After digging round in the attic at our family home I came across a box containing some items that belonged to our long lost Uncle Lou. Apparently he was something of a womaniser and a card-sharp and would ever be in search of the next loose woman and dodgy card table. He mysteriously disappeared on a trip to the local butchers one day and all they ever found of him was his rusty sheriff’s badge (which he always wore). He left behind a box of mementos and this is a little something from one of his jaunts around Europe in the late 60’s and looks to be an annotated map of his adventures. It appears it involved lots of women, drink and skiing…
I’ve never actually been to Switzerland myself but I have plenty of friends who have and they all seem to really enjoy the place. I’m pretty sure I would enjoy the skiing and cheese aspect of a visit there but it’s been many years since I wore a timepiece and I’m not a massive fan of chocolate so they couldn’t really impress me on that front. Anyhow I’d still give it a go as apparently ‘It’s more fun in Switzerland!’ and I’d be willing to see if it lives up to the claim.
Working on maps is really rather enjoyable and this piece has been lovingly created on a large vintage motoring map of the region. She features at least 12+ different screen print levels (including our id-iom seal of approval), hand-done red hand-stitching around the Swiss border, many stencils and a load of hand annotation in paint pen (not done by me as my writing isn’t neat enough!) If that wasn’t enough it also features the Transformer Soundwave about to steal a load of ‘energon’ from the Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss border. Naughty Transformer!
For further information about us and what we get up to you can visit our flickr page and we’re also on twitter (@thisisidiom).
Another piece in the id-iom demolition sale and it’s starting at just 99p. Here’s the Ebay link
War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! Say it again! – so sang Edwin Starr in 1970 on the anti-Vietnam song ‘War’ (which, i was interested to learn was originally recorded by The Temptations but not released as they didn’t want to alienate their more conservative fans). Whilst i have a lot of respect for our armed forces and the work they do it is generally political forces which dictate what they do and when – and this can sometimes lead to questionable decisions being made regarding their deployment. That’s all i really want to say on the issue as i think this piece largely speaks for itself…
A single level screen print with hand finishing. It’s A3 in size and signed on the reverse
With 2012 fast becoming nothing more than a memory we thought it best to glance backward before we turn our steely gaze to 2013. So today both members of id-iom are picking our favourite five projects from 2012 to pontificate about in the hope that more people will actually get to see them and appreciate just how amusing we really are…
So, in no particular order here they are:
Stand your ground
This is just one of the many pictures that I was particularly happy with that we did at the now demolished House of Pain(t). It was fantastic to have a space to work in where we could do what we want with no constraints where there were also no financial considerations. I think it just allowed us to work as freely as we liked and that led to some great work. I think this is one of my favourites as we used a stencil we had used once before and gave it a new lease of life. ‘Stand Your Ground’ definitely looked better in the flesh as the thread attached to both the gun and the door frame gave it a three dimensional quality that just doesn’t come across as well in the photograph. Gun crime and gun control are always in the news so this one always seems topical but is now no more than a pile of bricks…
A Groovy Kind of Earworm
For this little bad lad I have to look no further than my own write up:
There was an article on the BBC website the other day which put a name to an experience which i’m sure most people have endured. They are known as earworms (amongst other names) and it is when you get a tune stuck in your head that you just can’t get rid of. Sometimes you really haven’t got a clue how it happens to be bouncing round in your brain but the more you try to suppress it the worse it gets (see this article on the difficulty of killing earworms and the man who had one for five long years).
After thinking about this for a while and realising how mildly annoying earworms can be we thought it our civic duty to respond by trying to create an earworm of our own using the medium of art. And being cheeky little tinkers we thought we’d do our best to get the hugely underrated 80′s megastar Phil Collins back into people’s consciousness by forcing his 1988 version of ‘A Groovy Kind of Love‘ into as many people’s brains as possible! We are not yet experts in the field but we’re hoping that as the hoarding is blue and we mention the word blue (which is written in blue – how cunning!) this will create some kind of cognitive resonance in viewers’ heads whereby a genetically modified supercharged earworm will be created.
