It’s been one hell of a while. How’ve you been? I’ve taken a few months away from my career as it was getting to the point at which there was very little going on in my life besides the entire week spent at work and then weekends dedicated to complaining about work. So far, this break has largely consisted of elongated periods at home, playing computer games, reading the news, eating, drinking, and sleeping. Not a bad life by any stretch, but it didn’t take long before having nothing to do sent me half mad and I thought it a constructive idea to get back into my old hobbies.

As such, on Friday, I hopped a train to East London to see what I’ve been missing when it comes to street art.

After an hour of wandering and taking pictures, two significant changes in the culture (?) were apparent since my last visit. Firstly, the increase of fly-posted works compared to spray painted pieces. There are several possible explanations for this, which I won’t go into to any particular depth here, only to speculate that it could certainly be related to the investment of time and effort required to make a single sprayed piece compared to mass printed posters and the high likelihood that any work put up these days faces almost immediate defacement. There are a great many people who would contest that street art is already in an of itself an act of vandalism and should therefore be immediately removed. If anything you put up is going to be destroyed, surely it makes sense to have back-ups. Also,  if you increase the quantity of works on display, you increase the chance that people will see them.

The other thing I noticed was the considerable increase in volume of pieces with an overtly political nature about them. In a time when almost every aspect of life has been politicised ad nauseum, this is of no great surprise. As I’ve previously stated, my posting of an image of a work with a particular political slant is by no means an endorsement of that message. If I’m honest, I‘m quite fed up with how saturated with politics everything has become. Then again, some would say that this is in and of itself a political statement, so I can’t win.

Any piece of art, whether by design or not, contains within it some element of social commentary. Street art is no exception, and the popularity of an artist like Banksy – undoubtedly the most famous graffiti artist in the world – is in no small part due to how effectively the political and social commentary contained in his work resonates with the public. 

Anyway, that’s enough waxing lyrical, take a look at what I was able to find and tell me what you think in the comments.

London Street Art

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The Misionary Position