Category: street art

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#MYLDN (1450)

And so everything is back on. Well almost/not quite/not at all depending on what business you are looking at. There seems to be a massive discrepancy between them all. Some stores are heavily populated yet a lot seem extremely quiet. Some high streets have got their life back, others are as dead as they were before anything re-opened.

A lot of shops are dependent on office workers and/or tourists who are still not back yet so they are barely getting anyone in through their doors. The Gov wants the country back up and running at full speed but it can’t possibly function as normal until everything is open. And that is going to be a while because we are a long way from normal.

Everyone knows the relaxation of the lockdown has fuck all to do with the reduction of the threat. It’s still out there which means as soon as things pick up it will be back, because it hasn’t really gone away. Yes, we are all ‘over it’ and wanna get back to some semblance of normality but the virus doesn’t care about that. And if it was conscious and could observe the sights of packed beaches, mass gatherings and illegal raves happening all over the country it would no doubt be licking its lips in anticipation…if it had lips.

It’s actually a shame Covid-19 isn’t self-aware otherwise it could maybe look at how much it has achieved in a very short space of time and take a break safe in the knowledge that it will most definitely win “most promising newcomer” at the 2020 Virus awards. “I would just like to thank my carriers, I couldn’t have done it without you…” It should really congratulate itself on a great campaign and a very successful world tour and take a well earned rest but sadly it doesn’t have a brain. Or a body for that matter. But it is insatiably contagious fucking incredible at replicating itself and that is why we are in this mess.

It would be amazeballs to be able to go out and not think about this shit for a while but sadly that is not going to happen. We’re unfortunately stuck with this mofo for the foreseeable so might as well mask up, keep our distance, accept it has not gone away and do everything we can not to create anothe spike just as our exhausted NHS workers are barely recovering.

They desperately need a respite from the relentless onslaught of critical patients they have been battling to keep alive for months. They have seen death on a scale normally associated with war whilst we moaned about being bored at home. We must not let their sacrifice and hard work be nothing. We must do everything we can to keep a lid of this fucker. And we must just be prepared to acknowledge that business as usual is now a thing of the past, it is not coming back…this is Business of the Unusual so we need to act like it.

Nature dictates you either adapt or die and that is what we must do. My fear is that, based on what I have seen over last few months we are seemingly too selfish to survive. Our narcissistic self-centred focus has become so acute it’s actually working contrary to our primary drive to stay alive. And that’s obvs a bit of a problem…we need to be better than this Britain, way fucking better.

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#MYLDN LCKDWN (82)

if we only focus on the horror we will lose the ability to see random moments of beauty, lurking in the shadows of everyday existence.

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#MYLDN (1412)

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#MYCALLY (15)

Slices of the American pie in the sunshine state this week, more to follow…

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#MYLDN (1231)

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#MYLDN (1227)

This week’s photographs feature the current Portobello Wall Public Art project by Anastasia Russa. Over the summer I passed by most days and saw it come to life during an endless stream of sunshine. On most days you could see the artist, mostly hidden under her customary sun hat, working on the next portrait.  It was great to see this work of art build and grow as the project progressed. The mural which spans one entire block along Portobello Rd shows the changing eras and inhabitants of the area. The artist is not from the area but spent months talking to locals as to who should be included.

Among those featured are Piers Thompson who runs Portobello Radio, Khadija Saye, an artist who died in the Grenfell fire and Tim Burke, who was a lovely man and a neighbour of mine, who tragically took his own life at the end of last year. These are interspersed with other locals from both past and present.

I am interested in how art on the streets, whether commissioned or not, affects the inhabitants of the area it appears in. Whether we are consciously aware of it, there is an interaction, a connection, a moment of reflection. Even though art is not technically essential for survival, it is still integral and necessary to our lives. Its presence can uplift and create a fleeting instance of calm in the chaos whilst also providing little pockets of  visual pleasure from within the humdrum of the daily backdrop. A lot of art related projects were the first things to be axed by councils when austerity measures slashed their budgets in half as they felt extraneous to living but I think art, of any nature,  is vital and can make the difference between being happy and not.

