Bristol holds a special place in the UK’s graffiti culture. Distinct from other cities it’s laid back attitude and independent spirit has been in part responsible for producing a number of pioneering artists since the 1980’s such as 3D, Inkie (who now organises the huge See No Evil street art festival), Nick Walker, Sickboy, Mudwig and of course Banksy. Over the last two decades one collective who have been representing Bristol at graffiti jams across the world with their impressive and progressive work are the TCF crew. Which brings me to the main subject of the post – Acerone aka Luke Palmer, a key member of TCF, has his first London solo show this week. Although Bristol has a number of galleries that support street art and graffiti sometimes its necessary to make the trip to the capital to step things up a notch…
This is exactly what Luke has done for his upcoming Where is Iron John? show. For some years Acerone has been experimenting in combining photographic techniques with painting. This mixing of media comes together in atmospheric murals that feature the inner-city at night with bursts of light and canvases that are inspired by double-exposure and motion blur while he also works with photographic prints and installations.
Where is Iron John? is a new body of work which is inspired in part by the iconic Grimm Brothers ‘Der Eisenhans’ fairy tale. Luke uses his own photo shoots of London’s classical statues combined with painting to “explore representations of serenity and the complexity of modern masculinity and its links to the male of yesteryear”. It is certainly an interesting notion to look at the heroic statues that are fixtures of our historic cities against the fast pace world we live in and compare those effigies to our own complex lives and the pressures of the modern male. In subject matter and in innovative techniques this show looks set to be something out of the ordinary from Bristol’s extraordinary street art scene…