#365ArtDrops part 351, Hackney, East London
Last throws then, the year-long piece that is the #365ArtDrops is almost at an end, the last pieces, the last fourteen parts, will go out before 2015 ends. Fourteen pieces sitting here on the studio floor in various wet and sticky states of almost-ready-to-go-out tomorrow. A year’s worth of work, 365 paintings on things found on the street, painted on and put back out on the street, and each part with a story with every piece.
The final 14 parts will go out on the last day 2015, I imagine this will happen during the daylight hours and I suspect it will happen on the current home turf of East London. .Been quite a year, most of the parts have been carefully placed (never actually dropped) around London, although pieces have gone out in Colchester, Margate and such. And of course parts have been found by people and taken off on adventures all over the world.
#365ArtDrops part 349, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, December 23rd
Parts of the piece went out last week outside railway stations in Shrewsbury and Moor Street, Birmingham, yesterday two more pieces went out in Hackney, in recent times pieces have been painted on small blocks of wood, on gift bags adorned with silky red and green ribbons, pieces have found their way to Los Angeles (via a bubble tea stall in Shoreditch, East London), to Crystal Palace via a hook outside a pub on Broadway (East London)
#365ArtDrops part 348, Moor Street, Birmingham, December 23rd.
Next comes the documenting of it all and the gathering of photos of people with their found pieces and as much news as possible in terms of where the parts have ended up. Can this evolve in to a book? Off the top of my head I’m aware of pieces ending up in Germany, Sweden, Israel, Canada, Australia. Ireland, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Manchester, Bristol, Newcastle, Oxford, as well as all over London. I imagine some made landfill, did you find one? Where have they gone…. What happened to that one outside Shrewsbury Railway station last week? Id did make it to Shropshire social media. What happened to the one left on the beach in Margate? Or that one left on the Southbank that time? How many survived? Did the # work? Some people used it to post their photos on Twitter, Facebook and such….
It all comes to an end tomorrow…. here’s the latest photos, click on an image to enlarge or to run the slide show….
More news just in: #365ArtDrops Part 339, left out in a yard just off Brick Lane yesterday, found and documented on line today (via the hashtag and the good people over at Shoreditch Street Art Tours), off to San Francisco so it seems. This one was painted on all four sides of a found piece of wood. “This San Francisco bound piece is unusual as we haven’t found a piece of the #365artdrops artwork painted around all four sides like this one” so commented the street Art Tour blog, and indeed so, other pieces of wood have been painted like that, not “dropped” ones though (and yes, as pointed out on the blog, this one is 339). “By coincidence, on a tour last Friday we also came across another product of Sean Worrall’s project and this now has a happy home with another Shoreditch Street Art Tour guest”..
All three photos: Dave Stuart aka NoLionsInEngland (big thanks once more Dave)
#365ArtDrops Part 342
There’s nineteen days left before the year and the year-long piece of work that is the #365ArtDrops comes to some kind of conclusion. There’s 23 parts of the piece to be painted and placed (never dropped, always carefully placed) on the street, 242 pieces out there already and 23 more to go before the piece is complete (well complete in terms of all the parts being out there, not in terms of the interaction and the finding out what happened to the part I suspect) Yesterday’s “drops” mostly happened in a yard just off Brick Lane that was already alive with paint and colour, meanwhile one piece painted on recycled cardboard and put in a found frame, was hung on Redchurch Street (there were a lot of Santa-like creatures on Redchurch Street today) and another piece hung on a gate that lead to what we later discovered to be a rather interesting gateway to a namesake. Two of the pieces placed in the Brick Lane back yard were claimed almost straight away and are now off to spend some time in San Diego, California, a third piece (painted on a found generic “stay calm” canvas print, found in a skip in Hackney and save from landfill), was grabbed almost before it was “dropped”. The piece, painted o a piece of wood found ina recycle bin outside a house on Tudor Road (Hackney) last week was left outside an old place that was once where Schwartz could be found at 33 Fournier Street, not sure who or what Schwartz was or how old that name above the gate is, it looks old but research says there was an Express Dairy sign there in the late 1940s Didn‘t notice the nameplate underneath the painting until the painting had been hung, Fournier street, even by Spitalfields standards has quite a history, Worrall’s yard it seems, is hidden behind that gate….
