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.
Here I have paraphrased Jean-Paul Satre because in his play Huis Clos, or No Exit, he doesn’t actually mean people are the absolute worst when one of the characters says “L’enfer, c’est les autres” but in this case that is exactly what I mean.
There I was going on my first excursion outside in about 5 days due to the fact that I have underlying conditions. The sun was out, the breeze whipping through my wispy geography teacher style hair (cheers lockdown!) when I noticed the first idiot coming for me.
It was a middle aged woman who for some unknown reason crossed the road and walked straight towards me. Not 2 metres in front or behind me but exactly to my location. Luckily for the lady, I didn’t have The Answerer with me, a hefty blackthorn staff blessed by the gods who just loves being used to beat the stupid out of people especially when they don’t adhere to scientific recommendations. Think Thor’s hammers Mjolnir or Stormbreaker but instead of the unworthy not being able to pick up the weapon, the unworthy get a knock upside their head in the hopes it might shake loose some intelligence….
It is A2 in size and made using pencil, watercolour, acrylic and spray paint
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.
In today’s exciting instalment of Other People’s Graffiti we have a bashed up Astra with ‘twat’ scrawled on it that we saw whilst on our travels in Southend. Now, whilst the handstyle is a little basic there’s no mistaking the message. I could sit here all day making up comical reasons why this could have taken place but sadly I don’t know anything about it so speculation is all I’ve currently got. I’m currently erring towards a jealous lover style situation. If you happen to live in Southend and know anything about this little bit of street art I’d appreciate if you’d drop us a line. Inquiring minds need to know.
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