Ideally the song will launch automatically and start playing in your head before you can do anything about it – and hopefully be trickier to get rid of than the auto-popup screens you sometimes get when visiting dodgy websites. It’s what advertisers attempt to do every day (but they have a more nefarious agenda) but our only regret is not knowing how well the whole project will work…
The Lady of the Lake
I really thought that ‘The Lady of the Lake’ would really get us some positive attention. Even now I’m proud of all the work I had to go through to get this done. No one will ever know that there were fake jewels stuck to the handle or that I’d made a special concrete filled bucket so the sword would stay upright. Not to mention how cold that water was and the rather strange look I got from the one man watching who was sitting on a bench quietly drinking a can of Special Brew. From my write up:
It is said that when storm clouds gather over England and dark days lay ahead then the Lady of the Lake will rise from her watery resting place bearing Excalibur – to be taken by a pure-hearted champion for the people (or perhaps it’ll just be taken by the council).
Well, with Greece on the blink, Portugal up the swanny and Italy on the ropes it would appear that the time is upon us…Good people of England take cheer for now Excalibur is here it will all be sorted post haste!
My favourite thing about ‘Cliff was visibly upset’ was the video editing. You’ll just have to watch it to see what i mean. After much debate and the consideration of far more serious titles (such as ‘Tears are the noble language of the eyes’) we finally decided that ‘Cliff was visibly upset…’ was the one to go with. As these rock faces are in a position where they are subjected to the worst the weather can offer for many months of the year we thought it a suitable title.
Lord of the Concrete Jungle
‘Lord of the Concrete Jungle’ was the result of us biting of more than we could chew but (thankfully) eventually managing to come good. We blithely agreed to do a 5.5m x 2.6m canvas to adorn an upstairs wall at the Electric Social without quite realising how large that would be and the fact that we didn’t have a space big enough to work on it in. Cue much head-scratching and some fun logistical fixes to get it all done.
Just priming the huge canvas took long enough never mind painting the background, cutting stencils and projecting. Anyway it took a while longer than expected but we finally managed to get it finished and drop it by the club with a feeling of relief. I believe they had a tricky enough time mounting it and getting it up on the wall but I think that was only to be expected with this billboard sized monster…
To tell you the honest truth i had a lot of difficulty picking my favourite stuff from 2012 and that’s not because i didn’t know what i like but because the other half of id-iom truly confused me whilst i was picking them. I thought he was going to group everything that we did at the House of pain(t) together but alas he has not so some pictures that i really liked aren’t on the list. Never mind, maybe you could take a look yourself and see which ones you like best.
To start my list though i suppose i should do it chronologically and start with my favourite piece from earlier in the year and work back, it is a round up after all, so here goes.
This piece is called ‘We are all fools for love’ and was completed at the Upfest spraypaint festival down in Bristol in around June of 2012. Apart from the fact that we had a lot of feedback from this piece, my main reason for picking it is that it was the start of a looser drawing style that i’m still trying to perfect. That said the 3D lettering adds a certain something to it as well which i really enjoy. Pretty and pink, what more can i say!!
This picture in my opinion is a bobby belter, it just pleases me and i like it even more due to the fact that it was done on a whim whilst i was trying to get ready for Sand, Sea and Spray (more on that in a bit as that involves my next choice). The picture came about because like any artist knows things can sometimes get off track. There i was in the studio trying to get stuff sorted yet the only thing i end up doing is painting a picture that no one will see apart from on the internet. In a weird way that makes me happy as i realise i’m not just painting for others or for money but to entertain myself and that means i picked the right profession.
Now this picture was painted at Sand , Sea and Spray up in Blackpool on what had to be one of the worst weekends to paint outdoors without any shelter. It was absolutely chucking it down but that didn’t stop us from getting this piece finished in between rain clouds. I won’t bore you with our tireless struggle against our implements and the weather but suffice it to say it was tough. Paint was spilled. Stencils were ripped. Words were exchanged. We had to make the best of the situation.
