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.
Sometimes things just don’t turn out like you expect. It was a particularly dismal and rainswept day when the other half of id-iom popped out of the studio to get lunch but came back with the classic board game, Twister (think Jack and his magic beans…)
I was somewhat put out by this manoeuvre as I had been daydreaming of a Greggs sausage roll for close to an hour. I quickly demanded to know what exactly what he thought was going on but all I got in return was a whirring noise and the repeated phrase ‘Left foot first’…
If you’ve got the inclination then I’ve got the crime
‘I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks, Let’s make lots of money’. So sang the Pet Shop Boys in their seminal 1986 track ‘Opportunities’. They also went on to inform us that if we’ve got the inclination then they’ve got the crime (you can check youtube if you don’t belive me):
Anyway, there we were driving around the Isle of Man with our older brother and some of his kids when this song came on the stereo. Somehow the line resonated in my tiny brain and the next thing you know a plan had formed. I just needed to get home to execute it before the idea faded. I had the beginnings of the idea down on paper when we got stuck trying to figure out what font to use. Luckily that was when my mum walks in with an armful of wrapping paper and lightning struck once again and it was decided we’d use her spidery handwriting as the basis for the piece. A swift scrawl and an extra couple of moves later with a red crayon and some silver leaf and we were on the home straight. And that’s how easy it can be. Sometimes.
Life moves faster at 45 – complete with cheeky little nephews…
Ever wondered what you’d get if you ask us to do some designs based around the number 45? Well, wonder no longer. This is the first of two walls based on exactly that…
Despite the fact that it’s been Christmas (and I hope you had a good one!) we have been busier than usual for this time of year and have, for once, actually managed to get some work done. We were commissioned to do a couple of walls in Forty Five, a sportswear shop on the Isle of Man, and had the designs all approved before returning home for Christmas so all we had to do was cut some stencils and get to work. Sounds easy doesn’t it? Well it should have been but Christmas drinks are hard to avoid around here. At least we got it done though. Even if it did take a bit longer than anticipated. The quote was taken from the drunken ramblings of a friend but I think it fits the bill perfectly in this case…
After being dispatched to our local corner shop to procure some Le Puy lentils for that evening’s curry I had reason to examine the dizzying array of canned food on offer in our local corner shop. Along with all the usual products they also have some particular goods that cater to the local Caribbean, Polish and Portuguese communities. It’s sometimes tricky to tell what some of the more exotic looking cans even contain. And that gave me an idea.
The 1973 film ‘Soylent Green’ starring Charlton Heston is set in a dystopian future where the earth is hugely overpopulated and there just isn’t enough food to go round. To try and solve this problem the Soylent corporation comes up with a new foodstuff called ‘Soylent Green’ which is ostensibly made from high energy plankton harvested from the world’s oceans. But that is not so, as we discover through Heston’s diligent detective work following a murder. He stumbles upon a bizarre state secret – that Soylent Green is made of people!
So, to celebrate both the incomprehensible range of cans on offer in our local shop and the 1973 film I came up with some Soylent Green cans for our local shop – complete with ingredients, nutrition information and cooking instructions. An internet search revealed that Polynesian cannibals used to call human flesh ‘longpig’ so I definitely had to include that (23% of the contents don’t you know!)
Now if you’ve ever been taken along whilst your girlfriend or wife is shopping you’ll understand this picture straight away and if you haven’t i think you get the idea…
It is A2 in size and is made using the magic of hand cut stencils and spray paint. Signed on reverse.
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