6321. Cumberland Basin

Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2024
Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2024

By the time you read this, I should be some 35,000 feet or so in the air somewhere between Bristol and Copenhagen, so I wrote this post yesterday. I am spending a long weekend in Copenhagen with my mother who gifted me the trip as my 60th birthday present.

Acer One has been smashing it recently with a range of different ideas, including these cryptic boule writing designs that are designed to challenge the viewer to work out what is going on… visual puzzles I guess you could call them.

Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2024
Acer One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, August 2024

The gold letters along the top spell ‘Change is inevitable’ and the black letters running along the bottom of the piece spell out ‘Growth is optional’. So this piece is both a puzzle and philosophical. Great technical work from Acer One.

Spoiler alert

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First Wordle pootle

they say everyone’s playing

got proxy in five.

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by Scooj

Christmas jigsaw

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The mystical world

and we, stooped at the table

figuring it out

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by Scooj

Jigsaw puzzle

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Christmas holiday

the perfect do nothing day

and a new jigsaw

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by Scooj

1030. Upfest 2017 (58)

It takes a little while to get to grips with this piece by Pref ID, but it is a really clever piece of writing. A quick look at his website indicates how he likes to disguise slogans by conflating all the words into one, creating something of a letter puzzle.

Pref ID, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Pref ID, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

In this piece just off North Street Pref ID has written the words ‘Mind Bending’ – the blue letters say MIND and the white ones BENDING. It is a sophisticated work and has been really skilfully executed. Quite a different kind of piece.

Pref ID, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Pref ID, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

My attempt to chat with the artist was not overly successful. I approached him and asked him who he was (a not unreasonable question at a street art festival), to which he replied “who the f*ck are you!” – so I told him who I was. He didn’t speak again. Maybe he was just having a bad hair day, or maybe he just took an instant dislike to me, who knows? It is a first though. I have met cagey artists and exuberant ones, modest ones, happy and sad ones, but this is the first time I have encountered such grumpiness. None of this however detracts from just how good this piece is.

Pref ID, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017
Pref ID, Upfest, Bristol, July 2017

I shall be more careful in future if I see Pref ID in town.

 

916. Dean Lane skate park (68)

I was very excited when I saw this paste up by Lemak, and exceptionally talented Bristol stencil artist. Excited because I had seen a short video of him creating it on his Instagram feed only the day before. So this really was hot off the press.

Lemak, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2017
Lemak, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2017

I passed by the wall last Friday and it has been badly tagged, so it was fairly short lived, which is a pity. Whenever I see great pieces that are dogged or ruined I am reminded of the fantastic line in Bladerunner – ‘the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long‘ and so it often is with great street art.

Lemak, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2017
Lemak, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2017

I love the crisp collage effect with the graff all around – some similarities with the work of PichiAvo?