#365ArtDrops Part 342
The Worrall House of 1720 is the quintessence of the Spitalfields nobody knows – built in a secret courtyard between Fournier St and Princelet St by Samuel Worrall, the builder responsible for many of the surrounding houses, it can only be approached through a narrow passage behind a heavily-encrusted door. When you step through this door, into the dark cobbled alley lined with ancient planks covered with paint and tar that has not been renewed in over a century, you feel – more than anywhere in Spitalfields – that you have stepped back in time. Here Samuel Worrall built a handsomely proportioned yet modest house for himself in his own builders’ yard. Just one room deep with a pedimented door and stone balls atop the gateposts, it resembles a perfect lifesize dolls’ house. Facing East and constructed of a single layer of bricks, it only receives sunlight in the morning and is not a warm building in Winter, yet there is an irresistible grace and mystery about this shadowy house of enchantment, presiding silently upon a quiet courtyard that is outside time (from the secret history of Spitalfields). What a fascinating place
#365ArtDrops Part 342
“It was in the 80’s that I lived in Worrall House, Spitalfields, which exists secretly between Princelet Street and Fournier Street, entirely hidden from view. It is the oldest house in Spitalfields, nearly 300 years old and originally belonged to Samuel Worrall, the master-carpenter for Nicholas Hawksmoor who built Christchurch, Spitalfields, as well as a number of other distinctive East-London churches. Even then Spitalfields was a mysterious and unusual place to live full of interesting and distinguished neighbours, some of them artists such as Gilbert and George and Ricardo Cinalli.My recent visit to Worrall House assures me that it is still the majestic and peaceful haven as it was when I lived there for many years, whilst the surrounding streets have become part of the new creative centre of the universe and possibly the trendiest place on earth. (David Begbie – artist)
S. Schwartz, Fournier Street – Fournier Street was formerley Church Street. No. 33 was occupied in 1759 by the ’Rev. Mr. Covenant’ probably the Paul Covenant who was a minister of the Threadneedle Street, and probably of the Fournier Street, French Church; and in 1766 by Gédćon Patron, another French minister .From about 1879 into the 20th century, it was used as a hall in connection with Christ Church. No. 35 and the back rooms of No. 33 extend over the wide entry to the yard originally occupied by the Worralls Between Nos. 33 and 35 is a passageway which formerly led to Worrall’s yard and dwelling house. Of the builders employed by Wood and Michell on their estate the most prominent was Samuel Worrall, a carpenter, whose yard and dwelling house (which last still survives with a rebuilt front) lay between Princelet and Fournier Streets. (British History Online)
#365ArtDrops Part 338/339
People is really what this year-long piece is about, interaction with people. These two delightful ladies came along after we had put the pieces out in the yard off Brick Lane yesterday, we were still there kind of “secretly” watching people and such when they started photographing the pieces and discussing them, in the end I told them to have a look on the back, and told them it says “please take”. We ended up having quite a chat about Brick Lane and art, and now those two pieces (and I think a third) are off to hang with them in San Diego. The small wooden block I painted on was originally picked up from a pile of rubbish outside the Hackney Coffee Company’s new place (along with a previous piees painted at the same time and left out sound the old Psychic TV house in Beck Road, East London) , the framed piece is in a frame found in a skip, the cardboard inside is from Amazon packaging, and these two ladies left us with smiles on our faces. Hopefully they’ll make use of the hashtag and send in photos of the pieces hanging in San Diego.
#365ArtDrops Part 337
Some of you artists really aren’t that happy about the Turner Prize and the bit on the Cultivate blog, turned in to quite an amusingly vitriolic social media attack on my art and the drops and I have to say I rather like the Turner Prize and this year’s choice has to be the most relevant in years. “Well done to Assemble for winning Turner Prize they are great and represent where art is at now” added Greyson Perry. And yes, Greyson is right: it is where art really is now, as we struggle for our places to live, to make, to create, to exist to do more than merely consume…more here
Nineteen days to go…. fractured photos of yesterday’s “drops”, click on an image to enlarge or to run the slide show
#365ArtDrops part 328
The last month of the year-long piece that is the #365ArtDrops, two of the latest parts were deliberately taken to Norton Foldgate, and left on the walls in the heart of Spittlefields on the north east edge of old London, a place of liberty and freedom, a place for outsiders… Dan Cruickshank.tells you about this rather special place in this short film. For further information go to www.thespitalfieldstrust.com. Follow the campaign: facebook.com/savenortonfolgate
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Part 327 of the #365ArtDrops piece (that has rather dominated my year) was painted on a found piece of wood and hung on a fence with the last of the bright leaves near Broadway Market, down by the Regent’s Canal, Hackney, E8 on December 4th, it was picked up the next day by a man called Thomas who posted a photo on Facebook of it hanging in his house
The back of #365ArtDrops part 228
Part 328 painted on a found piece of wood thrown in a skip back in January, looks like is was a unwanted homemade Christmas gift from last year, Painted on and now hanging by the soon to be destroyed Norton Folgate, Spitalfields, hanging there waiting to be taken should someone wish to. part 329 WAS painted on a found piece of wood from an old bit of furniture and left hanging on a street corner at Norton Folgate, Spitalfields, both on December 6th
Part 330 was painted on a found piece of backboard from a broken Ikea picture frame and hung om a wall just off Brick Lane, East London on December 6th, Part 331 was painted on recycled cardboard and left on the bumper of a Chevy pickup truck on Columbia Road, Columbia Flower Market, East London. Part 332, painted on found piece of wood, picked up off the street a few months back, a piece from a broken kitchen unit, left hanging on a gate on Rivington Street, East London. Part part 333 was painted on a found piece of wood, painted gold and left in a phone box with the Christmas lights of Hackney on Sunday evening, December 6th.
