Drink

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Parched landscape, hard rain

oh! to hear the ground groaning

drinking a long drink

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by Scooj

  • Yesterday my area (one of the last in the country) fell into a Temporary Use Ban (TUB), more commonly known as Hosepipe Ban. This is an administrative stage in the drought management process and is designed to slow the demand on water resources. Although the groundwater situation is generally good after a very wet winter, rivers and reservoirs are very low, and it will take a long period of persistent rain to recover them. All the while people are still using water in high volumes, hence the ban.

4643. Dean Lane skate park (519)

Teao One, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2022
Teao One, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2022

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
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.

3887. St Werburghs Tunnel (255)

This is another piece of old-school writing from graffiti artist Sake. I don’t know how it has happened, but Sake has only really come onto my radar in the last couple of months, having met him in St Werburghs tunnel. I have a feeling that I might have photographed a number of his pieces in the past, but just haven’t published any of them. I will need to do a thorough search of my archives, but time is a real constraint for me at the moment.

Sake, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2021
Sake, St Werburghs, Bristol, August 2021

In this piece, Sake spells out his name with classic lettering filled with stars and bars and a lovely 3D shadow in blue. Having spoken to the artist a couple of times, it would appear that he is a bit of a purist and doesn’t have a lot of time for ‘toys’ (new or unskilled writers). I think that he harbours great affection for the early days of graffiti writing when things were more edgy and spray paints more difficult too use. He does well to recreate these old-school pieces.