Invasion

Caught sight of this nestled 'space invader' and after having read about the artist was buzzed to see one first hand. And those who are aware of my mosaicial tendencies will understand that I regard the confluence of this ancient art form with a contemporary graffitti aesthetic as a wonderful thing. It turns out that Invader, as the clandestine originator is known, also sells DIY kits. So maybe its not an original, found as it was on a college campus that figures, but does it even matter?

Colour me good

Strolling along this morning and saw these little multi-coloured dribbles of paint. Not sure how they came to be here but they add a little bit of paintery interest and of course the classic combination of organic forms and straight lines immediately start to suggest ideas about balance and composition. So you can imagine my surprise when casting my eyes 'back and to the left' of this scene an interior wall was revealled by the demolition on a freshly cleared site, now left as waste ground.

It is always fascinating when the domestic inside of buildings spill out, often witnessed in the media during natural disasters. This dramatic black paint splatter remains ambiguous as to whether it was lived with before, or appeared after the walls were peeled back. Next door to it a charming red rectangle, peeling away in sympathy with the layers below it, prompts thoughts about how it came to be, if not applied by an Russian constructivist. The field it floats on has a wonderfully sublte tonal history and the second rectangle in the bottom right hand corner balances the whole richly detailed surface.

The encounter put a smile on my face and convinced me that we benefit from such touches of colour and painterly applications that become part of our experience of the urban landscape and which seem belong and add depth and variety - rather than detract from their setting.

What's my number?

Our begrudging love affair with numbers seems to grow as our literary pretentions decline, at least that is the argument I am illustrating with this card I found in a news agents the other day. It's all about the numbers, with just a few words inserted to join them up. The big question is does it work? Can we sit three angry men down on it and watch as a calm descends? And what colour is it? Probably rainbow. Wow! Never seen one of them before.

I'm likin' 112 Unit 6 particularly for it's home made, improvised feel. It's bespoke yet fails to display ideally in the alloted space, but I don't think that interferes with it doing its job, it will probably last years. I think we have another writing/number dichotomy going on though. The text is done very nicely and sits well, computer style font in a handmade stylee. And while the colour palette has its own logic the numbers are simply not pleasing and badly executed.

And at the top, this is how it shoulde be done. Or is it? It is Number 1 in so many ways, clear, crisp, unambiguous and very, very functional. Ok, it lacks character but look closely and there is still something funny going on here, seems somehow wonky and ultimately unsatisfying. The search continues for a perfectly harmonious letter/figure love-in.

Letter writing no dying art

Been finding some lovely semi-official looking text entries lately. The mysterious siino.cl.co remains an enigma, neatly anchoring a freshly painted alley that features a creme top with brick pattern and smart black skirt. My fanciful idea is it's a calling card for the firm of decorators who've done the job and they are diggin' the urban vernacular stencil aesthetic. Not sure, bit obscure.


Sitting in a freshly scrubbed patch on a vibrant purple wall WALEX screams out at us. But can this really be an ambient media campaign for the sanitary ware producers? That is stretching even my vivid imagination. Vivid it is though and 10 out of 10 for the colour combo, whoever you are.


Cheap (and nasty) caught my eye for it's noisy pixellated blur round the lettering (barely visible here unfortunately). Intentional, careless scaling or happy accident that sparks a new trend in corporate design, we are yet to see. As each of the groups of lettering were buzzed by the equivalent of Pig Pen's dusty fly-ridden halo I was sucked in by the simple use of shocking pink and fuzzy edges.


And so say brother Nathan...

It was a very Bad Day for Umbrellas

Jesus!!! In the space of a twenty minute walk I saw them piled up like turnips at the market, so many dead and dying brolleys scatered around the place there should have been a spooky mist and the occasional thud of distant heavy artillery. Ok, as usual I exagerate but there were definately more than usual, make no mistake it was windy, oh yes. But you're gonna know, arent you, on a very windy day, well my old brolleys gonna get torn to pieces, probably better not use it??!! Ok, these unlucky examples skipped the level one risk assessment and gave way to the contemporary trend of 'if it's broke don't fix it chuck it and go pound shop dont give a fockism'.


So in reverse order, also ran no 4 - City brolley, all sins are the same under the cloak of universal black, could be anyones, almost bin bag like, my hairs gonna be messed up for my meeting at 10, I work in the financial, quarter flung down in disgust with it's tentacles trailing, just another statistic.


Coming in at no. 3, found it in the hall of my shared house, probably no-ones if you accept the moral collective ownership of free gift, value-less easy come, easy go goodbye brolley-ist philoshophy. This failed spectacularly and was flung down without a second thought, it's stem seemed sturdy, its fate sealed by a stong gust.


No. 2 has got fighting spirit, down but not out. Striving to find a way out of this hell hole Corporation bin and, hope upon hope, be rescued by a 'nothing wrong with that, found it in a bin, lasted me for years' type citizen. It's pure invitation is almost propositional, pull my handle and I'm yours it seems to be saying. Nearly a winner.


Not to be outdone on this occasion is the pure and simple classic, landed from a great height (could have been outer space judging by the devasation and the 'splatter pattern' of this unfortunate) red and white, given up all hope. Looks very Chinese Shipping Container, cheap as you like, cracker quality. It is devastated, grandad couldn't take this to his shed and fix it up and make it as good as knew. It wasn't good when it was new. Its fucked to pieces. Its flung down like a WWF loser at the end of the show, it's a flat chested wet t-shirt with a wonky shaft, say no more.