Tag: Paste up

511. Upfest 2016 (68)

Regular readers will know that I am particularly fond of paste ups and the artists who create them, such as Kid Crayon, Tian, 23 Magpies, D7606 and Phoebe New York. Another wonderful and highly distinctive member of this genre is C3 whose works can be seen not only in Bristol from this year’s upfest, but also all over the popular street art areas of London.

C3, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
C3, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Her work is always thoughtfully designed and presented cleverly. In this case, her subject shares a space with Phoebe New York and a tin of Stella Artois. Placement is everything for wheatpasters. This is like a little shrine.

485. Upfest 2016 (59)

Somehow this seems to be the perfect wheatpaste pairing. The fabulous D7606 bottles that can be found in so many places and the enchanting one-off pieces that 23 Magpies leaves for explorers to find.

23 Magpies and D7606, Upfest, Bristol, July2016
23 Magpies and D7606, Upfest, Bristol, July2016
I have seen D7606’s bottles in a number of places in Bristol and in London, and I guess they are in other cities too. He is a busy wheatpaster, and one I admire.

23 Magpies, Upfest, Bristol, July2016
23 Magpies, Upfest, Bristol, July2016
The gorgeous bearded emperor tamarin (I think) is beautifully framed in  a designed contemporary context, and the whole piece is very small indeed.. I really do love 23 Magpies’ work, and get a real thrill every time I find one of her pieces. I hope she returns to Bristol before next year’s Upfest.

479. Jerome Street, Shoreditch (2)

Wheatpastes somehow lend themselves not only to bold political statements, but also to quirkiness and humour. I first encountered ‘Face The Strange’ at Upfest 2016 with his rather imaginative flying human ducks.

Face The Strange, Jerome Street, Shoreditch, September 2016
Face The Strange, Jerome Street, Shoreditch, September 2016

The basic technique adopted by Face The Stange, is to take every day objects and superimpose them onto the face of people, creating a rather unsettling and surreal effect. It is more than that though…as I have said many times one of the arts of wheatpasting is location and arrangement. In this aspect Face The Strange excels.

Face The Strange, Jerome Street, Shoreditch, September 2016
Face The Strange, Jerome Street, Shoreditch, September 2016

The other thing about paste ups is that they are rarely commissions, and therefore kind of illegal, which gives them an extra edge. This is my kind of stuff.

 

 

465. Stokes Croft, somewhere

If my virtual pile of ‘to do’ images was somehow converted into real actual photographs, it would be a very very big stack of pictures indeed. Lurking deep in this pile there are still some images of work done by Tian earlier in the year when he was on his ‘UK tour’.

Tian, Stokes Croft, Bristol, April 2016
Tian, Stokes Croft, Bristol, April 2016
This is one of the pasteups, of which there were about 9 or 10, and it features an actress from the 1960s, I would guess, but I am not too sure who it is. All of the pasteups from this particular visit contained famous leading ladies from films of the ’60s and ’70s presented with a slight red/pink tint, which added to the old feel of the pictures.

Tian, Stokes Croft, Bristol, April 2016
Tian, Stokes Croft, Bristol, April 2016
Tian’s visit and wheatpaste bombing was a pure delight, in fact one of the highlights of 2016 street art in Bristol. I do hope he returns next year with more wonderful creative art.

455. Upfest 2016 (52)

You may recall that I posted paste ups of a mouse and a cat by 23 Magpies recently. Well here is another one of the treats that she left behind at Upfest. This time, always on a wildlife theme, we are presented with a charming wheatpaste of a newt drawn onto the cover of an Ian Maclaren title page.

23 Magpies, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
23 Magpies, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush was Ian Maclaren’s first story about rural Scottish life. I have no idea if this is of any significance to the piece by 23 Magpies, or if it is a random bit of book used as a background context for the little newt. Whatever the intention, the execution is once again excellent. I think there may be more to come from 23 Magpies in these Upfest posts.

431. Upfest 2016 (47)

I know I have said it before and I will say it again. One of the real pleasures at Upfest 2016 was the huge number of wheatpastes that appeared overnight between the Saturday and the Sunday of the festival.

Face the Strange, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Face the Strange, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

This was my first introduction to the crazy world of Face the Strange, a wheatpaster who creates characters with heads substituted for any manner of everyday objects. His pieces are witty and rather stylish – I like them. This works on several levels and the reproduction of naff flying ducks is very funny.

Face the Strange, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016
Face the Strange, Upfest, Bristol, July 2016

Face the Strange has a Facebook page, which is well worth a look. Since this first discovey, I have since found more of his work in Bristol from Upfest, and loads in Shoreditch and Camden Town. More to come from this prolific artist.