It’s been quite a week for Eine, what with the prime minister giving President Obama one of Eine’s paintings as a gift, but Eine has taken that experience and put it right out on the street in this new collaboration with RYCA. Eine painted the words “The Strangest Week” and RYCA painted the phrase “Power Up.”
Besides looking great, this piece actually asks an interesting question of the art world. Eine and RYCA have literally used the same stencils, the same ideas, the same paint and the same spot to paint this piece. Ben Eine’s work gets publicized by major newspapers, and RYCA isn’t nearly as well known outside of the street art world. In fact, Eine’s involvement in this wall is probably why I’m writing about it. So yeah, the art world is kind of silly. But this also speaks to the beauty of street art when it’s outdoors. The thousands of people who will walk by this wall every day have no idea if those words were painted by me, Hackney Council, Eine and RYCA or maybe even Banksy; they just enjoy the message.
Photos by Unusualimage