If you've ever wondered what a picture of a Yeti made up of little anthropomorphic figures crammed together would look like - or indeed how long such a project would take to create with a marker on a shop window - now's your chance to find out. Soundtrack by The Sly Players.
The October Mutate Britain art exhibition was so good they’re re-opening it for December. For the dates and times…skip to the end!
(PRESS RELEASE) A 15,000 square foot open air exhibition of Street Art, giant Sculpture and Installations, fully licensed for 1,250 people, underneath the West Way Road Bridge next to Portobello Road, Ladbroke Grove, London.
Following the success of their debut show ‘Behind the Shutters' at the infamous Cordy House, the Mutate Britain team are pleased to announce ‘One Foot in the Grove’, an exhibition of painting and sculpture located in the heart of West London on the Portobello Road.
“For us this is a home coming, Ladbroke Grove means a lot to Joe and I, now we’re back home to put on a show that we hope will be remembered for its inspiring art, inclusive atmosphere and all round good times.” - Garfield Hackett
Since artists such as Futura 2000 (then touring with The Clash) and Mode 2 first painted the huge walls supporting the iconic West Way in the early 80s, they have been cited as a birthplace of British graffiti/street art culture. Almost 30 years later Street Art is a global artistic movement, rich with talent, diverse aesthetic styles and momentum sustained by passion. Now over 50 of its old school pioneers, infamous names and future masters are back to build a show that celebrates the depth and heritage of the movement. Expect surprise announcements to add to the mix of works by Mode 2, Matt Small, Dr. D, Part2ism, Best Ever and too many more to mention here.
Freehand painting, stencils and paste ups from three to thirty feet high adorn the huge walls that provide an atmospheric setting for this event, made unique thanks to collaborators The Mutoid Waste Company. Giant Mutoid sculptures made from refuse on a military scale are carefully curated to build the Mutate Britain atmosphere. Helicopters, dinosaurs and prancing horses sculpted and engineered by Joe Rush, Alex Wreckage and Sam Haggerty punctuate the floor space alongside Giles Walker’s pole dancing robots, LRRY the fire breathing bull and a three dimensional holographic human face. One Foot in the Grove is a unique chance to see and interact with these mind blowing creations usually only ever witnessed at the world’s most iconic festivals. Burning Man in Arizona, The Fuji Rock Festival and Glastonbury’s Trash City are the some of The Mutoid Waste Company’s favourite playgrounds.
“Mixing our artwork into a big event where people have a good time makes it come alive, and that’s what we’re all about – making our work accessible by putting on a proper party.” - Joe Rush
A huge Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition style wall presents framed stencils and originals available to buy whilst the he ‘photograff’ wall provides a visual reference for the history of Ladbroke Grove street culture with contributions from Henry Chalfant amongst others. An extensive seating area offers visitors the perfect chance to relax and take in these amazing surroundings while enjoying our licensed bar, café and finger-licking food provided by none other than Andi Oliver and Neneh Cherry. One Foot in the Grove replaces the sterile gallery experience with a festival atmosphere that makes Mutate Britain’s art truly accessible for crowds of all kinds.
‘ONE FOOT IN THE GROVE’
Location: 3-6 Acklam Rd, London, W10 5YU
Nearest Tube Ladbroke Grove
Opening times:
Opens December 4th to December 20th - FRI / SAT / SUN
FRI 12-10pm / SAT 12-10pm (NO ENTRY AFTER 9PM)
SUN 12-9pm (NO ENTRY AFTER 8PM)
MON 21st - WEDS 23rd – Limited opening, sales gallery only.
MUTATE BRITAIN AT THE CROSSFIRE XMAS SKATE JAM 2009!
In further news, on December 12th, Mutate Britain present a spectacular skate installation built by The Mutoid Waste Company for the now legendary annual Crossfire Xmas Skateboard Jam. This collaboration highlights the mutual respect between the two events and the mutated vehicle will have to be seen to be believed! Tickets to cover the two events will be available on the door at The Crossfire Skate Jam. Entry is just down the road from One Foot In The Grove at Bay Sixty 6 Skatepark, 66-67 Acklam Road, London W10 5YU from 12pm-6pm. Tel: 0208 962 8282
It will be a ‘Gangster Themed Event’ so literally expect Mobs of kids!
