Although Purdown is a beautiful part of Bristol and has some stunning views over the city, the old HAA battery has a rather strange feel to it. It is a historical ruin that has been allowed to decay and in recent times has become a very popular spot for graffiti. Walking around the place though is moving and one’s mind drifts back to the ghosts of the past defending the city against the blitz. Some of the bunkers, like this one with this fine Slakarts piece, feel a bit dingy and creepy and to be honest I don’t like going down there much.
Slakarts, Purdown, Bristol, March 2021
Obviously such matters don’t appear to phase Slakarts too much and this is another fine addition to his series of monochrome pieces that he has been enjoying painting over the last year or so. The simplicity of the parallel lines on the glasses is so effective and a tick he likes to use a fair bit. It is always great pleasure finding pieces by this gentleman.
This is the second of four railway column pieces in Stapleton Road to be featured on Natural Adventures. Local artists were commissioned by Network Rail and Severnside Rail Partnership to smarten up the railway supports which had become rather untidy with a plethora of tags and posters. I am a little torn sometimes when this kind of commission comes along, because these spots can host some fine pieces of graffiti, but faced with the option of anti-graffiti painted columns or these gorgeous commissioned murals, I’d always opt for the latter.
Zoe Power and David Bain, Stapleton Road, Bristol, March 2021
This column is a joint effort from Zoe Power and David Bain and is a perfect place to showcase their work. Interestingly their other collaboration to have appeared on Natural Adventures is also a railway piece on Redland Station.
Zoe Power and David Bain, Stapleton Road, Bristol, March 2021
The trademark of these two artists is a highly stylised design and bright bold colours. I would label this piece as a true collaboration because they have stitched their work so closely together that it is difficult for me to be one hundred percent certain who painted what. The cheerful and skilfully painted mural is, along with its sisters, is sure to become a well known local landmark.
Zoe Power and Dave Bain, Redland Station, Bristol, November 2019
Thank you, Paul H for correcting my assumption that this piece was by Sled One. It is in fact by 3Dom, and was painted to celebrate Sled One’s birthday paint jam. In terms of the rest of the post, everything I wrote about Sled One is applicable to 3Dom. I will leave the post as originally written, because it is important to recognise how difficult it can be sometimes to get things wrong…
This wonderful piece of writing from Sled One is actually one half of a collaboration with himself, which in retrospect I ought to have posted as one, but without thinking I have split into two. Both elements of his work were part of an ASK painting session a couple of weeks back.
3Dom, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2021
Given that Sled One usually freestyles his work, which means he doesn’t paint from a design on a piece of paper in front of him, but with the freedom of his own mind, there is an extraordinary ease, confidence and flow that demonstrates his gift. Sled One is a truly gifted artist whose distinctive surreal creativity puts him in the highest echelons of character artists in Bristol (and beyond), and he is a great writer too. This is a fairly straightforward piece of writing, but often his writing is enhanced with character-like elements. Turning the inanimate into the animate is a speciality.
I have only managed to capture a fraction of the Recent John D’oh stencils as he tends to spray them at spots I don’t visit too often (something better change). The last time I looked at this column there was a Pekoe sketch, so I know that this stencil isn’t very old.
John D’oh, M32 Spot, Bristol, March 2021
As we are accustomed to seeing, John D’oh once again combines his political commentary with humour in this case ridiculing Rishi Sunak for his astounding 1% pay increase for nurses after all they have done and achieved for the nation in the last year. Yet another jaw-dropping moment from this ‘compassionate’ administration. At this moment I ought to say that it is not only nurses. As someone who works in the public sector, I have been on the wrong end of a pay freeze for ten years which was lifted last year and I received a 2% rise, but we are now back to a pay freeze. Meanwhile MPs and bankers (the architects of the banking crisis) have seen their salaries increase very nicely thank you. Respect to John D’oh for calling out these people.
