All posts tagged: Garry Hunter

In The Belly Of The River Thames

May 8, 2012 , , ,

Occasional BSA contributor Garry Hunter writes today about a mural in London that may appear a bit more conventional than your average Street Art piece but carries a thoroughly modern message about our devastating effect on the environment.  And electric eels!

Electric Soup in England’s Capital City
by Garry Hunter

When George Cruikshank illustrated the imagined contents of the heavily polluted River Thames in his satirical cartoon Monster Soup, he included mutant river denizens in a microscopic examination of a 19th Century London lady’s cup of tea.

New Zealand artist Bruce Mahalski has just completed a new mural on Orchard Place that references not only Cruikshank’s work, but the legacy of electromagnetic pioneer Michael Faraday, whose laboratories were located at nearby Trinity Buoy Wharf. The looping River Lea that here merges with the Thames once had a thriving fishing village, which combined with Faraday’s research, gives rise to the mural’s focus on electric animals.

Bruce Mahalski (Photo © Garry Hunter)

An Eco-activist, Mahalski incorporates an existing buddleia bush growing out of a window of the former shop that hosts his Electric Soup creation. He draws on his wide experience working with the Island Bay Marine Education Centre in Wellington, introducing more exotic submarinal characters, many of which are endangered species. He was shocked by an electric ray while working on a research boat when a metal shovel he was using to examine sealife conducted a charge right through him.

Bruce Mahalski (Photo © Garry Hunter)

Clearly visible from passenger windows of airplanes landing at City Airport, the painting is part of a series of permanent works made by visiting artists based out of Boiler House (1954) in the centre of Trinity Buoy Wharf, a haven of independent thought away from the corporate developments that now line this part of East London.

Trinity Buoy Wharf is at 64 Orchard Place, London E14 0JW with the mural on the corner of the approaching road to the gatehouse.

The artist Bruce Mahalski by Garry Hunter. (Photo © Garry Hunter)

Bruce Mahalski (Photo © Garry Hunter)

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Read more

ROA and Phlegm Hiding in a Dark London Alley

February 13, 2012 , , ,

BSA contributor and urban explorer Garry Hunter just stumbled willingly into an alley in London where Street Artists ROA and Phlegm had transformed the walls and he shares his experience here with us, along with some images of the work.

By New York standards, London snowstorms are occasional and fleeting, with this winter’s first carpet of white disappearing within 48 hours. This window of opportunity on a rare warm day prompted a trip to South East London, ancient habitat of second hand car dealers and purveyors of stolen goods. Peckham is off the Tube line, but an over ground artery to Kent allows quick access from Central London. It is very close to this Rye station where there lies an unassuming dark alley that opens out into a plethora of monochrome masterworks.

Modern Flemish master ROA has decorated four walls of an industrial yard with Gothic bird skulls, while the remaining doorways, loading bays and other brick surfaces show an entangled narrative of dark materials by Sheffield-based Phlegm. These hidden gems were only made fully accessible by the serendipitous arrival of a resident in the adjoining apartment, who had keys to the barred gate of the yard.

As I leave back through the tunnel to the High Street, my head spinning with intense imagery, the waft of goat curry mingles with odors from an Arabic tea-stall, the hawker’s call and the loud strains of passing London buses. Back to reality, cheap shops selling tat and the predictable chain stores of an English high street; an identity being crushed by corporate greed.

ROA (photo © Garry Hunter)

ROA (photo © Garry Hunter)

ROA (photo © Garry Hunter)

Phlegm (photo © Garry Hunter)

Phlegm (photo © Garry Hunter)

Phlegm (photo © Garry Hunter)

Phlegm (photo © Garry Hunter)

Read more

Banksy, Robbo, A Mallard, and The Rolling Stones

January 25, 2012 , , ,

Team Robbo, the fun-loving anti-Banksy graffti Collective from South London who is not pleased with the appearance of work by the world-known Street Artist. Even in his hometown of Bristol, Banksy gets no respect from Robbo, and apparently The Rolling Stones are now buffing as well? Team Robbo employs a classic Stones lyric “Paint it Black” by way of engaging the public with a very open demonstration of tough street love and ironically, the only thing you may remember from the effort is the refrain.

Interviewed regarding this Street Art/Graffiti rivalry that sends bloggers and print journalists into paradoxisms of high alert, this local London duck was non-plussed.  While congenially posing for a photo opp on Regents Canal, Mallard seemed to know little about the whole home turf affair and wondered aloud if we had any bread crumbs.

Thanks to Garry Hunter for his in-the-field photography.

Banksy. Robbo (photo © Garry Hunter)

 

Read more

Evol and his Miniature Housing Project in London

January 23, 2012 , , , , ,
Berlin based artist Evol took a trip outside his home town across the English Channel to London to create his most recent installation. Known for his ingenious and humorous re-imagining of existing street structures as architecture – sometimes with “giant” tags across them, Evols’ painstaking attention to detail puts you inside his miniature world instantly.
 
We’re very pleased that writer Garry Hunter joins us today to give BSA readers a better understanding of the work of Evol;

Evol has a fascination for sites that focus on meat production, having previously chosen a former Dresden slaughterhouse for his installation Caspar-David-Friedrich-Stadt. Perhaps influenced by Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Slaughterhouse 5, a fantasy novel set during the firebombing of the city in World War Two, the title references the most important German artist of the early 19th Century. While Freidrich is best known for his allegorical landscape paintings, Evol creates pieces that comment on the very opposite of the Romantic school – urban decay.

Evol (photo © Garry Hunter)

A housing block with a graffiti tag is nothing new, but upon closer inspection these images reveal how cleverly Berlin based Evol plays with scale and social comment. Taking stencilling to new levels of detail, including St. Georges Cross English flags beloved by soccer fans and the satellite dishes, he recently completed this major piece in London’s Smithfield meat market.

Evol (photo © Garry Hunter)

By transforming a dozen concrete blocks into miniature apartment blocks Evol reproduces the monstrosity of the estate that included his former Berlin home into a miniature modernist housing estate. The installation has become a tea break destination for contractors working on the nearby Cross-rail high speed transport link.

~ Garry Hunter

Read more

Featured Video | Martin Wong’s “Houston Street”

Recent Articles on BSA