Here at id-iom it’s not all about us. Sometimes we like to showcase other aspiring artist’s work in our occasional series ‘Other People’s Graffiti’. Today we have a classic bit of graffiti found on the streets of London on one of id-ioms government mandated pandemic walks. Since first seeing it I’ve been trying to get into the mind of the artist. I mainly keep coming back to two simple questions 1) Why? And 2) What?
Is this not the goal of every artist? To get the viewer to ask questions.
Artist unknown. Completed in paint pen, London 2021.
Not to take anything away from this artist’s work but Duh. I can’t remember where I took this photo probably on one of my mandated daily sanity walks. At least he had the wherewithal to bring a pen on his said daily sanity walks and to share his thoughts with us.
I must remember to bring a pen myself next time so we can start a conversation
Cheers
id-iom
P.s. I actually went back with a pen to start a conversation but sadly someone had already repainted the wall.
Now we haven’t had an instalment of Other People’s Graffiti for a while so we thought we’d best rectify this. I was strutting around the local hood and I happened to come across this exceptional piece of graffiti which also included another writer’s thoughts on said graffiti emblazoned over the top. Now if you don’t know what a toy is here’s an explanation:
“A Toy is an unskilled, new or inexperienced graffiti artist or writer.Toy tags or pieces are usually crossed out with the word toy or the crossers tag around it. Having a tag crossed out is considered a very deep insult and the writer of the crossed-out tag will be likely to start a “war” or beef with the crosser, resulting in a series of crossed out tags. In some areas, they seek revenge by less peaceful means.
Toys can also be classified as one who does not know the scene around them, one who does not have knowledge of local graffiti, or one whose style isn’t too good, or is still developing”
Eeek! Not a nice sentiment at all, especially when you are tagging over someone’s admittedly less than stellar work. That said the person who wrote ‘Toy’ could go back to the Academy of Jack the Lademy and practise his handstyles as well in my opinion. Maybe I’ll go back and leave a note for both of them…
It’s been a good while since we’ve treated you to another exciting instalment of ‘Other People’s Graffiti’ so here it goes. As graffiti goes I think this one is quite special as it just goes to show how creative kids can be if you give them a bit of chalk. It would seem most kids have gone for flowers and the like but one rebellious little tyke has gone straight for lettering and next levelled it with ‘help i’m trapped’. Aren’t we all. If he recognises the existential pain of existence at that age he’ll make a great artist…
Here at id-iom Sundays are usually spent lounging about in the jewel room throwing precious stones at each other but yesterday we decided it was time to share some of our accumulated knowledge with the younger generation. It’s tough being a vandal without some guidance.
After we had imparted all we know of the sacred art of paint chucking to George it was time for him to step up and create something for himself. What we’re left with is his pretty glorious ‘G’ piece. Pretty spiffy if i say so myself.
Let’s hope he continues. Plus, we’re only really in it for the thank you notes…
Well, I’ll bee darned. Sebastian here came back from a street art tour in the east end last week and now thinks he knows everything about everything. Here he is suggesting some improvements to one of our paintings. Stick to making honey Sebastian pal!
It’s been a while since we’ve treated you to an edition of ‘Other People’s Graffiti’ so we thought we’d best rectify that pretty swiftly. Today’s graffiti comes from a pub toilet and, quite frankly, the whole thing raises as many questions as it answers. On the face of it it’s just a quick derogatory scrawl but how does the scribe know what a penguin smells like? Does he work at a zoo? If so, why has he seemingly drawn so many feet on the penguin? Surely he (it was a gents toilet) would know how many feet a penguin has? Also, why has the toilet been wallpapered with issues of weird 70’s magazines? Too many questions and only this photo with which to work it all out. Let us know if you have any thoughts on the subject…
In this next instalment of other people’s graffiti I give you the car wang. There I was walking to the shop to get my dinner when I stumbled across this beauty. Now unlike the other car we have shown in the ongoing series this one doesn’t seem to be a serious aggrievement due to the fact that instead of paint being used it is only tape this time. That said I do like the slight droopiness to the wang as if that represents the persons feelings towards the other.
I’d love to have thought this was an actual bit of street art but, alas, I think it’s just a weird sign. I still thought it deserved a spot in ‘Other People’s Graffiti’ though for the mental image it creates. A ju jitsu car park? A car park in which one must perform in a series of ju jitsu fights in order to win the right to park? Or one in which you may park freely but ju jitsu trained warriors will perhaps jump you on your way to the ticket machine? I’m confused. You’ll be happy to learn we didn’t have the car with us at this point. Things could have got ugly.
Whilst making our way through sunny Streatham we chanced upon the boards we painted for the Streatham Food Festival last year that were still in place. There’s a couple of minor tags and what seems to be a lot of white paint that has been thrown at it. On closer inspection it would seem that the main culprit in defacing our picture is, in fact, the pigeons that live on the guttering above and have deposited their thoughts on the piece from on high. It would indeed seem that everyone is a critic.
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