Transformers. Robots in disguise. That’s what it’s all about. They come from a far away place in search of the mythical Energon. Or something like that. What’s noticeable though is how they’ve managed to up their game in the recent years. Rather than transforming into cars and the like their current favourite is taking the guise of pretty young Instagram influencers in the reasonable hopes of acquiring a sugar daddy who will provide them with all the Energon they can handle. Even the Autobots are in on it.
It’s working out pretty well for them so far. Look at all the pretty binary in her hair…
Made using the magic of spraypaint, stencils and imagination. She’s available to be rehomed. Drop us a line if interested. Love
Today’s piece is something of a first (well, for us at least) and I’m proud to present our first double sided picture. It’s on a 60 x 40cm wood panel and features laser engraving, stencils, spraypaint, paint pens, acrylic paint and laser cutouts. If that’s not enough I even managed to come up with my own patented industrial-looking hanging contraption from the hardware shop so it can be easily flipped to give your walls a new lease of life. Drop us a line if you’re interested.
One side features an austere looking lady robot with the words ‘Morrigun combat unit v1.7’ engraved on her metallic skin and the crow insignia of the Death’s Head battalion on her forehead. She doesn’t look entirely pleased to see you. All this under the legend ‘We can see beauty in robots but it remains to be seen whether they will be able to see beauty in us’. I’ve got to admit it doesn’t look good for humanity. I, for one, welcome our new robotic overlords…
The other side was inspired by the Massive Attack song ‘Safe from harm’ and features a man with lilac hair and eyebrows and his not-so-subtle stare which he’s been flashing at a certain somebody for a good while now across the crowded dancefloor. He’s giving it his best to re-enact the bit of the song summarised in the line ‘I was lookin’ back to see if you were lookin’ back at me to see me lookin’ back at you’ which is handily engraved into the side of the piece just to clarify issues.
I really enjoyed making this so there’ll hopefully be more to come in the way of 2 sided pictures…
The story of John Henry and the Inky-Poo is a cautionary tale from American folklore that is still relevant today. John Henry was a steel driver when they were constructing the railroads in 1880’s USA. His job was to drive a steel drill into the rock using his sledgehammer to make holes into which explosives would be inserted.
A steam powered machine, called the Inky-Poo, was developed to do the same job and, worried that a machine would take his job, John Henry set to test his prowess in a race against the Inky-Poo to prove that humans were more effective. They wrote songs about what happened in the ensuing challenge but the long and short of it is that John Henry beat the Inky-Poo but in doing so had completely expended himself then promptly died on the spot. Today we still have a similar concern of our roles being replaced by machines but I just hope we don’t have engage in war with a Terminator-syle Skynet AI to prove it…
Michael Bay has a lot to answer for really doesn’t he? Just the other day I made the unfortunate decision to watch the 2007 Transformers film starring none other than Hollywood oddball Shia LeBeouf. I shan’t be watching any more. Even though I started with pretty low expectations to begin with to say I was disappointed when the end credits rolled would be an understatement.
Despite the fact that Michael Bay seems to think that explosions and CGI can cover up a paper thin plot my main problem was with the design of the robots. Perhaps it’s just me but I thought they looked dreadful. I would have encouraged the military to blow them all up. And it would have given Bay a good excuse for even more explosions. The last time I saw a Transformers film was the 1986 animated Transformers: The Movie featuring the classic 80’s style of Autobot and Decepticon. Now, perhaps I’m just being sentimental but if you ask me that’s how you design an alien robot. Anyway, i’m rambling. This piece is our reply to Michael Bay. Now let’s just see what he gets back with – and I hope it’s not another sequel…
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.
The title of this piece comes from the opening line of a book called ‘Tik Tok‘ by John Sladek which is a play on the name Issac Asimov. I read this book many years ago now but the story still occasionally pops in to my mind from time to time. After getting to a certain point in this picture i was completely stuck and racking my brain on what to do next when, of course, Tik Tok pops in to my head once again and well, slap my thigh and call me Roger, the form I was drawing reminded me slightly of an android. From there on in things just started to fall in to place. A tricky job made easy!
Cheers
id-iom
Title: As I Move Materials: Spray paint, glitter, paint pen, acrylic and charcoal Size: A4
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 a somewhat phallic looking promotional poster of sorts for the cream of the robotic crop. The state of the art, Android powered, ‘Stoya’ model Pleasurebot. Coming soon…
She’s about 3.5m tall and 3.5m wide and is currently in place on a side street parallel to Water Lane in Camden (but the other side of the train tracks). I thought she was finished just as the rain started then finally remembered to install her cybernetic glowing LED eye just to give it that final futuristic touch. Hopefully it’ll be working for the next few weeks and we’ll be able to get a night shot before it runs out. Many thanks to The Real Art of Street Art for sorting the space for us!
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.
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).
Someone got in touch with us asking if we’d done any Star Wars related imagery on the street for possible inclusion in a book on the topic. Since then I’ve watched ‘Revenge of the Sith‘ for the first time and was quite relieved after the horror of Jar Jar Binks that George Lucas can actually still make a decent film. So with renewed vigour and a little more faith in the whole Star Wars franchise I made a quick check of the id-iom archives and we managed to locate a few bits that could potentially be of use and then set to work putting them up and getting some snaps.
Nobody understands me
R2D2 has a problem. Nobody can really understand him. They all pretend they do just to keep him happy but his tweets and whistles are completely unintelligible and they only keep him round because he knows how to make a decent mojito…
Don't be a puppet for the Empire!
Graffiti on cardboard found in a clonetrooper training area on Kamino. Despite an intensive search the culprit was never found… The search continues.
Join the Empire and see the Galaxy
An enlistment/propaganda poster from the walls of a drinking establishment in Coruscant.
Galactic Foreign Policy
A cheeky bit of political graffiti from the mean streets of Tatooine. Stick it to the Man!
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