Now for this piece i’m just going to use what we wrote on the original posting of the image as i think it says exactly what i’m trying to say now. I have to say though that although this piece is really quite simple, i think it has an elegance which i really appreciate.
Did you know that a group of tigers is known as a ‘streak’ or ‘ambush’. Which is probably a fitting name for them because by the time you’ve noticed them I reckon they’ve either streaked past or ambushed you. They are the largest of the big cats, the third largest land carnivore (after the polar bear and brown bear) and are surely the epitome of danger and grace. I’m no expert but i’m pretty sure William Blake was thinking similar thoughts when he put pen to paper with his poem, The Tyger:
Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
Now didn’t William Blake just nail it with that? i think so.
I’ve added this piece because this is a continuation of where the sketchier, looser style that we showed in the Upfest piece has taken us, I love the found wooden board too. Now i just have to make sure that all those hours sketching over the last year don’t go to waste, so expect to see some more stuff in this vein i think.
And i suppose i couldn’t round off 2012 without mentioning this bad boy which took us ages to make in a very cold basement early last year. As we’d never done anything like this before it was definitely a labour of love but i have to say i think its pretty special.
First up I think I need to apologise for the shoddy photograph. Photgraphy has never been a strong point of mine and doesn’t look like becoming so any time soon. Right, now that’s dealt with we can move onto the picture. This stencil was actually lost in a huge pile of paper and only came to light when we were beginning to clear out the studio. I had idly wondered where it had got to but was glad to finally find it and felt it deserved to be put up in the house which it had been hiding in for so long.
Anyway, it’s clearly Eros reaching for his love revolver as he prepares to loose off a couple of love bullets at some unsuspecting but soon-to-be lovestruck star crossed lovers. Let’s hope his aim is true…
We’ve used this stencil before for a commission on a wall in someone’s house but as we had only used it once and we need to fill all the walls in our studio building we decided to whip it out once again. This time though we thought we would try something a little different and incorporate a little thread to give the impression that the gun is going off.
The reason this came into being was because of articles I’ve read concerning America’s gun laws and specifically the shooting and subsequent death of black teenager Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman in a gated community in Florida in February.
George Zimmerman was legally carrying a concealed weapon when he shot Trayvon Martin and was released Under Florida’s “stand your ground” policy, Mr Zimmerman was initially freed without charges, but due to outcry from many that included street protests which reminded many of the civil rights movement years before. This brought about the police chief being sacked and the prosecutor resigning. The stand your ground law expands on a centuries-old British legal principle that permits the use of deadly force in self-defence of your own home and also grants immunity from arrest, detention and prosecution. Due to the public outcry, six weeks later Mr Zimmerman was charged with second degree murder and is currently out on bail awaiting trial.
Professor Mark Hoekstra of Texas A&M University in Houston said making the use of deadly force permissible has come at a price. He studied its effect in 21 states:
“In terms of homicides, what we show…there is about an 8% increase in the homicide rate caused by these laws…that is about 600 additional homicides per year.”
Being from the UK we can only watch this kind of case and wonder. What on earth would London be like if people were legally carrying concealed weapons? We seem to have enough trouble as it is never mind if anyone over the age of 18 could legally buy themselves a gun…
Here’s a link to one of the articles on the BBC website.
The fruits of today’s labour consists of a couple of newly commissioned prints which will shortly be ready to grace the walls at their new residence.
The Call of Duty
If you’ve ever played Call of Duty online and you’re about as good as I am (which isn’t to say i’m rubbish but I’m definitely a casual player as opposed to a hardcore 6-hours-a-day dedicated type) then you will undoubtedly have come up against an opponent much like the commissioner of this picture.
