello Road, W10 5TE, London Tel No. 020 8354 3592
[vimeo vimeo.com/47240407]
It must be that time of year again, great line up for this my 7th year producing Nuart, particularly excited to have Saber, Eine and Sickboy over…sounds like trouble already!
A last final dash to a super nice gallery to paint on their walls before i left Tokyo and popped some eyes up for Filthy Luker.
