Graffoto Round Up of the Year - Part 4

Photos by HowAboutNo and NoLionsInEngland


And here we have it folks, part 4 of 4 in the round up of 2011.

This final look at the year now covers September all the way through to the end of December. Being that it was mild for the time of year, and there were a shed load of art festivals and paint jams in town, the surrounding areas had a nice smattering too.

Street art pastes and stencils seemed to be out of the window for pretty much most of this quarter, and I think that was also a big shift for the year. Good to see more talented artists grafting it at the side of a wall. Also nice to see lots of quick and dirty damage throughout town.


Rowdy/Horror, photo HowAboutNo



Rusht, photo HowAboutNo



Shane ODV, photo HowAboutNo



Roid MSK, photo HowAboutNo



D*Face in progress outside the Moniker Art Fair, photo HowAboutNo



And completed, photo HowAboutNo



Various, photo HowAboutNo



Gold Peg, photo HowAboutNo



A solid year for the machine of graff that is Probs. Think this is my fave piece he has done ever. (photo HowAboutNo)



I think we'll see a bit more of JimmyC in 2011 (photo HowAboutNo)



Motor, photo HowAboutNo



C215, photo HowAboutNo


, photo HowAboutNo


2011 was the year Ronzo turned his hand away from sculpted pieces to graff.....and a welcome turn it was. This piece painted with Conor Harrington


photo HowAboutNo


Evol impressively buggered about with scale this set of blocks making up a mini housing estate complete with Elk, Drax and Shun tags. Read more about his visit here


photo HowAboutNo


Banksy did quite a few street pieces, all outside Soreitch - consequently I didn't get off my lazy arse to photograph them. No bother, this was my favourite thing he did all year anyway.


General and most lovely damage . . . (photo HowAboutNo)



Swoon, photo HowAboutNo



This superb paste up by Gaia lasted no more than a few days and was fly posted over (photo HowAboutNo).



Revok/Roid at the most single hit "legal" spot in Shoreditch (photo HowAboutNo).


Don’t believe the nay-sayers saying the scene has tanked, looking back we have been overwhelmed with top quality shit on the streets of London in 2011. Stuff that should have got a mention earlier but just got missed in the admittedly random selection process includes:

Phlegm was down several times during the year


photo: NoLionsInEngland


One of the highlights of the year was the privilege of seeing Sweet Toof and Paul Insect collaborate on this stunning rooftop piece, and in case you missed it, the timelapse is here


photo: NoLionsInEngland


Elbow Toe


photo: NoLionsInEngland


This Chu sticker made us chuckle earlier in the year


photo: NoLionsInEngland


So that's it for Graffoto's round up of the action in 2011. At the beggining and at lots of points throughout the year it did seem like it was stale and not moving anywhere. Part of wanting to look back at the year at the begginging of a new one has shown that it was a busy and colourful year, full of lots of new names and techniques and people to watch in 2012.


The shift also seemed to go towards lots more "with permission" spots last year, I guess a big test for those shutters and areas may fall closer to Olympics time, when the council may decide to buff at random for no reason whatsoever.

Happy 2012. Fuck The Buff.

Black/Light - Roa, Phlegm, Robots

Bussey Building, Peckham Rye, London, SE1 54ST

25th Feb – 5th March 2011

All photos: NoLionsInEngland


Headed way down South of the river last night, really far south off the map in Peckam for this week’s Roa show alongside Phlegm and Robots. Roa is up everywhere but this was my first encounter with the wizardry of Phlegm.

Roa hardly needs introduction, his epic birds and beasts display feathers, veins, innards and bones on many London Wall. He rarely does small.




In case you missed his first London solo gig, read a graffito snapshot here

Plegm however is long established, prolific up North and around the continent but rarely if ever sighted in the capital. He has a similar monochromatic palate to Roa, he is more suited to older crumbling walls and the insides of derelict buildings, not unlike Roa and it is easily to see why artistically he works well paired alongside Roa.




The venue starts with a claustrophobic courtyard at the end of a long passage off Rye Lane. The lumpy and irregular lighting, random shape, the ancient brickwork and the looming tower of a workhouse-like building create a classic environment for these two to populate with enormous beasts, skinny people and a Phlegm trademark wobbly looking glass. The building was “when it was built, one of Peckham’s tallest buildings”, according to the web, a wildly extravagant claim to fame it struggles hard to live up to.




Strobing trains rumble past every few minutes making the painted figures leap around the walls like a flickering gothic horror story. Like a bizarre fairytale fabricated to scare the living nightmares out of the kids, this enclosed urban canvas creates the sense one might be trapped inside a walled castle with radiated zombie animals and sundry carcasses for company.




Inside the building, 10 flights of footstep echoing institutional stone stairs and through a heavy pair of dog-legged curtains brings you into a blacked out timber floored loft space commandeered by Phlegm and Robots. The door staff offer you hand held torches on the way in, health and safety obviously forbids that you should blunder around in the dark and bump your head.

Three coarse built but imaginatively fabricated wooden man-robots spread arms and link hands to tower over the cautiously stepping observers. A Phleg wall painting with an added out-of-scale 3D townscape emits eerie and un-nerving rings and ticks. The town appears to be carried of the back of a Phlegm figure who appears to be cradling a prismatic multi-faceted abstract geometric cloud in his hands. The work of both artists combines in a sinister and yet satisfyingly threatening way. The Robots have more than just a touch of the wickerman about them and the scrawny hooded Phlegm figure looks like a fugitive from a post apocalyptic mutant zone.




Neither handheld cameras nor flash photography could convey anything like the mood of this creepy dark installation, so no photos, sorry.

Trying to feel your away around this without the torch is recommended, enjoyment and wonder grows as eyes get accustomed to the dark and in the meantime, enjoy the fun of accidently bumping into other timidly tip-toeing creatures. More art experiences should provide this kind of accidental tactile encounter.



A note on practicalities, the flyer talks of 4 nights of art, bands and such and apparently you’ll get stiffed with a cover charge in the evenings. It’s not clear if the place is open for free viewing before the ents start. Perhaps email them to enquire because it’s a bloody long way to venture from civilised parts.