Relatively speaking, Rezwonk has had a quiet twelve months. Prior to the first lockdown a year ago, there was no stopping him and his collaborations with Decay and Nightwayss were a regular occurrence… it felt like barely a week would pass without at least one new ‘REZER’ gracing a Bristol wall somewhere. He has been missed, so seeing that he appears to be ramping things up again is pleasure to my eyes.
Rezwonk, M32 roundabout, Bristol, March 2021
This recent piece was part of a collaborative wall that was long overdue on this particular site which hadn’t changed for an eternity. This is a beautiful and technically accomplished piece in which he revisits his theme if incorporating rivets in to his letters, as if this were some large metalwork sculpture. The colours work nicely and there is a special something that makes it rather compelling. Great work, keep it up.
Doors 143 – April Fools’ Day – some central Bristol doors.
Some of you may have seen reports of unrest being reported in Bristol over the last week or two. Such is the nature of the press in the UK at the moment that you’d think the whole of the city was in flames, and violent protesters lurk on every corner. It just isn’t like that.
There have been four protests now where citizens have taken to the streets to object to the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill which is passing through parliament right now. This bill along with others coming from the hard-line right-wing Home Secretary Priti Patel seeks to restrict human rights further and by doing so, cement central control over the people she is there to serve. The first protest ended with violent exchanges which is so deeply sad, because of the damage it did to the purpose of the protest.
You get what you vote for, and sadly it seems that people who voted for this Government have been happy to see our public services brought to its knees through the policy/ideological choice of austerity; our exit from a powerful trading partnership and the freedoms to work in and participate fully as citizens of Europe; a clamping down on our right to protest peacefully; a reduction in our overseas development budget at a time when wealthy countries should be stepping up and not stepping back; an Australian-style immigration system proposed to keep ‘illegal’ immigrants out of the country unless they have documentation that their lives are at risk (impossible for people whose lives are at risk… think about it); a perfunctory recognition that climate change is really important because we are hosting the COP 26 conference in Glasgow this year, not forgetting that many serving in this Government were climate sceptics only a few years ago, and some still are; a jaw-droppingly incompetent response to the Covid-19 pandemic with more than 126,000 people who have died from this deadly disease and a clown at the helm with nothing more important to himself than himself.
I would love to say at this point that I am only joking and that the above paragraph is an April Fools’ Day piece, but it isn’t, it is real, and it is our future. It is no wonder some people want to protest, and it is no surprise that this Government want to suppress any kind of objection or resistance or anything that might expose them as anything other than brilliant. Unfortunately they have Rupert Murdoch on their side and the full weight of his media holdings which makes it much easier for them to sway public opinion.
Oops… I appear to have gone off-topic, but I feel much better for sharing. I hadn’t intended to ‘go there’ but it just started to spill out. The point I was going to make was that the protests have ended up in one street, Bridewell Street, which is only a stone’s throw away from where all these doors are. Most of these doors are now entrances to pubs or restaurants where once stood banking and finance establishments. Our city centres are ever evolving and a further evolution is set to take place as many businesses leave their offices and commercial premises in favour of ‘working from home’ models.
I hope you enjoy my doors more than my rant, but both would be doubly satisfying… here they are:
Blue door, Clare Street, Bristol, March 2021
Stunning door surround, Clare Street, Bristol, March 2021
Boys door, St John’s Steep, Bristol, March 2021
Metal and leaded window door, Bristol, March 2021
Carved wooden door and ornate surround, Clare Street, Bristol, March 2021
Garage door to Electricity House, Christmas Street, Bristol, March 2021
That’s it for this week, and I’ll try to steer clear of politics in the future – have a wonderful Easter/Passover weekend.
If you have made it this far, you probably like doors, and you really ought to take a look at the No Facilities blog by Dan Anton who has taken over the hosting of Thursday Doors from Norm 2.0 blog. Links to more doorscursions can be found in the comments section of Dan Anton’s Thursday Doors post.
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