There are several artists that are underrepresented on Natural Adventures, and Teao One is definitely one of them. I feel that, downtime permitting, I will have to dig out more of his work from my bulging archives.
Teao One, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2023
This upbeat piece on the entrance to the tunnel reminds me of a picnic cloth, with bright colourful square patterns inside the letters. The writing is bordered with red and black, creating a tidy finish set on a white, cloudy backdrop. The letters spell tEROK, but I don’t know what this means, but it is similar to letters he has written in other pieces. Lots of shout-outs around the piece, which is fairly typical of Teao One. Fun and happy work.
Newly buffed wall, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2023
In the dying embers of the Bristol Mayor’s tenure, it would appear that Marvin Rees is finally waging war on graffiti in the city. He has always shown a desire to keep the streets of the city clean and tidy, and recognised that graffiti and tagging is a challenging problem. In recent weeks, it has become noticeable that some walls in popular street art/graffiti spots have been buffed in a rather drab ‘Bristol grey’.
Teao One, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2023
Now here’s the thing. I can understand clamping down on tagging, especially on private property or in certain locations, but buffing walls in places which have a long history of street/graffiti art (for example St Werburghs tunnel), is a mindless waste of time and money, it could also have the unintended consequence of artists moving on to new walls and locations. A newly buffed wall is an invitation, a blank canvass upon which to work.
I believe that it would be infinitely preferable to set up legal walls/spots where there is a legacy of graffiti, with an element of curation or self-determination. Then, working with the street/graffiti art community, create some graffiti-free areas of the city and concentrate on policing those. Of course, commissions and permitted walls would still be a thing, but throw ups, bombing and tagging (which are currently illegal anyway) could be where the Bristol City Council (BCC) concentrated its efforts. I realise that this is a tricky dilemma, and is about managing subversion, but I can’t help thinking that every time BCC tackle this, they go at it like a bull in a china shop, without any clear strategy, and end up with a lose-lose situation in an effort to appease ‘small c conservatives’ whose hatred of any form of street art is visceral.
Teao One, St Werburghs, Bristol, February 2023
It didn’t take Teao One very long to paint on this newly buffed wall, which had gone over his ‘Bad meaning Good’ piece (see this morning’s post). The words say it all. The point is that the whole of St Werburghs tunnel has been a graffiti spot for years, but BCC chose to buff two small sections at the entrance (spending our taxes), for what purpose? What is their intention? What engagement has there been with the local community? It is nuts.
The saga continues – the last time I went to the tunnel, the two short sections of wall had been buffed again. This could get nasty.
Other cities in Europe, such as Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris, Brussels etc, etc, all have a culture and history of street/graffiti art, but it hasn’t stopped the visitors from flocking to these places, and in many cases (I specifically went to Barcelona to see its street art) the street art scene drives visitors and investment.
The only reason Bristol hosts Upfest, Europe’s biggest street art festival, is because the city has a long and rich street/graffiti art culture. The Festival is something to be proud of and drives inward investment. How do you reconcile that with attempting to drive the culture away?
Bad meaning good. Teao One thought that this was pretty funny, and repeated it to me several times on a bright and crisp morning, while he was admiring his work. He has been one of the busier artists in Bristol in recent weeks, and has been favouring this area around the tunnel.
Teao One, St Werburghs, Bristol, January 2023
The chrome lettering is clearly the work of a very experienced writer, and the borders and shadows 100% on point. I’m glad I took these pictures when I did, even though there was a lot of glare, because it didn’t last too long, adding credibility to the golden rule of always taking pictures when you can. Strange things have been happening to these walls lately… more in my next post.
This piece from Teao One was painted on the same wall as the Hire piece I posted yesterday, and only lasted a short while before being painted over. I have to confess to having no idea what is going on in this piece. It looks like Teao One has written TETE, but I am not sure, and the piece is headed with the phrase: ‘Gunshot in the area’, which might be a lyric or something.
Teao One, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2022
The elephant in the room in this piece is the can of special brew, which, when I was growing up was the beverage of choice for alcoholics, or heavy drinkers due to its super strength. Here the can reads ‘Special Bren’. Too many local cultural references for me to unravel. Nice to see work from Teao One though.
Teao One is one of the senior writers in Bristol, and by that I don’t mean he is old, but rather is one of those that has been writing for many years, even though he only crept into my radar last year (how did that happen?), which tells me I still have so much to learn and understand about this craft in Bristol.
Teao one, M32 roundabout, Bristol, February 2022
There is something very distinctive about Teao One’s writing style, lots of well crafted letters in a uniform style, beautifully crisply finished. It took me a while, but the letters appear to spell out GENERAL, although I’m not too sure what that means or refers to. A banging chrome piece from a skilled writer.
I had to take two attempts to get photographs of this wonderful piece of writing from Teao One along the M32 cycle path. When the sun is behind this wall (which seems to be most of the time), it darkens the wall and anything on it and because my photographic skills on my point-and-shoot camera aren’t up to scratch, I can’t accommodate very well for these challenging light conditions.
Teao One, M32 cycle path, Bristol, May 2021
Fortunately the piece was very much intact when I returned. Teao One is something of a sleeping giant who has taken to writing again and is doing so in a way that seems to be making up for lost time. His style is utterly brilliant and his letters, fills and decorations very tight indeed. It is so good to have met him on a couple of occasions now and he seems like a really nice guy. Great new work from an old-timer.
Natural adventures 