Last week I showed a lot of local tagging and how little it contributed other than to serve as a force for defacement. Maybe I was a little hard on Boner (sorry ;) but signatures used to accompany a piece of work, not be the piece of work and so, when you see actual art in action, as in this mural, you see how it can light up a street and bring colour to the greyness.

To see the full gallery please click on this link: https://babycakesromero.com/photography/artwall/ 

for more info on this project: https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/leisure-and-culture/culture/current-portobello-wall-public-art-project

Have been doing a lot of doorstep documentation recently so going to venture a little further afield..next stop, Paris!

 

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#MYLDN (1188)

Millenial angst graffiti.

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#MYLDN (1108)

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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#MYLDN (1107)

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

 

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#MYLDN (1084)

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…

 

 

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#MYLDN (1082)

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

 

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#MYLDN (1073)

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

See? Everything’s going to be just fine…

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#MYLDN (1071):

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

Think this is the best bit of graffiti I’ve seen in a long time and it really struck me.  It seems we’re so hard wired at the moment to dwell on the negative that when you are presented with the alternative it actually feels alien. Almost inappropriate. Am I even allowed to think positively when so much is apparently wrong? But maybe there is nothing wrong. This simple yet stunningly insightful piece of graffiti is trying to remind us that you always have a choice. If there is no actual reality other than how we observe and process it maybe its all within our power to control. You want happy? You can have it. You want misery? Yours for the taking. Both are available at at times. Its just a question of what you focus on. This is obviously about as upbeat as I am ever going to get on a Monday morning in freezing feb so am rollin’ with it…

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#MYLDN (1050)

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

Everyone seems angry about something these days, some injustice, some cause, some attempt to rectify some evil. I think the slight problem is everyone seems to be fighting a different fight. This is because there are so many aspects of living at the moment that seem wrong or illicit our anger & attention and no-one can seem to agree on what is most important. What order should we be dealing with all these problems? What deserves our anger and our time the most? What should be top of the shit list? Every five minutes you see something in your feed demanding outrage and subsequent action. Sign this, support this, get riled up…you can become instantly paralysed trying to work out the most worthy cause.

So much of what we choose to rally against is to with what we feel is a direct violation against us. Or Identity Politics as its currently known. What you are, where you’re from, what you or those you know might be suffering with will inevitably dictate what ‘war’ you sign up for. Every marginalised group seems to be fighting for their own corner but, regardless of the justification & necessity of your chosen battle you are essentially just looking out for yourself and your ‘in’ group. This isn’t  a dig, this is just an observation as to how it is difficult for humans to see far beyond ourselves and our immediate world. We are hardwired to look out for number one and the communities we are apart of. That is how we survive.

But in relation to the above graffitied statement, what if our focus as individuals rather than as a group collective is what is really holding us back from progress?  Maybe the ants have it right. And by the way I not entirely sure what the above statement on the wall actually means. Doesn’t really make a whole lotta sense to me but someone must have felt it very strongly to graffiti it in giant letters under a bridge in Willesden Green. The individual is the product of power? What power? I think it is maybe implying that there is power in being an individual and if that means not accepting everything you are told at face value and working things out for yourself rather than just being a mindless automaton who just does and says what they are told then I would agree, there is power being an individual but ultimately there is greater power in the collective.

If we were less concerned with how we as individuals were doing in our society rather than how well that society is doing as a whole then we would then at least all be working to the same goal and not be so fragmented, fighting our own corners, tugging in different directions.We know all too well  from recent experience in this country how this approach and attitude pulls populations apart rather then bring them together. Welcome to The Ununited Kingdom. Nuff said.

Maybe what the human race really needs is, as they say, a common enemy. So the solution is for aliens to come and invade us, more now than ever. Only that could possibly bring everyone together and make us understand we are all part of the same ‘in’ group. Yes, we will have to massacre lots of little green men from outer space but you can’t make an omelette without breaking some aliens, everyone knows that.