Tarmac toerag? Concrete conundrum? Forrest Armstrong’s written a book. Yeah – you remember them – not the ones you sit in front of while media whore clones babble mindless shit about other media whores – I’m on about the other ones. The ones where you have to do the work – y’know - turn pages, read the words, reflect...it’s time to get your cerebellum on yo!
(PRESS RELEASE) “The hip hop lovechild of William S. Burroughs and Salvador Dali. The language is poetic and tangled, the plot a graffiti mural of military androids, mad gurus, and ectoplasmic DJs.” (The Magazine of Bizarro Fiction)
Asphalt Flowerhead is a novel about the underground mind in America. It begins with an illegitimate nightclub getting busted by the police and follows those arrested as they try to resume their lives after jail - some through fighting back against the system or pursuit of transcendence, and some through a submission of self to drug addiction and apathy. While America fights a propaganda-war against drug traders, the streets continue to dream in the face of nightmares, and the youth grow strong to the constant symphony of junky poetics.
“It’s not like a book at all, but a combination of sci-fi outer space films and the latest video game realities that step off the page and pull you into their worlds… fasten your irreality-belt and get ready for a never-before mind-space voyage!” (The Small Press Review)
“There aren’t many writers, apart from Milton and Dante, who have such energy and invention, and ease of execution. This novel is tremendous, virtuosic and beautiful. Forrest Armstrong has vast talent.” (Tom Bradley, author of Vital Fluid)
What’s this? Banksy returns to his home town of Bristol and puts on a massive free exhibition? Since Bristol is also monkeyboxing.com’s home town it would be rude and lazy not to pay a visit and thus, after endless moaning about the size of the prodigious queue and dissembling about why he couldn’t go today or tomorrow or the next day, the art gimp was summarily dispatched with strict orders to attend.
According to his own testimony, it was many days and nights before the queue even got from Bristol Grammar School to the corner of Brown’s on Park Street which is, as those who know the route well will testify, an epic trek of a good fifty yards. Once inside however, he alleges it was all worth it. Returning to Monkeyboxing Mansions, he spoke of how too much nonsense has been talked about art for far too long - often by those with ability for little but witless bitching. It is true that Banksy’s work provokes endless discussion - just like the ‘crap’ he famously advised visitors to mind at the Turner Prize exhibition. However, Banksy’s work differs from Turner prize entries in a number of ways. It’s pleasing on the eye, for one. It also demonstrates artistic talent beyond being able to throw together any old shit, write a justificatory placard rich in art bollocks and smugly reply to the punter who indignantly (and usually rightly) points out, “I could have done that!” with “Ahhhhh…. but you didn’t.” Here are some of the highlights...
(PRESS RELEASE) End of the Line is proud to host the London 'Meeting of Styles', showcasing the best of freehand Graffiti that the UK has to offer. We have invited a selection of the strongest painters from across the globe to collaborate with the Best of British in a live painting exhibition of epic proportions. The two-day event is an open air graffiti jam with dj's and beats on Friday and live music and bands on Saturday. Rodney P and Skitz, Lazy Habits, No1 Station and a host of London's finest will be pumping out Ska, Hip Hop, DubStep, Roots, Beats and Pieces for your ears. This is a free event, open to all ages and brought to you by EndoftheLine in partnership with Nizim and supported by Red Bull, G-shock, Montana, Carhartt, Last fm and Graphotism.
Painters will be painting on hoarding, walls and specially built panels on Bacon, Cygnet & Sclater Street, at the beigel end of Brick lane. Artist registration on Friday 5th June starts at 9.00 am and finshes at 9.45 - arrive early to avoid disappointment. If your name's not down - get to the back of the queue. Details:
London : 5th & 6th June 2009
Time: 10AM-06.30PM
Sclater Street E1 6HR (off Brick Lane)
Nearest tube: Liverpool Street/ Central Line
An artist since his schooldays, John Dimery says he’s constantly inspired by things happening around him and ideas for artwork occur to him all the time which he has to write down or do a rough sketch immediately in case he forgets them. The downside to this is that his life is cluttered by hasty sketches on bits of paper. Highly versatile, Dimery is as apt to sculpt as he is to paint or draw, and as likely to do ‘straight’ book illustration as to knock up a canvas. Previous projects have included illustrations for Cornwall Today magazine, designing an insole for a skate shoe, and painting skateboards. He is starting to prepare for an exhibition to go on show in Cornwall in 2010 and ‘stuff’ for an art/ skate magazine to drop at about the same time. He listens to Band Of Horses, The Sea And Cake, Fleet Foxes, The Shins, Sonic Youth (before a skate), and Metallica (whilst cooking). He quite fancies having a bit more time to paint and sculpt and skate or surf when he's not doing that but he hasn't worked out how he's going to fit it all in.
