Mandela mandala

Sometimes, even as the artist, the motivation behind a piece can be impossible to work out and sometimes it’s easy. Today’s piece is one of the easy ones. I’m not really sure if it needs any further explaining but i’ve got a bit of time on my hands so i’m going for it…

With the recent demise of international man of the masses, Nelson Mandela, I obviously kept hearing the word ‘Mandela’ being bandied around on TV. Combine this with the very similar sounding word ‘mandala’ and, hey presto!, you’ve got a Mandela mandala. A little bit of wheatpasting action later and it’s on the streets. Job done.

Cheers

id-iom

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On the up…

In the interests of keeping you informed we have a further update on Mupan and what he’s up to. Last time we saw him he was looking a little down in the dumps but I have it on good authority that he’s picked himself up, brushed himself off and is now back in business. Just what that business is I couldn’t guess but you can rest assured that it is something decidedly unsavoury.

Here it looks like he’s shouting loudly about ‘Art is trash’ but he’s actually making a fake phone call so he doesn’t look too dodgy hanging around on street corners in the East end as he’s just seen a couple of cop cars go by and he has to wait around in order to ‘meet with his man’. Hmmm, he’ll get himself into some serious trouble some day soon. You mark my words…

Cheers

id-iom

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Mupan may be diminutive in stature but don’t let his size fool you. The unscrupulous bugger has been spotted hanging around the East end again and, no doubt, up to his old tricks. I’m not sure if you’re up to date on what happened between us last time we crossed paths but needless to say it ended up costing me. Let’s just leave it at that.

I was hoping that’d be the last we’d see of him but, sure enough, here he is again – Bobby Big Potatoes – leaning against a wall and reading a paper seemingly without a care in the world. His big toothy grin should be enough to deter you but I’ll make it clear; If you do happen to come across this joker then steer well clear. He is not to be trifled with. You have been warned…

Cheers

id-iom

Wha’ Gwan? uncovered!

Wha’ Gwan?

Today’s offering is a little bit of graffiti archaeology. We have had a few different versions of this ‘Wha Gwan?‘ design up on the blog before but this one I particularly like as over time it had disappeared under layer upon layer of posters for bashment nights, circuses and fairs and local theatre productions but once they had become too numerous they were cleared away and I’m proud to see that our little paste up was still clinging tenaciously to the side of the metal box and looking largely unharmed.

For the uninitiated, the phrase ‘Wha gwan’ (whaa gwaan) means ‘what’s going on?’ in Jamaican Patois. The spelling varies but the meaning does not change. As we live in Brixton this is not an unusual phrase to hear around the place.

Cheers

id-iom

Street art without borders

Hamburg

Hamburg

Copenhagen

Berlin

Amsterdam

There’s a certain thrill to sending off a tube of paste up’s‘s to Street Art Without Borders. Once dispatched you then wait patiently for a while whilst the intrepid paster gets out and about around Europe (and beyond)  and finally – hey presto! – you get some pictures back of your work adorning walls at various international locations. What could be easier? This time we’ve got work up in Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. The one in Berlin is even on a 2km section of the Berlin Wall that is called the East Side Gallery. All this from the comfort of our own front room…

Many thanks to Urbanhearts for the photo’s!

Cheers

id-iom

Never mind the length, feel the quality…

After our initial trip to Southport for the inaugural UpNorthFest earlier in the year we had a few wheatpastes left which we didn’t manage to get round to pasting up. So instead we send them up to Optik Nerve – our man on the scene in Southport – who kindly agreed to get them up for us. Many thanks to him for getting them up and getting some photos for us.

As Southport pier is the second longest pier in the UK (after the 2km pier in Southend-on-Sea) we decided on the slightly tongue in cheek slogan of ‘Never mind the length, feel the quality’ above a stencilled image of sunrise at the pier. Surely Southport tourist board couldn’t have done better themselves?

Cheers

id-iom

Sticking it to the Man…

With all the fine weather we’ve been having we have finally got round to getting a bit of wheatpasting done. After we had been out we went back for some photo’s the next day and only half of the paste ups remained (and even then the bottom one is obviously not the most securely placed of wheatpastes as the left hand edge has started to curl but at least it’s up to some degree. Must remember to try harder…)

Cheers

id-iom

Evil Ice knows what you are thinking

A little experiment with LED’s had us come up with the awesome power of Evil Ice. We got a couple of red LED’s and batteries, cut some small holes in the piece so the LED contacts could go through the eyes then taped them onto the batteries on the back. Once you’ve taped it up securely (to prevent any paste shorting the connection) it’s time to hit the street. We just had to ensure that we were relatively careful where we put the paste and it was easy to put up. The batteries would have lasted about a week but the paste up eventually only last a few days. Oh well, c’est la vie…

Cheers

id-iom

EVIL ICE READY TO HIT THE STREET

EVIL ICE IN SITU