Like some overblown Hollywood epic this newest video has been a long time in the making (well, we originally did the piece in November last year so it’s been a fair while).
We were asked to take part in creating some work for the Freeze festival which is held annually in the shadow of Battersea power station. As it was a snowboarding/skiing themed event we thought we’d come up with a little something keeping in line with the general snow theme. After a little deliberation we settled upon the face of the girl with the legend ‘I grew up dreaming of snow!’ and after cutting some big stencils we headed down to get to work. Thankfully on the day the weather stayed nice despite big rain clouds looming for a while in the afternoon.
A big shout out to our fellow artists who it is always a pleasure to work alongside – Ian Phenna, SPQR and Asone (whose work you see fleetingly when the camera pans around towards the end of video).
Cheers
id-iom
Title: I grew up dreaming of snow!
Media: Spraypaint, masonry paint and paint pen
Size: 11 x 8 Feet
As the Temptations sang in 1966 – ‘beauty is only skin deep‘. Now whilst I can appreciate a pretty lady as much as the next man this is definitely something of a truism. Surely we’ve all known someone who is the epitome of this – beautiful and lithe but also vain, arrogant and stupid. Ultimately somebody who steadfastly proceeds to shatter any preconceptions you may have had about them being beautiful. It’s people like this who just go to show that beautiful on the outside doesn’t necessarily correlate to beauty on the inside. Thinking about it though I reckon the converse is also true so you have to be careful. Just because someone isn’t physical beauty personified hardly makes them the nicest person in the world now does it? It’s a tricky world out there…
Saying that though in a world of 7 billion people there must be some people out there who are almost perfect humans – beautiful, clever and modest. But saying that they must be few and far between and i doubt it’s very easy to find them as they’re already probably the girlfriend of your local Russian oligarch…
Cheers
id-iom
id-iom
Title: Beauty is only skin deep (detail)
Media: Stencil, spraypaint & acrylic
Size: Approx 75 cm x 150 cm
If you ever tried doing a handstand (without the aid of a wall) then you’ll know how tricky it can be to not come crashing down on your head. I know this through experience although thankfully I was very drunk at the time so managed to avoid serious injury by the expedient of having drunken invulnerability turned up to max. It didn’t however prevent me from breaking my wrist a short time later whilst falling through my own hotel door. That level of protection can only last so long. One second the door was closed. The next it was open and I was falling through. Thankfully it was my left wrist and i’m right handed. It’s the ones that take you by surprise that hurt the most…
Anyway this young lady is representing ‘Team id-iom’ in her fancy top and knickers by doing a death-defying handstand (or bananeira if you do capoeira) on top of a box. Which is probably more than you can do. As you can probably tell she seems to be a lot more proficient than I ever will be although I can only hope she comes crashing down some time soon. Nobody likes a show off after all….
Cheers
id-iom
id-iom
Title: Team id-iom bananeira
Media: Stencil, spraypaint & paint pen
Size: Approx 1.5m x 2.5m
After posting a while back about our part in this collaboration with the fantastic Mimilove we finally have our grubby mitts on the finished product celebrating our bonus April bank holiday. I have just checked on the web and found that the royal wedding even has it’s own official website. If i’ve ever come across a site that deserves hacking for some internet related tomfoolery (other than perhaps some of the multi-national corporate websites) then it’s this one. I’d just love to substitute our picture for the official one on there…
Not only has Mimi included some lovely little cockney sparrows she has also added a crown on the lovely Ms. Middleton and put some words in the mouth of our corgi headed future king William – ‘Cor blimey! I can’t adam & eve me mince pies. You’re a right bobby dazzler and no mistake.’ If you have any trouble understanding that sentence you are clearly not a cockney and need to go to the internet for translation.
If anyone is interested this lovely collaborative piece is for sale to commemorate the big day – which, you’ve got admit, was a good one. There were all kinds of street parties going on near us although it was difficult to work out if they were celebrating the marriage of Kate & Will, the fact that the had the day off, the fact that it was sunny or perhaps all of the above…
Cheers
id-iom
id-iom & Mimilove
Title: A right royal day off!
