Tag Archives: Brick Lane

Art does sometimes need to engage, it never needs to dumb down, but it does need to engage a little more…

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A #365ArtDrop18 piece on Brick Lane, East London, November 2018

Some times it is good to get out beyond an art gallery, some of those galleries can be very unfriendly places, not all of them, but so many of them are rather unfriendly unwelcoming places, one of the things the #365ArtDrop18 piece is about is the people who choose to take the pieces that have been left hanging on the street, it is part of the point of the piece that people take them and enjoy being part of it all, it is about engagement, about the enjoyment both for me as an artist and hopefully for the people who choose to take the paintings. The hashtag on the back of the 365 pieces that will eventually make up the year-long #365ArtDrop18 is very important, as are the photos and the tales that other people post on their social media feeds and such. The paintings are all on material found on the street, things that people have thrown away, unwanted pieces of wood, old frames and canvases, things that were heading for landfill or were just going to be left there to rot (and when something is thrown out them leaves will grow, although others choose to see other things painted, I mostly paint leaves).

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A #365ArtDrop18 piece found, Brick Lane, East London, November 2018

Yesterday, 36 pieces, mostly painted on wood from a smashed up piece of wooded furniture pulled from a Hackney skip, were left hanging around the streets of East London (it isn’t about one piece a day, more about 365 over the whole year). of those 36 paintings left out yesterday we’ve heard of pieces being taken by people from Baltimore, from Rome, London, Manchester, from Jordan and France, we don’t hear about the fate of all the pieces of course, I guess some of them might end up in landfill anyway, we do get some great stories and some excellent photos from people though, a big part of this, the second year-long 365 art drop piece, is the engagement and the people.

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The latest #365ArtDrop18 paintings, November 2018

I love art galleries, they can be wonderful places, but they can also so often be aloof unfriendly, elitist attitudes, unwelcoming places, sometimes almost arrogantly so, art does sometimes need to engage, it never needs to dumb down, but it does need to engage a little more

 

 

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The art of dropping art, the latest parts of a year-long piece of work…

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The art of dropping, the ongoing notion of (another) year-long piece of art in 365 parts, 365 paintings on things found on the street, things recycled, reclaimed, saved from landfill, used as a canvas, painted on, and then left back out there, hung back out there on the street for people to take should they wish to.  And as we’ve said before, people taking part, posting photos of themselves with their found pieces is a big part of this piece of work that, all being well, will go on throughout the year.  Today several pieces were carefully places (never dropped) around East London – 365 will go out this year, that doesn’t mean one a day,  today six were left out there, tomorrow there might be more, they’ve been building up here in the studio waiting for decent weather…

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#365ArtDrop18 – 365/6, a leaf left hanging in East London

#365ArtDrop18 6/365 – A leaf or two left, the 6th of the 365 artdrop pieces of 2018, this is another of the daily concluded paintings from 2017 painted on a recycled piece of hardwood and now left on a street corner in East London for someone to take should they wish to.

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#365ArtDrop18 – 365/7, a leaf left hanging in East London

#365ArtDrop18 7/365 – A leaf left, the 7th of 365 artdrop pieces of 2018, painted on a recycled piece of hardwood and now left on a street corner on Brick Lane, East London on a busy Sunday afternoon…

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#365ArtDrop18 – 365/8, a leaf left hanging in East London

#365ArtDrop18 8/365 – A leaf left, the 8th of 365 artdrop pieces of 2018, painted on a recycled piece of hardwood and once again left on a street in East London for someone to tale should they wish to, left on Fashion Street actually, a street covered in paste up pieces…

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#365ArtDrop18 – 365/9, a leaf left hanging in East London

#365ArtDrop18 9/365 – A leaf left, the 9th of 365 artdrop pieces of 2018, painted on a recycled piece of hardwood floorboard picked up off the street in Hackney and now left back out on a street in East London for someone to tale should they wish to do just that

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#365ArtDrop18 – 365/11, a leaf or two left in East London

#365ArtDrop18 11/365 – A leaf left, the 11th of 365 artdrop pieces of 2018, painted on a recycled block of wood and now left on a window ledge on street just off Brick Lane, East London for someone to tale should they wish to (number ten is still in my bag, I expect it will find a wall tomorrow)
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#365ArtDrop18 – 365/12, a leaf left in East London

#365ArtDrop18 12/365 – A leaf left, the 12th of 365 artdrop pieces of 2018, painted on a recycled hardwood piece of floorboard, a rather big piece of board, and left hanging on a wall in East London for someone to tale should they wish to, which indeed they did, we just this second saw a photo left by someone called Kitty Kat on Instagram..

 

Click on an images to enlarge or run the fractured slide show of this Sunday’s drop action….

of dropping things, the ongoing notion of a year-long piece of work in 365 parts. 365 paintings of things found, recycled and

 

The use of the hash tags are a big part of these Art Drop pieces…

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Some of the recently hung #43ArtDrop pieces have been found, always good to see the photos, once I leave the pieces I have little idea in terms of what happens to them unless others post photos and such. The photos and the use of the hash tags are a big part of these Art Drop pieces. There’s a nice bit of coverage via the Shoreditch Street Art Tour website down underneath this first photo just “borrowed” from their website…

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Found #43ArtDrop pieces, July 2017 (photo: Dave Stuart, Shoreditch Street Art Tours)

SHOREDITCH STREET ART TOUR (July 2017) – A piece on some of the recent #43ArtDrop pieces found, “Artist Sean Worrall is renown for his generous distribution of free art in various parts of London and indeed occasionally even further afield…It is a wonderfully beautiful gesture by Sean Worrall to place these free pieces art out on the street to await their fate and we are delighted to report that this cluster of four have all gone to very appreciative homes…”  Great to see the photos of people finding the pieces, I tend to leave and so I don’t get to see…

