I can’t remember
a summer as good as this,
back door left open.
by Scooj
Author: scooj
I am Stephen. I live in Bristol, UK. I decided to shorten my profile...to this: Wildlife, haiku, travel, streetart, psychogeography and my family. Not necessarily in that order.
1581. Hotwell Road
I first saw this magnificent piece on Silent Hobo’s Instagram feed just after he had started it and I knew straight away that it was an epic mural. This commission from Bristol food connections (a city-wide, week long food festival) is on the perfect wall on Hotwell Road and rises to three stories.
It is unusual to see such a large mural in Bristol, especially outside the Upfest or See No Evil areas, so this is something pretty special. Silent Hobo is an artist who captures a mood, especially among youngsters, and translates it into his often highly detailed works.
I like the extra things he has worked into the piece – a reference to Clifton suspension bridge and some pizza deliveries being made by drones. The whole thing has a real crossover between rural and urban, modern and vintage and quaint and edgy. A master work.
We are lucky in Bristol to have so many talented artists. What Silent Hobo gives us is real soul and relevance. I love this huge piece.
1580. Dean Street
Always, always take a walk down that back street, you never know what you might see. I recently did just that in a small road that leads into Dean Lane and was rewarded with this wonderful wheatpaste by qWeRT.
This paste up is framed so expertly it is as if the space was created for it. I think this was put up on a reasonably recent trip to Bristol by qWeRT and is one of several characters dotted about the place. You will know that I love qWeRT’s work and that I am very partial to wheatpaste work generally. Chuffed to bits with stumbling across it.
1579. Norfolk Place (3)
Oh, will this gorgeous weather never end? It is causing havoc with my photographs!
No prizes for guessing who this glorious piece is by, it is of course Deamze, the master of wildstyle writing accompanied by a cartoon character.
The Character in this piece is a rather worse-for-wear looking Batman with the obligatory spray can. Even though the work is on a textured surface, the piece is crisp and clean.
Deamze uses several writing styles in his work, and this one incorporates his zig-zaggy shapes that make up the letters D E A M Z. A lovely fresh piece for the summer.
White good interruption
Washing maching beeps
persistently insistent;
blooming annoying.
by Scooj
1578. St Werburghs tunnel (26)
Getting to know an artist and to become familiar with their style and content is all part of the fun of hunting street art. I have only seen three pieces by KiKi? and so far haven’t been able to find anything on digital media about them. In a way, knowing nothing is a great place to start because you can come to your own conclusions about the work without external influences creating any bias .
I can honestly say from my limited exposure to KiKi that I am very struck by their work. It all feels pretty organic and centered around animals and beasts of one sort or another. This piece looks like some kind of Chinese dragon breathing fire and has an archaic feel to it…something you might see on the side of a temple for example.
The light at the ends of the St Werburghs tunnel make it very difficult to get an evenly lit picture, but even with the poor quality of photograph, I think you can see that this is a fine piece of work. I need to try and find out more about KiKi.
1577. Dean Lane skate park (141)
Well now, this is something really different and most welcome in Dean Lane. This piece is by a visiting artist currently living and working in London, Ruki Chuki. She is originally from New York and started painting the streets in 2007, so has had plenty of time to refuine her technique and style.
It is her style that is so attractive and so very different from anything we usually get to see in Bristol. The picture of a couple in a tight embrace is also an unusual theme for the Bristol scene and is something we could probably do a little bit more of – spreading the love.
When you get to see the work of visitors I feel it is a real privilege, and one we should embrace. I guess the epitome of welcoming visiting street artists will come at the end of the month with the arrival of Upfest 2018. It really isn’t too long to wait, but long enough for the weather to turn. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed it isn’t as wet as last year.
The line up for Upfest 2018 makes eye-watering reading. Getting very excited.
Thursday doors
Door 38
This week I thought I’d take you on a little tour to one of the very special places in Bristol, Cabot Tower on Brandon Hill. The Thursday door is a bit of an excuse really to share something that lies behind the door, so door specialists had better lower their expectations. To all those who are keen to know who discovered the coast of North America in 1497, read on…
Cabot Tower was built in 1897/98 to commemorate the fourth centenary of John Cabot’s (Giovanni Caboto) discovery of the coast of North America under the commission of Henry VII of England. John Cabot set out from Bristol on the 2 May 1497 on The Matthew with 18 crew members and made landfall in Newfoundland on 24 June that same yesy. What a voyage that must have been on this tiny ship.
There are several plaques on the outside of the tower that offer some historuical context.
This is the foundation stone.
Ok, so here are some doors… this is the rather underwhelming door immediately inside the tower – I expect it was once the kiosk, but now the tower is un-manned and permanently open to the public. The steep spiral staircase starts to the left.
Another door, this one without glass, opens out at the first stage with three balconies looking out to the South, West and East.
The reason for climbing the stairs is to take in the breathtaking views of Bristol. This is looking south and the building with the green roof immediately after the park is where I work.
Zooming in a little to the South West you can see I. K. Brunel’s SS Great Britain in its permanent dry dock. The little cottage just at the stern of the ship is the building that Brunel worked from.
Another of Brunel’s extraordinary landmarks, the Clifton Suspension Bridge, can be seen to the West and spans across the Avon Gorge, through which Cabot would have sailed all those centuries ago.
Serendipitously, the modern replica of Cabot’s Matthew was motoring around the floating Harbour, just as I reached the top of the tower. It is a very small boat to be crossing the Atlantic in.
Then to the door back down…
And the slightly tatty and scary stairwell.
by Scooj
More doors at: Thursday Doors – Norm 2.0
1576. M32 roundabout J3 (89)
I haven’t seen a new Voyder piece for ages, so was very excited when I knew this one had been painted at the M32 roundabout. Unfortunately this is one of the spots that is obscured by the sun and shade effect from the adjacent trees. Now I love trees as much as the next man, but not when they do this to sensational graffiti art works like this one.
Even with the variable light conditions on this piece it is possible to see the sheer excellence of this top writers talent. Once again we see a return of his neon squiggle that he draws so perfectly and balances off the whole piece of writing. I have run out of superlatives to describe just how good this guy is – perhaps it is just better to look and marvel.
1575. Dean Lane skate park (140)
This is what you get when you pair up two of Bristol’s finest writers and character artists, Dibz and Cheo.THis is a supreme collaboration with Dibz supplying the writing and Cheo paint
The whole piece is extra sharp and just amazingly well painted and I love the way thet Goofy almost seems to lean out of the wall, a hip hop goofy at that fully kitted out with medallion and baseball cap.
I managed to get down to see this piece quite quickly, but the margins had already been tagged – I think that might be a naughty Oner tag in the top left. Typical Bristol brilliance for all to see.
Natural adventures 