Media: Screenprint, watercolour and sewing
Size: A3
It has taken a little while and a lot of effort but we finally have exclusive video evidence of an alien abduction! This video was apparently shot in London late last year and whilst we still have the footage unfortunately the cow has never been seen again…
If you never hear from us again however you’ll know the men in black were sent after us but i’m not going to be frightened into non-disclosure about my UFO experience. The internet needs to know! Now whilst I’m not sure exactly what they use the cows for I can only hope they are spirited away to bovine nirvana or perhaps just get to drive round the universe gazing out the window and ruminating on the futility of existence. Only the cow knows for sure…
I definitely think i’m more of a vestiphobe than a gymnophobe. In case you didn’t know, gymnophobia is the irrational fear of nudity (they may worry excessively about seeing others naked or being seen naked, or both) whilst vestiphobia is the overwhelming and irrational fear of clothing. Sometimes it all just gets a little much for me and I feel I have to divest myself of my clothing and have a little dance round the front room. Despite the fact my girlfriend calls this sexual deviance/assault i’m sticking by the fact that i’m a sometime vestiphobe. So there you have it. That’s my defence and i’m sticking to it.
‘I can remember when all this was fields’ sounds pretty much like something you would expect your grandad to say as you drive past the newest and most monstrous of shopping centres doesn’t it? With the seemingly endless stream of development around London town and the proliferation of advertising messages on just about every conceivable surface which are forced into our brain (without our permission) on a daily basis it’s sometimes nice to strike back with a simple message to bring a bit of levity to an otherwise tedious day.
To think there was a time (not that long ago) when there was a little more greenery about and that every single scrap of land wasn’t pounced on for yet another massive advertising hoarding (or completely uninspired housing development.) But then again, perhaps i’m just being a little sentimental.
Anyway, after doing a little reading into billboards I came across this interesting thread on a Brixton forum about illegal billboards. It seems that billboards are sometimes set up without planning permission whilst the companies doing it know they can make more than enough in advertising revenue to remove the boards or pay the fine when the council finally get round to identifying the culprit and doing something about it. Now, whilst the billboard we went on is probably entirely legal it was covered in blue paper which is definitely fair game in my eyes. And i’m sure i’ve suffered enough at their hands over time to make this the mildest form of payback.
Cheers
id-iom
id-iom
Title: I can remember when all this was fields
Media: Stencil and spraypaint
Size: Approx. 1.5m x 1m on billboard
The newest attraction to arrive at Brixton Zoo has been shown to the public for the very first time today. The Zoo managed to get ‘Animal’ from The Jim Henson company due to a conservation scheme that has been in place since both parties signed up to the drummer awareness initiative in 2004.
‘Animal’ is believed to be the sole surviving member of a 1975 genetic experiment by Dr Jim Henson in an attempt to create the perfect drummer. Genetic testing has been inconclusive although there are indications that his D.N.A contains fragments from Keith Moon and Mick Fleetwood as well as a diverse range of other sources. His legendary percussion skills are rivalled only by his mother, Laverne – although her whereabouts are currently unknown. He has been known to eat just about anything – from a drum set to pieces of glass – so please be careful with your belongings.
This really is a big step forward for Muppet conservation and a massive coup for Brixton Zoo as Animal is a worldwide attraction and will bring much needed revenue into the establishment. The Drummer Awareness Initiative is also very pleased as in recent years they have seen a steady decline in drummers due to the advancements in technology and are hoping ‘Animal’ could possibaly drive a surge in drumming being taken up in schools once more.
Cheers
id-iom
Title: Please don't feed the Animal!
Media: Acrylic, stencils and spraypaint
Size: Cardboard
Title: Please don't feed the Animal - Brixton Zoo sign
Media: Digital print
Size: Laminated A4 paper
With the onset of better weather it seems getting out more is a whole load more feasible than it has been. So, what we had was a lovely spring day, a bag full of (mainly cardboard) pieces to put on the street and South London to work with… The pieces were largely mixed media – a mixture of screenprinting, painting, stencil, googly eyes and a little glitter. What could possibly go wrong?
Thankfully it all went swimmingly apart from our attempts to film it all. Expect some kind of results soon. Who knows, with a bit of clever editing it may not end up to be too bad. Only time will tell…
At least we managed to get some half decent photo’s. For bigger shots of any of the pieces please visit our Flickr page.
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