The night bus. For some people merely the mention of getting the night bus is enough for them to break out in a cold sweat. For these girls however it holds the key to the city. They’ve been bumping and grinding at various locations in and around Brixton and the night bus is like a private chauffeur service that is always ready to whisk them away to the next party. It looks like butter couldn’t melt in their mouths but, be warned, they’ve been pulling these nocturnal manoeuvers in Brixton for long enough that you should be more worried about yourself. It can be dodgy out after dark…
She’s about 49 x 47cm in size and has been completed on a 1980’s night bus map for the Brixton area. She has been completed using the magic of screen printing, paint pens, spraypaint and stencils. Signed on reverse and complete with our id-iom stamp of approval.
Cheers
id-iom
Title: Nocturnal manoeuvers in Brixton
Materials: Screen print, paint pen, spraypaint and stencils
The quote ‘Anyone can take the helm when the sea is calm’ is attributed to Pubilius Syrus who was a freed Syrian slave writing maxims in Latin in Roman times and apparently making a good living from it.
Although the saying is nautical in nature it is widely applicable to life in general and means that when the sea is calm and times are good anyone can be in charge but when adversity comes calling and storm clouds gather you need a good captain with strong leadership skills to weather the storm. The sea can be a seductive yet treacherous mistress so I hope there’s a salty old sea dog at the helm…
She’s about 46 x 40cm in size and has been completed using screen printing, stencils and paint pen on a vintage cloth cycling map of the Lake District. I just love working on these old maps…
Cheers
id-iom
Title: Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm
Materials: Screen print with acrylic, spray paint and paint
No one’s perfect are they? Grace here comes pretty close but does occasionally have impure thoughts. She’s only human after all. It’s a rare thing to find a lady with as many positive attributes as Grace has but to reveal all I know of here would probably show her in a different light. Maybe it’s best just to leave it at that…
Cheers
id-iom
Title: Almost original Grace
Materials: Acrylic, spray paint, paint pen and glitter
The id-iom demolition sale is now well and truly over! Who would’ve thought we had so much of our older stuff to sell – not us that’s for sure! Those that did, thank you very much for buying from us. It was much appreciated and we hope you got yourself something special to adorn your wall. We were both really happy with the results but as they say all good things must come to an end.
We haven’t been sitting back sipping cocktails whilst sitting by a pool being fanned by some obsequious servant. In fact, quite the opposite, we have actually been working our little cotton socks off painting new picture and canvases. Images can be found via the issuu link below:
If you want a first look at our latest pieces before the rest of the internet get a chance then you can sign up for the newsletter here.
We’d like to keep you up-to-date with information about upcoming projects and what’s available but if you are more inclined to use social media you can follow us online using the following links::
If you’ve ever read any Isaac Asimov books (and if you haven’t then you’re missing out) then you’re probably aware that many of his books concern robots which were created by his fictional company ‘USR&MM’ (which stands for U.S Robots & Mechanical Men).
Now I’m sure that Asimov didn’t exactly have ‘pleasurable’ purposes in mind when he developed his ideas on robots but you know that if we had these kind of things in the real world it would only be a matter of time (probably just minutes) before somebody had the bright idea of fitting them out for the oldest profession.
Anyway, here we have the promotional posters for the cream of the robotic crop. The state of the art, Android powered, ‘Stoya’ model Pleasurebot. In shops now…
She’s A3 in size and comes from an edition of 5 which are all different and hand-finished. She has been completed using the magic of screen printing, spraypaint and stencils. Signed on reverse.
I came to the festival for love slate. Now loose on the street.
I came to the festival for love slate (front)
I came to the festival for love slate (back)
Here we have the third installment of our Back to the Future mixtape project which sees us combine two of our loves – music and street art.
Our plan is simple. Get some new mixes together, burn them on CD and then put them out on the street with some exclusive slate cover art to see what happened. The piece is the size of a standard roofing slate (about 40 x 28 cm) and has the CD securely taped to the back so she should last a reasonable amount of time out in the open. It has been completed using the magic of paint pens, spraypaint and stencils. They are signed on reverse with our trademark id-iom stencil and logo.
With sunshine the prevailing weather condition for once we can finally get round to the idea that summer – and the always amusing festival season – is on the way. I’ve been to Glastonbury every available year since 1999 and thoroughly enjoyed myself every time – come rain or shine. I’m sure this year will be no exception. The poor lady in this piece however is not having such a great time as she’s gone to a festival and someone has callously broken her heart. My best advice to her would be to head to the bar…
We are also now open to submissions – so if you dj at all and fancy taking part just get in touch and if we like your mix then you’re in! You can find more information on our facebook page here.
Abbie Hoffman’s 1971 ‘Steal this book‘ epitomised the counter-culture mentality of the 60′s and went on to detail ways one could fight the man. As homage to the enduring spirit of the counter-culture and the continuing need to stick it to the man we’ve shamelessly appropriated the cover design and given it a little id-iom twist before releasing them back into the world..
I still can’t quite decide what’s the best way to use these… I think the obvious thing to do would be to drop them on the street somehow and see how long they last before someone makes off with them.
It’s an eminently thievable A3 in size and comes from an edition of 2. They’ve been completed using the magic of screen printing, spraypaint and stencils. Signed on reverse.
For further information about us and what we get up to you can visit our flickr and, we may be late to the party but, we’re also on twitter (@thisisidiom).
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).
The hunter gatherer team that is id-iom has always had strong wombling instincts – often bringing home stray bits of wood, street furniture, signs and the like. You just never know when you might need it for another project!
Anyway, there I was quietly minding my own business when I come across an abandoned painting still in its little gold frame. After taking it home and having a closer look it appeared to be homemade and sadly a little neglected. As it wasn’t really to my taste I thought my best option was to give it a little makeover – hopefully breathing a bit of new life into it on the way – and get it back out on the streets.
Anticipating its new role on the street as ambassador for upcycling I thought I’d give it something of an upbeat message to go along with its new look. I can only wish him the best of luck in finding a new home.
If you like this kind of thing you can find more online at Creative Crap.
As a memento to our now demolished studio a good friend of id-iom came down to document our work at the ‘House of Pain(t)’ before it was razed to the ground. Here’s a new video he put together in the final days of the house. After watching this I’ve come to realise quite what a place we had. We just need another now…
You can also see the video that Spraying Bricks put together below:
For individual shots of the pieces you can see them on our flickr page here.