He works exclusively with a sniper rifle and will take you out before you’ve even seen him. Then take out the rest of your team too. To reflect this highly annoying level of skill we created a Call of Duty themed print that I’m pretty sure will hit the spot. Featuring all the deadly weaponry you can think of and his gamer tag I can only hope it’s an inspiration on the rare occasions when things aren’t going his way…
Storm Bird (pretty in pink)
Our next piece was commissioned for a young lady – hence the very fetching pink colour. It’s a one-off special of our Storm Bird print which was originally created as thank you for the good folks who helped us out with the creation of our video. And if you haven’t seen the video then you can turn the sound up and sit back for a couple of minutes of graffiti based oddness (featuring the god-like being of Tom Selleck – what more could you want?):
I’ve come her to chew gum and kill zombies. And i’m all out of gum…
First off i’d like to set the record straight and declare that whilst I like zombies and zombie related stories they are probably my second favourite apocalyptic scenario. First place undoubtedly goes to the Triffids (and the scenario where most of the population are blind otherwise they’d be pretty easy to deal with!). And third place would go to the supremely vicious Haters (from David Moody‘s Hater trilogy – if you haven’t read it I’d give it a go before they turn it into a less-than-satisfying Hollywood film). Now that I’ve cleared that up I can move on with today’s post.
I have read all the Walking Dead comics and declare them good. Definitely worth a read. I have also recently been watching the TV series and whilst not as good as the comics I am thoroughly enjoying that too. This has undoubtedly led to some daydream scenario’s where I roam the earth along with a rag tag bunch of survivors meting out vengeance to the hordes of soulless zombies with my trusty double barrelled shotgun. And rather than just let this thought languish in my head as most people would I have decided to realise it (although I haven’t gone the whole hog and actually released some kind of zombie virus). I have turned this vision into a picture of me toting said trusty shotgun whilst looking tough and searching for more zombies to execute. I’m sure all my practice on Call of Duty will go a long way when the day comes…
I probably shouldn’t be so self-indulgent with my pictures but it’s my birthday soon so i’ll let it slide this time.
Despite the fact I used a Eurythmics quote as the title for this post that was only because the more fitting ‘Why does it always rain on me?’ would, of course, make you think I was a complete whopper. It hasn’t stopped the evil song by Travis from becoming today’s earworm though. How very annoying.
We have had a load of street art ready for over a week now but the weather just flat refuses to play ball with us at all. One minute rain, then a brief moment of sun, then heavier rain. It really isn’t conducive to getting things done on the street at all. I was counting on being able to wander round in pleasant Spring sunshine, find some good spots and then hit them up. However we have at least been busy in the lab in the meantime trying to come up with even more new stuff. Anyway, as I don’t want to spoil the surprise I’m only putting a couple of little teaser shots up for now. Watch this space for further developments…
We all know the countless problems the living dead can cause so sometimes it helps to be prepared with handy signs pointing the way to the hungry zombie hordes. This is especially useful if you’re tooled up with the latest in double barrelled shotgun technology. Just remember not to let them get too close – and never let your guard down! The blood spatters pay testament to someone who forgot that…
It may be late in the day but it’s still Friday (I checked) so this definitely still counts as Free Art Friday! We will hopefully have a couple of pieces appearing in this evening’s feature on Free Art Friday on the Culture Show (BBC 2 @ 7pm) so keep your eyes peeled.
There’s nothing like applying paint directly to a wall in someone’s house to cheer you up. Heating, access to drinks and the toilet, no wind to contend with and access to Modern Warfare 3 on the Xbox whilst waiting for emulsion to dry. What more could a humble artist want?
As this was being going directly on the wall in his house we had been through a few iterations of various designs with the client until we finally managed to tweak it till we had something he was happy with. He wanted something impactful as you come into his house and one of the many reference ideas he had given us was the JR piece which had been on the Tate which depicts a man with a camera (although I think it looks like a gun on first glance) so we had gone down that route. As for the text I think I may have, at some point during the design process, been listening to ‘I shot you down’ by the Audio Bullys (below) which features extensive vocal samples from Nancy Sinatra‘s 1966 song ‘Bang Bang’ (although the song was originally written for Cher by Sonny Bono!) I particularly like the way in which the target character always seems to be aiming directly at you (which was obviously intentional…)
