Category: graffiti

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Millenial angst graffiti.

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Some surreal shots for you this week…when reality is too much to deal with staring at it straight in the face, take a sideways glance and get a whole other perspective. The news is not reality, its just one part of it. It is not the whole story. Not even close. We feel dominated and influenced by global events but most of them don’t have a bearing on our daily lives in any way at all and yet still they affect us more than things that actually are in our lives.

The human brain can’t really differentiate between what is real and what isn’t. The same areas in our response centres light up regardless of whether we are witnessing something or experiencing it first hand. So if you are watching horror shows, whether fact or fiction, you will feel as if it is happening to you. Its not so much a case of you are what you eat, but you are what you watch.

But its so hard to ignore what’s going on in the world when its being hurled at us every which way we turn and we feel if we don’t pay attention we are ignoring what is going on and that feels wrong. Just to give another perspective, another thing we are ignoring is that we are microbes clinging on to a planet spinning through space around a gi-normous exploding ball of energy and we are neither up nor down and we are travelling at 67,000 miles per hour. That is, in reality, is our reality. Its not news, you can’t see it or feel it but it is happening. Just saying…

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A collection of angry messages featured this week, except for the above which I will come back to in a mo…

There is a lot of rage and resentment in U.K at moment, driven by a lot of fear and anxiety about our unknown future which is making people lose their shit. Both sides unwilling to see the other as anything other than wrong and the longer it goes on the greater the chasm and the hostility between them gets. Add in rising costs, wage stagnation, a rise in crime and the general overall feeling that those in charge haven’t got a fucking scooby what they are doing and are only, and have always been, just concerned with how it affects them. They very clearly don’t give a shit about anyone or anything else and as we all watch this nation go down the toilet, it is generating a lot of acrimony.

And so this atmosphere of continued animosity which is being stoked up left, right and centre (although if there was a centre that might actually help but there isn’t) is affecting people’s lives across the board and fuelling a lot of pent up aggression. You feel it on the streets as it pervades our day to day interactions as we all brace ourselves for a future that will contain even more conflict and chaos.

And then just yesterday, I stumbled upon this bit of graffiti calling for us to listen to each other and to try to understand the opposition viewpoint, not just to hate them and/or mock them as that is precisely what got us into this mess in the first place. And not only that, it is a quote from Spinoza, who is apparently a dutch philosopher from the 1600s (thanks wiki)

I mean, much as I am delighted to see anyone suggesting that communication and understanding are the way forward, I am genuinely curious as to what kind of person quotes 17th century thinkers in a street scrawl?  I mean, its commendable, don’t get me wrong, it’s just not something you see everyday. One of the most prolific graffiti taggers in this area just sprays the word ‘boner’ everywhere so that’s basically the level you’re up against.

And so, I guess, all I gotta say is, I’m with Spinoza…and the fact that the only words of wisdom coming out of this country right now is from a European who’s been dead around 400 years kind  of says it all because we Brits left logic behind in this whole shitstorm a long time ago…

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This was scrawled on the front of an as yet unfinished block of luxury flats and yet I can’t help but feel the statement is a reference to the education system which has clearly failed this graffittier (not sure that’s a word but I think ‘graffiti artist’ would be pushing it as a term for the creator of this street scrawl. Shame doors don’t have spell check.

#torriesout

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When the dust had settled after this year’s carnival, all that remained was a fuck load of graffiti. They had basically tagged the shit out of the entire area. Almost no wall in the immediate vicinity seemed to have escaped. They scrawled and sprayed all over shops, properties, walls, phone boxes, even trees! You name it, they tagged it. Its basically like being invited over to someone’s house for a party then taking a dump on their carpet. My issue is not with tagging itself, although, unlike  a lot of graffiti and street art, it has no aesthetic merit to speak of and is the human equivalent of dogs pissing up against walls. (will quit with the bodily function analogies) It’s just another form of territory marking. The only difference is you permanently deface things in the process. Actually by the sounds of it, it would appear I do have a problem with tagging..

However my main problem with tagging at the Carnival is that the local council will have to spend a ton of money  cleaning it up and then they will use it as an excuse to say that its too costly and there is too much property damage and that will give them a reason to stop it. And we do not want to give them any excuse to do that so the main aim is to avoid that at all costs. So if you are coming to Carnival next year, just  come and enjoy yourself and don’t fuck the place up in the process. Use the boards that are erected everywhere to leave your tag if you need to, just leave people’s homes and businesses out of it.

There is this notion that the area is just full of posh rich folk which is only true of a percentage of the residents. There is a whole community that live in W.11 that do not fit into that category at all and the real Notting Hill story is fuck all like the one with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant in it. And yes, tourists still come to the blue door, 2o friggin years later, to get their picture taken in front of it. But that is not a true and accurate representation of the neighbourhood.

The tagging does feel like a bit of a ‘fuck you’ to the wealthy residents and an angry protest at the massive inequality present within this city which is valid but it is a misguided one for a lot of the places that get mangled in the process. And you have been invited to this area to have a party and a good time, so its a little disrespectful to than mash the place up.

I spent two days directly after carnival photographing every bit of graffiti that had been done over the weekend and ended up with nearly 300 shots all of which I have featured into this short 1 minute movie which will be on my Instagram page later on today (@babycakesromero) and here it is if you are not part of the digital picture party that never ends…

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmkQKIbjLfs&frags=pl%2Cwn

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

All the photographs this week are part of my ongoing series “r u talkin to me”…words of warning, portents of doom, declarations of indifference…are these messages meant for me or are they somehow manifestations of my own thoughts I found along the way? Discuss.

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

“If Jesus came to Earth Today, They’d crucify him straight away, Upon a cross of MDF, And they’d use No Need for Nails”

(‘Upon Westminster Bridge’ by Half Man Half Biscuit)

OR:

“If the real Jesus Christ were to stand up today, He’d be gunned down cold by the C.I.A”

(Armageddon days are here again by The The)

Weirdly, I saw both bands live last week and heard these lyrics and then saw this mural. Coincidence? A sign? Hmmm…either the 80s or the Messiah are back again…or both. Jesus in shoulder pads? Scary thought (altho great name for a band)

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

 

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Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london nights

..as excuses go, I guess its as good as any. Apathy might still be the dominant political force in this country for a good chunk of the population due to despondency and fatigue but the results of these council elections will give a good gage of which party is winning or losing the hearts and minds of its constituents. Britain is still teetering on the precipice of the Brexit cliff and like the referendum that caused it, the future of the country will be dictated by those who could be bothered to vote and the ones that didn’t will have to suffer the consequence. Although confidence in our elected representatives is possibly at an all time low in this country. Caught between choosing incompetence over malevolence is not much of a choice and  it boils down to maybe deciding who is slightly less of a self-serving c***.  Long live democracy!

Photos depicting mixed messages from the streets of London this week, all part of my ongoing series “r u talkin to me” so I will let them do the talking. All I would like to say is its good to be back…