This month you’re getting some fresh French flavour in the form of Audel. This man is straight outta Valence and kicks it live with the DFS and ONE crews. He’s got six years painting time under his belt and is such an integrated European that he cites writers of several nationalities as inspirations for his new school style: Otis from the Fatherland, fellow Frenchman Mire and the UK’s very own Aroe. Audel likes nothing better than getting together with a few mates and enhancing brickwork with spraycans while listening to hip-hop - he says old school’s always cool but likes a bit of Guilty Simpson - or anything else on Stones Throw. If pressed he will modestly admit to having taken part in an exhibition in Strasbourg and doing live graff at Bristol’s Motion Skate Park for the Jump Up Bristol event. He is intent on spreading pan-European wellbeing by setting up a graffiti workshop in Bath – if anyone’s interested in collaborating with him – hit him up via this address: sebastiendoree@yahoo.com. Oh -and he wanted to give shout-outs to Stil, Super, Senk, Wise, 5 Hop, Gomer, DFS crew, Cheba and Lokey and mad props to DownTown. And who are we to deny him that?
She might be called Miss Led but there’s no deception in Joanna Henley’s artwork - her stuff is as dope as it appears to be. The only ever female winner of urban street art comp ‘Secret Wars’ in 2007 – it’s not hard to see why she has been referred to as the ‘first lady of street art’. In the two years since establishing her own business Henley has amassed a portfolio that includes work done for Diesel and Reebok as well as a range of magazines. Clearly influenced by comics and pop art, she’s highly versatile and seemingly happy working in any medium and size, dealing in a fairly substantial portion of her work with preoccupations like the female form and sexual power. What else do you need to know? Oh yeah – she likes jazz and drinks tea a lot.
Bamboo produces art under the alias Bambookidd and has been sketching and doodling since he could hold a pen. Influenced by the likes of D*Face, The London Police, Jamie Hewlett, Minilogue, Blu, comics, cartoons and growing up with skater/hip-hop culture, he eventually began to develop and work on a character of his own. The result is is Bamboo's alter ego - Boo-kidd - a blank canvas who is always colourless and who appears in art that reflects the influences and activity which emerge from his mind. He says that when producing his art he has no preferences in terms of media and enjoys using and experimenting with a vast range saying, “to be honest anything that you can scribe or mark with is fine with me...although Photoshop is the dog’s bollocks.” Past projects have included exhibitions, live drawings, in-store designs for small boutiques and record shops, as well as comic books, flyers and customizations. And (clearly) drawing on semi-naked ladies. For the future, he hopes to get involved with constructing vinyl toys, installations, animation, clothing and sneakers. Good luck to the man!
Graffiti artist and graphic designer Dep grew up in what he feels was hip-hop's heyday, listening to Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, Master Ace and putting 'knees' in his trackie bottoms trying to breakdance. He says, "Everyone in those days was either into heavy metal or hip-hop, so half the school was either DJing, breaking, rapping or painting graf, I tried them all, but something about graf has stuck with me my whole life…maybe it's just because I wasn't really bad at it!" His dad told him he'd never get a job painting graffiti - which he concedes might have been a sensible thing for a Dad to say to his wayward son, but he’s spent the last 15 or so years trying to prove him wrong. Dep’s first clue that he could make a living from his drawing came when British hardcore rap group Son Of Noise asked him to design a logo for their new record label Little Rascal. He then made what seemed like a very obvious connection between graphic design, graffiti and their mutual love of letter forms and illustration. In 2007 he set up Paintshop Studio, a creative agency based in London which continues to mix the two to create a huge variety of work for its clients and with plenty of interesting projects in the pipeline. Watch this space.