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And here’s some of Dave Stuart’s photos, he of Shoreditch Street Art Tours, the photos are from the tour and the piece Dave wrote. The Photos of people and the use of the hashtag on the back is an important part of these Art Drop pieces, always excellent to see them posted on line

The “dropping” of the Thirteen Shelves pieces continued today…

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The Thirteen Shelves piece, a piece of work in thirteen parts, continued today…
Thirteen Shelves – October 2016. Thirteen white wooden shelves from a smashed up piece of furniture, 25cm x 35cm. Thirteen shelves, found, recycled, turned into blank canvases and saved from a Hackney skip, painted on and left hanging as #ArtDrop pieces for people to take should they wish to.  Three more of the thirteen were left hanging on walls in East London in the Autumn sunshine today

Yesterday was mostly about #ArtDrop pieces hung on East London walls….

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Fresh #ArtDrop pieces, East London, June 26th 2016

Fresh #ArtDrop pieces, East London, June 26th 2016

Yesterday was mostly about #ArtDrop pieces. Eleven pieces either freshly painted or in three of the cases, freshly layered. Eleven painted on pieces of wood found unwanted on the street, wood saved from landfill, recycled, painted on and hung on walls and fences on East London streets around Hoxton, Shoreditch, Brick Lane and Hackney’ Pieces of art left there almost hiding, left for people to take should they wish to. Each piece labeled on the back with a hash tag with people being encouraged to post photos of themselves with the pieces they have found and tell who they are.

Fresh #ArtDrop pieces, East London, June 26th 2016

I rather like it when art engages. yesterday I stood quietly and watched as a girl called Evalina curiously posed in front of a piece and against a rather colourful wall while her friend took a photo, and then wondered if she could take the piece (we did get talking in the end, once I had watched the process, I don’t usually hang around, I just happened to still be there taking my own photos). Several other people posted on social media jsut to say they had found pieces (o photos though), and this morning a posting on Facebook declared “L is officially the happiest kid in Hackney this morning. Nowt like discovering some free art on the way to school. Thanks Sean Worrall, he’s made up . .”.

Fresh #ArtDrop pieces, East London, June 26th 2016 (a piece found)

Fresh #ArtDrop pieces, East London, June 26th 2016 (a piece found)

That was yesterday. Today? We shall see what today brings, several shows next week, including the On The Brink show that’s part of the Leytonstone Arts Trail. Somebody asked me yesterday, somebody from South California who started talking to me about what I was doing (I love the way all this just causes instant conversation with strangers), he asked me if it was a reaction to art galleries, an “anti-gallery stance” (as he put it). No, I love art galleries, I love the peace and quiet of a big white walled gallery space with good lighting. I love a space where art can breathe in an uncluttered state and there are no distractions. True, I do think galleries (and the people who run galleries), on the whole, could be a lot more friendly and inviting, a lot more engaging and that sometimes art should let down that hair and smile a little more, I like that pieces of art left on the street puts people at ease, makes them what to be part of it, but no, this is not an anti-gallery statement.

Fresh #ArtDrop pieces, East London, June 26th 2016

Fresh #ArtDrop pieces, East London, June 26th 2016

Here’s some photos of the drops and the people from yesterday, click on an image to enlarge, or to run the slideshow.  .

Thorns and things at the 2016 Art Car Boot Fair….

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So the 2016 Art Car Boot Fair came and went, the rain fell, art won, we loved it. There’s a full review and a whole load of photos to be found via the Organ pages  And If these are to be the Last days of Shoreditch then the East is going down defiantly.  The  London art Calendar highlight that is the Brick Lane Art Car Boot Fair happened yesterday, the gods threw their worst at us in the form of torrential rain, gazebo-threatening wind and whatever else they had to hand, art won though, art most definitely won the day here in East London yesterday.. further reading

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Me? I love taking part in the Art Car Boot Fair, I wake up like a kid on Christmas morning, I count down the days, I love meeting people from all over the world, I’m honoured by the interest, the questions, the people who want their photos taken with the artist (although, the art itself might be a little better looking), I love meeting new people (and old friends made at previous fairs), it really is a day when art gets to let down her hair (is art a she, or a he? A day when art get to let down that sometimes messy multi-coloured sometimes out of control sometimes perfectly sculpted transsexual hair).

We do love the concentration that goes in to buying a part of the One Hundred Pieced Piece

We do love the concentration that goes in to buying a part of the One Hundred Pieced Piece

I love painting the hundred parts of the (now annual) One Hundred Pieced Piece and seeing the enthusiasm as people young and old pick out their pieces with such concentrated delight, I love the engagement that that piece of work brings, it isn’t about me, it really is a about those kids taking their time and buying their first pieces of art (and in one case one smiling little girl, haggling on price, way to go girl, four for the price of three because she’s run out of pocket money, brilliant!). Some artists (and critics) might get all sour-faced and sniffy about it, some might think it beneath them but I love it to bits, I love the chance to engage like this, I love it to bits.

Here’s a shot or two of some of the pieces (lots more photos of the day and the other artists/art over on the Organ pages).  Click on an image to enlarge or run the slide show.

43 canvas pieces for the 2016 Art Car Boot Fair…

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43 pieces, Art Car Boot Fair, 2016. Coming up this Sunday, Brick Lane, London, 12th June. A series of 43 small canvas Sometimes They Have Thorns pieces, all on sale at £10 each on the day….