Tea Time in Wonderland

Archive for the ‘L’art est dans la rue / That’s street art, baby!’ Category

The idea was so good.  Ten tree stumps, taken from rainforests, their tortured roots screaming silently towards a threatening sky, creepy shadows all around you, the ghost of a disappearing forest, far away but one day, close to you, this small of wet earth, a red, bleeding earth. the atmosphere should move you, make you shiver, shake you, upset you, make you shout no to deforestation.

I just couldn’t project myself. Too much of a daily dose of ecology? Too much a gap with the place? Too flashy the lights? Too purple the fountains around, clasing with the sadness it should have involved? Who knows. Don’t get me wrong – such projects are to be encouraged. Bring it closer to the people, make them see, reinforce the subject. it just didn’t do anything for me.

Different, educative, yes, of course. I had never imagined those trees grew higher that Nelson’s column. Makes you appreciate better the impact of any of those disappearing. Kids remain impressed by the width of the trunks.

To be seen if you’re around trafalgar square, for your green side of you, for the event, for the change of scene. maybe not worth crossing the toen, just for this. No worry, you can follow everything on the webcam.

Want to know more? Click here for the artist’s interview and there for her project…

Ghost Forest
Trafalgar square
London

Until November 22, 2009

Street art fan? Oh, you’ve been waiting for this since this summer.

You were following RJ’s blog from the start. savouring each treasure the team found.

The Thousands was launched yesterday evening – applause goes to RJ: varied, amazing, private collections, some new pieces. You can see the effots it meant tp pull such a show together and the location – deep Shoreditch, brick building – is juste perfect, just the right feeling to it, lots of space to let each work breathe and not stuff it close as in a gallery which would have killed them.

Just to wet your appetite – you just have to rush there. And since pics are worth a thousand words…

Oh, and another piece of my favourite artist, Know Hope:

Well, what else can you do but go street art hunting in the surrounding, now?

The Thousands
Village Underground
54 Holywell lane
London EC2A

Until Nov 22, 2009

A hot chocolate, a new scarf and gloves, and here you go. Plenty to see this week-end to get into the Xmas spirit. Not that you can really escape it!

- Start on Southbank – either with the Slowfood market (jazz themed this time) or the Cologne Xmas market…

- Oxford street launches its market this week as well…

- Want more? Head to Hyde Park for a walk and a big wheel ride with the Winterwonderland…

- Stop @ Covent Garden for the Lacoste experience or simply for the kids to enjoy candlelit stories…

- Head to Victoria station or Westfield to see the Cirque du soleil (and hopefully win free tickets!)…

- See another dimension in Trafalgar square with the ghost forest…

- Take the kids to the London children film festival…

- Want to make them gasp in wonder? Have a walk with them in the Enchanted forest @ Syon Park. Thousands of lights in the trees. £5 per adult, £2 per kids – quite cheap for the thrill…

- Skate at the Somerset House. Have alook at the program: Breakfast @ tiffany’s matinees and DJ evenings!

It all started last week.

London is switching her Xmas lights on,  little by little, each  one turning into a mini-party (as much for the celebration as to boost sales in the shops)…

Covent Garden chose recoving chandeliers, hypnotising…

While outside plays with blue…

Rudolph even makes an appearance…

A detour for my friend Lupin who, like me, never resists Fortnum and Masons’ displays.

A very original and elegant theme this year, the Swan’s lake…

The royal birds even remplace Santa for carrying gifts…

Very soft deco with white feathers everywhere…

Stop nearby -  the Prince’s arcade has a Victorian Xmas feeling to it…

What? You haven’t started on this shopping list yet?

London is an urban jungle.

The tube proves it. You’ll have to fight for your life at rush hour. Some passengers get so frustrated they actually bare their teeth and roar in despair. Gazelles in high heels will be speeding past you, cutting people’s way, forcing them to snake around obstacles. The doors close on sprinting commuters’ coats like crocodiles’s jaws. I recently read in Underground Facts that a unique race of mosquito actually has evolved down there!

But the wilderness will follow you right to the exit – see this elephant staring at you as get off the last escalator, on the Starbuck side of the station?

It’s been intriguing me for a while. Kendra Haste originally displayed a set of wild animals – this one, a giraffe, a rhino, a vulture and an antilope- in Gloucester Road station in 2000. What a nice change from the usual ads! Have a look here – almost ghost-like.  The structure is entirely made out of mesh wire, superposed layer after layer. Imagine – this elephant actually weighs a ton…

Pssst: look down when stopping at South Kensington. You’ll find monkeys at your feet! Continue the safari @ the Natural History Museum and its garden.

That’s it. The season has begun. Fetsive songs can  be heard as soon as you step into a shop. Mulled wine or Winter Pimm’s are being served in pubs.

Not suprising, then, that Oxford and Regent street lights should already be switched on. this year, Disney sponsors them, launching at the same time their movie with Jim Carrey.

Call me blase. Though I still feel like a child at Xmas, those just don’t make me gasp. The magic does work on my 4 year olod, though – I had to negotiate hard to drag her away from those  after 2omn!

I do prefer the Carnaby St ones. Less traditional I agree, perheaps too funky for the season, they do put a little grooves back to your day! You’ll also see plenty mini-Xmas trees in rainbow colours. The lights will be switched on next Tuesday at 18.oo… Bond Street, next Thursday, also promises to be fun.

Since you’re in that neighbourhood,, stop at Liberty’s to smile at their new windowshop. Sooooo British! And if you’re dreaming, not of a white Xmas but of a royal one, plan a visit to Portobello market.

