Back to Bristol now, after a short excursion to London, and a more familiar street art scene altogether. This is the second of two recent finds by John D’oh in Horfield skate park. I suppose it is possible that they were produced around the same time.
John D’oh, Horfield skate park, Bristol, April 2019
This stencil features Batman and a quote from John D’oh that reads ‘I son’t want Michael Gove as Prime Minister I want Batman AKA Jeremy Corbyn’. This is in reference to a televised speech made by Michael Gove in which the automated subtitles said Batman instead of ‘that man’ when he was talking about the leader of the opposition. Very funny really, and great work from John D’oh to capture it in this way. I think we’d all prefer Batman to any of the potential candidates in the Tory party right now. What an utter shower of toxic right-wingers.
I don’t head up to Horfield skate park very often, as I consider the turnover of street art and graffiti there to be pretty low and it doesn’t seem to be a particularly favoured spot for many artists. I was delighted therefore to be rewarded on a rare trip on Good Friday with this magnificent stencil by John D’oh.
John D’oh, Horfield skate park, Bristol, April 2019
The stencil works for me so very very well. It shows the unspeakably toxic Jacob Rees-Mogg standing behind Theresa May who appears to be his ventriloquist’s dummy. Brilliantly funny but also it speaks volumes about how so many of us feel about the way the European Research Group (ERG – what kind of name is that anyway? Research? swap the word ‘research’ for ‘hating’ and you might get a sense of what they’re all about) have been holding May hostage throughout Brexit negotiations. Their hard-line and uncompromising Brexit desires, and her determination to hold the Conservative party together, mean that they have dictated the terms of the failed negotiations, along with the jaw-droppingly selfish DUP.
Rees-Mogg represents everything I dislike about self-interested politicians who do not serve their people, but rather manipulate narratives that appeal to under-represented groups. I would guess he also cares more about his income security (and growth) than he does about the pressing fate of our planet. I suspect he shares Owen Patterson’s loathing of the environmental movement that might, just might, interfere with their comfortable lives for the sake of trying to reverse the shocking state of carbon emissions and biodiversity loss.
Thank you John D’oh for giving us this fabulous visual reminder of just how disgraceful the political class (and indeed party politics in general) are in the UK.
I don’t go to this spot often, but just happened to be picking up my daughter and a friend from Horfield Sports Centre and had five minutes to kill. I took a short walk around the perimeter of the skate park, in the melting snow, and was pretty happy to find this writing from Rusk.
Rusk, Horfield skate park, Bristol, March 2018
Most of the stuff here is pretty elementary and it is a bit of a practice wall, so it is always nice to see something a bit more polished from an established graffiti writer. The class of this piece stands out, and even on a wall that not many will see, Rusk has taken his time to produce something of quality. A nice March surprise.
Natural adventures 