Editor’s note: I’m excited to have this guest post by Dave Nolionsinengland. Dave is a photographer, blogger, tour guide and one of my favorite street art people in London. – RJ
Street art is at its best when it is unexpected, uncurated and just there for the hell of it, no commercial agenda at all. London is currently blessed with the ultimate in ephemeral street art courtesy of Francisco de Pajaro, it’s rubbish, literally. A collection of bin bags, some discarded cardboard boxes or other dumped detritus, a wash of paint and marker pen and trash is transformed into street art. This is “Art Is Trash” by Francisco.
We chanced across “Art Is Trash” at work in Shoreditch last Sunday, un-fazed by the scrutiny of visitors and photography workshop camera fiddlers alike. The Art Is Trash figures look a bit worried, intimidated, perhaps scared of our hostility towards them. de Pajaro’s figures humanise the trash. We despise the rubbish we create, we can’t get rid of it quick enough so his figures draw attention to our relationship with the final step in the life cycle of consumer products. At the same time Francisco is directing our attention to the disposability of art, literally all art is doomed, it IS trash.
This art has a tendency to act like a magnet for other dumped crap, it’s a wonderful metaphor for huge swathes of the gallery world, isn’t it? The trash then gets cleaned up by the bin men pretty quick. de Pajaro is putting his street art out with the bins and it barely lasts a day. That’s perfect street art.
It’s not just anthropomorphization though, we love his bin bag lizard. He also finds cracks in our buildings, little nook and crannies which he fills with stick figures. He doesn’t hang around, he just gets in there and does it.
Photos by Dave Nolionsinengland