A last smile with this robin. Too many Xmas puddings, my dear!

Some artists leave you speechless. Like Vhils or here, Conor Harrington. Street Art only seems to be an accessory in their artist set, another colour to mix and use.

With Headless heroes, Harrington plays with superposition, mixes extraordinary visual effects. A very strong imperial feeling with the refined, flashing red uniforms of the soldiers. But also trhough these ships, we can’t help thinking war ships – proud and sailing away on a stormy sea of colours. A notion of force, almost violence, power. Speed, too, through allusions to Formula 1, even through fonts used.

I read here and there he is including women for the first time. Far from bringing a soothing note, thet reinforce the idea of a male dominated world – eroticised, glossy pin-up lips, their poses remind me of bondage. Nothing shocking, each line, curve is exquisitely elegant.

Colours explode, faces fade away, each soldier could be another, unique and multiple. This is a battlefield of art too -  oil painting, glistening against the more mat finish of graffiti. Two worlds coming together, fighting, two eras, two styles – enemies who find a strange harmony in the relation ship.

Powerful and vibrant.

Lazarides
11 Rathbone Place
London W1T 1HR

Website Lazarides
Website Conor Harrington

Website de Lazarides
Website de l’artiste

Until November 26, 2009 – Free!

Stations are eternal waiting points.
One stomps their feet, waiting for that damn screen to finally show the platform number, only to have to dash there, olympic-sprint like.
One tries to kill the time while waiting for friends, victimes of the tube or life maze.

Waterloo is my usual one. Touring the shops does not take much of your time. It lacks more elegant cafe, as you could find in St Pancras, smarter lines, a little design, a little gloss. You could got to Southbank and indulge at Giraffe or Foyles but you feel it is a bit too far. Why did you decide to meet here? It seemed logical at the time.

Street art lovers will love going to Leake Street, a tunnel only 5 mn away. Banksy launched his Cans festival there in 2008. It remained one of the rare legal wall for graffers who just make the most of it. A tag will rarely stay more than a few days. Sometimes even hours. Yarnbombing even stopped there for a while. You’ll often see artists in full creation. The atmosphere is completely unreal with, very often, classical music being played by the speakers – don’t ask, the council’s idea to underline the peacefulness and artistic dimension of the place, I guess, and refute the idea, for once, of vandalism.

But if your heart beats for murals, try the Tolsky Century, again 5 mn from the station. I can see you frown, This Polish artist settled in London in 1935 and quickly becomes a war-artist-reporter. He’ll travel all around the world, from India to Arctic via Lybia, China… He has this amazing talent, which I love in Hippolyte Romain to transform a few splashes of paint into a picturesque chronicle.

In 1951, Prince Philip commissions him -  a mural for Busckingham, depicting Elisabeth II’s coronation. This gets him ticking. He first assembles a number vof drawings in a book. In 1974, he sets up his workshop here, under the bridg arches, a few steps away from Waterloo… and starts documenting the century history, his century, in ceiling high paintings. He dies in 1989, still working on it.

You’ll meet Gandhi, Picasso, Martin Luther King, Hitler, Mao, the Black Panthers… The memory of times in motion. I find his characters’ emotions intense. All this for £2. Well, you’ll be the one to be late this time…

Topolsky century
150 Hungerford Arches
Concert Hall Approach
Waterloo
London SE1 8XU

Crazy Fools? A Bristol gallery specialised in graffitis, street at and other urban arts. Including, mind you, Banksy and Blek le Rat…

So many talents. They’re in London just for a week-end, exhibiting @ The Library Bar.

Rush – there’s only today left! There’s much to discover…

Mick Hockney – very Ruscha, very pop. Direct and frank work. The artist was present at the private view – a jewel of a guy, to be followed!

Levi C – how could you resist his gift for parody? Do have a look atTheory of Devolution on his site to better smile face to the economical crisis…

Filthy Luker – you could call it street art-attack! More laughs this way!

He also transformed the building for the occasion…

Inkie - am in love with this. Elegant. Clearly Art Nouveau influenced. The lines reminds me of Mucha’s magic, there’s even some pre-raphaelism in this…

Nick Walker – stencil based with some rainbow touch…

Paul Insect – his recent work at Lazarides fascinated me. Always explosions and superpositions of colours…

Some Banksy too – three well known, two new but I’d say its not his best.

And much more to put some cheer back into this chilly week-end!

The Library Bar
235 Upper St
Islington
London N1 1RU

Sunday Oct 25, 14.00 – 22.00
Free!

Just like Alice’s white rabbit, I’m running after time this week… But, still, here are a few ideas for the week-end!

- The Natural History Museum proposes each year a splendid collection of wildife pictures.Always moving, funning or amazing. And great with kids! £9, though.

- Like religious art? Then stop at the  National Gallery see The Sacred made real: Spanish Painting and sculpture 1600-1700. Already in your boring section? Think again -  have a peek on the website. Sometimes incrediby real.

- Halloween’s coming your way: why not try ghost hunting @ the ghost festival?

- Or see live-painting and street-art at this bar…?

- On Sunday, have fun on Southbank. The Autumn Harvest Festival offers games and storytelling for kids but also a parade: a berryman, walking fruit and vegetables and even a corn queen whose dress will be made of  vegetation… Free, starting @ 12.00 in front of the Shakespeare Globe.

Me? I’ll be having a finger-licking chocolate fondue @  the’Artisan Chocolat bar close to Portobello Market…