Face the Strange seemed to have a great time at Upfest 2016, spreading the love all over North Street with a fine selection of his wheatpastes, each one of them curiouas and humorous.
This one seems to show four red-shirted gentlemen with projector or television tubes for heads. Nobody said that peculiar wasn’t allowed at Upfest, so Face the Strange has provided it in bucket-loads. A commentary on techno-geek-physics-heads? Reminds me a little of Kraftwerk, remember them?
What an unexpected pleasure, not only to find a P0G0 piece in Bristol, not only to find a paste up by P0G0 in Bristol but to find TWO paste ups by P0G0 on the same day in different parts of town. I am indeed a lucky seeker.
A red letter day.
Off the beaten track, DinDin left this little treat behind in Moon Street while she was over for Upfest this year. Unfortunately, even though I found the piece quite soon after it was completed, it was already slightly damaged.
I love it nonetheless. It is a swanky, stylish wheatpaste that somehow blends in really well with the brick wall it is pasted to. It is very close to another of her pieces I posted about a little while back. DinDin is my favourite discovery from Upfest this year, and I dearly hope she returns next year. Always welcome.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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’.
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.
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.
There is something dark, political and edgy about What Have I Done Now’s work. His paste ups are full of menace, like this one (called laugh riot) of a riot police figure, waving a US flag and adorned with Mickey Mouse ears. Taking a swipe at some attitudes in a small wheatpaste without words is part of the skill of this kind of street art.
This is one for the fans of political street art, an art form that seems to be slightly out of vogue at the moment.
In a small side street off Brick lane, there is a fairly squalid car park…the perfect site for some great street art and graffiti art. At this site there were some wonderful pieces which I will get round to posting some time. My eye was caught, however, just as I was leaving the side street by this fabulous D7606 pasteup.
I like the bright colours he uses, the icons he adopts (in this case the telephone itself and David Bowie) and his recognisable style. Although a small piece, this is really fun art.
Natural adventures 