#365ArtDrops part 333
Part 334 was painted on a block of very tactile wood picked up from outside a woodwork studio in Hackney, painted on and left on a fence in the fading December light, down by the canal and the gas-holders, Hackney, East London. December 8th.
#365ArtDrops part 331
So Assemble won the Turner Prize last night. This is surely a good thing. Now, more than ever, art needs to be about community, about engaging with the community; art needs to be part of it, right in there. It needs to be about buildings and people and open doors, about open signs and welcome signs. More on that over on the Cultivate blog
.The latest parts of the #365ArtDrops piece them – Leaf, leaves, trucks, lights, walls… click on a photo to enlarge or run the slide show…
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The blogs go on, the drops go, the paint flows on, maximalism, everything turned up to the full There’s a Cultivate blog as a follow up to the Colchester talk here Lot of food for though the served up by the various contributors and the engaging audience at Firstsite. it was good to get out there, to get out of the London bubble.Thank you Colchester. On with the #365ArtDrops and revealing the first of the 2016 Cultivate shows while carefully avoiding the temptation the get involved in the frothing onslaught of Christmas art fairs, shows and markets this year (of course if you do fancy some creative Christmas shopping the Cultivate on-line shop is being re-stocked with art on an almost daily basis right now, alternatively search my name on Ebay).
“They Have Thorns” (27cm x31cm)
Yesterday’s parts of the year-long #365ArtDrops piece went out next to a secret door on Mare Street, Hackney East London and a piece painted on an extremely weathered piece of wood picked out of a skip on a street by London Fields
x#365mArtDrops Part 325
Today, I mostly have my somewhat reluctant curators head on.
Reveal will almost certainly be the first Cultivate event of 2016, although the opening night of Reveal isn’t until Thursday January 7th, so who knows, there may well be some Cultivation before that, we intend having another pro-active maximalist year of cultivation.
Cultivate will continue with the nomadic takeover of interesting spaces big and small for their first event of 2016. Reveal will happen in the East London railway arch that is home to the recently opened Fount London complex.
Reveal will reveal new work from Cultivate founders Sean Worrall and Emma Harvey,
Reveal will also continue with the tradition of revealing fresh work from artists that currently excite us, including one or two who have never revealed themselves at Cultivate before. Expect a typically busy Cultivate group show and a long weekend of New Year artistic intent, expect cross-pollination, expect artists who don’t usually show with each other, expect painters jousting with performance, expect sculpture, print
Expect painting, sculpture, performance, art, artists and more on the opening Thursday night and throughout the weekend both inside and outside the white-walled railway arch of a Hackney gallery.
Fount is found over the road from Hackney’s ever popular Netil Market and a two minute walk from London Fields railway station, as well as the busy food-filled thing that is Broadway Market and London Fields itself.
More details of events and artists to be announced over the next couple of weeks via the Cultivate blog and the various social media platforms that we all know and love, there’s a Facebook event page here
Artists confirmed for Reveal so far include Cecily Baker, Deborah Griffin, Diane Goldie, Emma Harvey, John Lee Bird, Megan Pickering, Marnie Scarlet, Sean Worrall, Skeleton Cardboard, ThisOne, more to be revealed in the coming days…
#365ArtDrops in full via Tumblr
The latest #365ArtDrops went out yesterday, I expect Part 327 will go out in the wind and rain today, click on an image to enlarge or run the slide show, meanwhile the entire piece of work so far can be viewed via a designated Tumblr page
