Cake and The Community

The Mongrel has an interesting interview up with Cake. Cake is a New York wheatpaster, and she was recently in Prescription Art‘s Outside In show. Regardless of whether you’re a fan of Cake or not, the interview has some interesting stuff about the etiquette of pasting.

Cake and Peru Anna Anna Peru. Photo by Ω ohm Ω
Cake and Peru Anna Anna Peru. Photo by Ω ohm Ω

Here’s a short excerpt

“It is strange for me to see long time pasters still go out and paste blindly- with no regard to what lives on the surface before they get to it. Its complete disrespect. It also says something important about the paster- that they are unaware of the environment in which they are adding to/ working with. Which is also strange- I once put a sticker over Naks and then posted a photo of myself doing it. It wasn’t until the community pointed it out that I realized it. I hadn’t even noticed the tag when I was there. My practice changed immediately after that. Now I am hyper aware of where I place my work. I go out with respect.”

Cake isn’t the first artist that I’ve heard say something like that. Maybe it’s a pattern. Wheatpaste artists start out just pasting anywhere, and then, after a big mistake or two, they get conscientious of the rest of the scene and learn to respect it even more.

Wheatpaste and photo by Cake
Wheatpaste and photo by Cake

MuTATE Britain Review

Friday was public opening night for the sickest show in London. MuTATE Britain, the opening show for the new Behind The Shutters gallery, was an idea five weeks ago, and now it’s a four or five story tall hodgepodge of (usually good) art. The list of artists would be too long to list here, but here are a few: Mutoid Waste Company, Part2ism, Pure Evil, Snub23, Dr. D, The Krah, Dotmasters, and many many many more.

I twittered photos and a few comments live from the show for a few hours, but I’m sure I didn’t see half the work. Romanywg actually ran out of space on his memory card.

All photos by WallKandy, who has a great set of images on his flickr.

Entering Cordy House, the first room is full of sculptures that are a mesh between man/animal and machine. Sure, it’s been done before, but that doesn’t mean these aren’t still sick. The walls of this room are covered in work by some of the most talented artists that I can’t name, plus some amazing stuff by the Best Ever crew, who also did this piece on Leake Street. Watch your head in this room. There’s literally an anvil hanging from the ceiling.

Continue reading “MuTATE Britain Review”

How To Find A Hero

Last night I posted about Hero leaving work throughout London today. Well those pieces have dropped now, and Hero’s posted photos on his flickr of where they are. Here’s a few locations, and for the rest, go to Hero’s flickr.

At Hoxton Square. Photo by Hero
At Hoxton Square. Photo by Hero
Photo by Hero
Photo by Hero
Photo by Hero
At Laz. Photo by Hero

Pakistani Truck Art

An interesting post today from WebUrbanist about Pakistani truck art. I’d never heard of this before, but it turns out that in Pakistan, people decorate their trucks by painting on crazy designs and attaching little sculptures and trinkets. Each truck can cost up to $5,000 to paint, more than twice to per capita income!

Truck Art In Baluchistan. Photo by Umair Mohsin
Truck Art In Baluchistan. Photo by Umair Mohsin

From WebUrbanist:

The under-appreciated, indigenous Pakistani tradition of truck painting has an extraordinary history, starting in the days of the Raj. As early as the 1920’s, competing transportation companies would hire craftsmen to adorn their buses in the hopes that these moving canvases would attract more passengers. The technique worked so well that pretty soon you couldn’t purchase a ticket without seeing dozens of beautifully painted trucks waiting to take you to your destination. While the art doesn’t serve the same purpose anymore, it is still as prevalent as ever and has become more intricate and developed a deeper cultural significance over time.

Painters of Truck Art. Photo by Umair Mohsin
Painters of Truck Art. Photo by Umair Mohsin

Hero Drops Sunday + My Find

So it seems like a few artists were took notice of Adam Neate’s massive 1000 piece drop last weekend.

Last night, I was walking down Brick Lane after MuTATE Britain (more on that later tonight) and what do I see (besides an awesome Barry McGee piece)? A piece just propped up against a shopfront, mine for the taking. The work (photo below) wasn’t signed though, so maybe somebody could tell me who made it. Anyway, I took it home with me, and it’s made a great addition to my collection. It’s not by the next Adam Neate, but for given the price, it was a great deal. A big thank you to whoever painted it.

My found piece. Photo by RJ
My found piece. Photo by RJ

But if you’re a bit jealous of me or all those guys who got Adam Neates last week, all is not lost. Tomorrow (Sunday), Hero is going to be dropping 10 pieces somewhere in the West End.

Here’s a couple of the pieces he’ll be dropping:

Photo by Hero
Photo by Hero
Photo by Hero
Photo by Hero

Old Barry McGee in London

Came across this little piece by Barry McGEe today on Redchurch Street, but I’d never noticed it before. To see it in person for yourself, you can check out Streetartlocator.com where I’ve geotagged the piece.

Anybody know how old it is? Can’t imagine it’s even remotely new.

Sorry for the poor quality pic, it was dark. Check my flickr in a few days, and I’ll get a proper image up.

Barry McGee in London. Photo by RJ
Barry McGee in London. Photo by RJ