Door five.
Dean Lane, Bristol
Artist: Angus
by Scooj
Thursday doors
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.
1108. SoHo, New York (1)
Another wonderful surprise waiting for me in SoHo was this beautiful collaboration between Stik and LA, which was part of the L.I.S.A project (Little Italy Street Art), sprayed in 2016.
The vibrancy of this piece works brilliantly, with all the brightly coloured swirls from LA contrasting with the elegant simplicity of the Stik figures serenely holding hands. A perfect match. I know little about LA, but I believe he is a local artist and he certainly seems to like his squiggles. Stik is of course simply one of the best there is.
Little Italy, New York (1)
The afternoon we arrived in New York, my children were very hungry, and we had to hunt down somewhere to eat pretty quickly, because you know what hungry teenagers can be like. The first restaurant we stumbled across was this nice ‘shabby chic’ place called Osteria in Mott Street (311), Little Italy.
Distracted by the children’s needs, I hadn’t properly looked at the piece on the side of the building. Once they had ordered their food, I nipped out to take a look and snap these shots. Of course I recognised the work immediately as being that of Bristol artist Nick Walker. Strange that I should cross the pond, and the first artwork I should see would be someone I have written about extensively. The international nature of street art.
This piece incorporates the pin-striped gentleman creating a heart made up of a mist, but take a closer look and the mist is actually numbers in a font Nick Walker has used before in other works. This was a great start to what turned out to be a wonderful trip.
Days for living
.
Chilly morn, clear, crisp
trees cast long slender shadows
and I am alive.
.
by Scooj
1106. The Bearpit (104)
Here we have another Bearpit piece by the irrepressible NEVERGIVEUP, whose monsters just keep on giving. In this piece there is an inclusion of the Clifton suspension bridge, but I am not certain that he sprayed this or whether it was a part of an existing mural. Somehow the style doesn’t look like his.
As with all his monsters, NEVERGIVEUP creates a textured effect on the skin using concentric contours, in this case in red and yellow, dotted around the skin of the creature. I always like it when characters are themselves spraying. An archetypal piece from this artist.
1105. The Bearpit (103)
Without doubt, this is one of my favourite pieces of recent weeks. Bright and garish, I first saw this when driving around The Bearpit roundabout, and made a mental note to take a closer look next time I walked into work. Fortunately this large wheatpaste was still there, and I was able to look at it more carefully and find out who it was by.
The artist is Christian Hooker who judging from his Instagram account handle is from New York (@nychooker). Quite what he was doing here I don’t know but I am really pleased that he visited the city and even more pleased that he left us a couple of gifts.
The pasteup itself is mocking Trump (I guess) and he posted it on Instagram under the heading ‘subvertising’ which is a term new to me, but I really rather like it. It is, a little like Lemak’s work, a stencil piece that has been printed off and pasted up. I simply love it. Having just visited NYC, I was a little disappointed not to see any of his work. Maybe next time.
Cucumber and wine
Picture this: a man
chomps on a whole cucumber
in his other hand
a half-full bottle of wine;
A Bristolian breakfast.
by Scooj
Dusk
Daylight turns to dusk
an orange glow hugs the earth
spiritual calm.
by Scooj
1104. The Bearpit (102)
No prizes for guessing the artist who sprayed this in one of the tunnels in The Bearpit. It is a political piece with the slogans ‘I resist’ and ‘eat the rich’. The work depicts a hero figure (batman) saying ‘pay me I’m yours’ which is a fairly direct reference to corruption. if none of that helps with identifying this artist, then the organic style and tentacles should.
It is, of course, by Object… and if the piece itself didn’t tell you that, then the signature at the bottom would have. I like his pieces. Edgy and no beating about the bush. Part of the fabric of The Bearpit.
1103. Raleigh Road, Vector (15)
This was a truly sublime piece that went up in Raleigh Road back in July this year, a little while before Upfest. It is always great to see dog street art, and this piece is a real treat. It is by Nilko White, a french artist from Paris, who I guess was taking a trip to the UK and teamed up with some local artists, maybe Hempster (the writing to the right of the dog) and found this hoarding to decorate.
It is a really great piece and quite different from much of the stuff we see in Bristol. It took me a while to find out who the artist was but Instagram (as is so often the case) came to the rescue. I’m not too sure what the Staffordshire terrier is about, but there is a story here. Maybe these are dogs the artist knows. A refreshing piece.
Natural adventures 