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.

God Help Us - It's Ronzo

all photos: NoLionsInEngland







Slightly disappointed with the location of this one. My first reaction was this should be located somewhere that spoke more of the nearby Square Mile of profit hungry soul destroyers. Instead, it’s pretty much at the entrance to the yard housing his studio, a fact he can hardly hide given the number of times he has been seen outdoors applying finishing touches to super-sized Ronzo bugs and monsters.









Then I realised that this spot is also a portal to the dingy alley which leads past the new location of Crunchie the credit crunch monster, recently displaced from its elevated position overlooking the den of indulgent economic greed in the City. Perhaps my dis-satisfaction with the location of this new little sculpture is merely a manifestation of my disappointment with the neutered irrelevance of crunchie’s new nest. It now munches its coins while overlooking the organic craft stalls and pop-up cantinas selling any foreign cuisine you like so long as it comes with rice or in pitta.









And why is he now pink? Is Ronzo savagely fingering the gay economy?





The latin motto cast into the new Ronzo coat of arms is open to a number of translations. Domine adiuva nos speaks of a master, god or leader, whose protection, aid or favours we seek. In other words......”Lord help us! City of Ronzo”





Let's look on the bright side, it’s still a new street Ronzo which is usually a good thing and if you doubt us, check out his 2009 Crunchie campaign which was truly top notch.







P.S - Crunchie The Great in his original location:

Crunchy: The Ronzo Credit Crunch Monster

subtitle -"Hurrah, its not about Banksy or Robbo"

photos: NoLionsInEngland and Howaboutno except where stated


Pinpointing the beginning of the credit crunch depends for most of us on personal factors such whether you read your paper from the back to the front or the moment of hard impact such as loss of the McJob. Ronzo reacted to the credit crunch in about March last year with a massive economy devouring sculpture at the edge of the City.


Ronzo Credit Crunch monster, 2009



He now responds to the announcement last week that the recession is officially over by launching a small army of Crunchy, his Credit Crunch monsters around the ancient portals to the City of London.


Crunchy by Ronzo, Feb 2010



People not familiar with London may need to know that the City of London is a comparatively small square mile of suited financial chicanery at the centre of the metropolis of London and indeed, the whole developed World. The City of London is actually the original area where London was founded and before Styrofoam coffee cups and Flaming Lambourgini’s were discovered, the City of London was a walled city with 7 gated access points, commemorated still by areas bearing their names such as Aldegate, Ludgate, Moorgate and so on. The main roads into the City at those points are now protected by a fenn of dragon statues (not Griffins, Graffoto regrets to inform those who cherish that myth).


City of London Dragon, photo by xynt4x


Graffoto located a few of the Ronzo credit crunch monster sentinels this afternoon. Apart from one example that we know of, Crunchy sits on a 3 foot high pedestal bearing close resemblance to the permanent Corporation of London dragons installed mainly in the 1960s. The “Pity Of London” slogan is a mocking mash-up of the “City Of London” wording of the conventional dragon plinths.


Crunchy by Ronzo, Feb 2010


Ronzo fixes his sculptures in place by drilling into the pavement and installing masonry bolts, a technique he has used successfully in the past. Anyone wandering around Shoreditch staring at their feet and let’s face it, the place isn’t lacking for emos, may have chanced upon small cement frogs drilled into the pavement. For sure at least two of these three inch high petrified amphibians survive to this day though they bear deep scars as evidence of determined but doomed efforts to remove them.


Ronzo Frog – photo HowAbouto



Sadly, in the case of the credit crunch monster at Bishopsgate these precautions weren’t enough to prevent either the purloining or buffing, who knows which.




Crunchy is a slavering ganged saber-toothed derivative of a beast which has featured in a number of Ronzo works over the years.


Cans II - Photo HowAboutNo



Credit Crunch Monster Attacks


One fascinating relic displayed at a stolen Space drawing show in late 2008 was a scruffy piece of A4 which contained details of Ronzo’s planning for locations and drilling requirements for the plague of frogs in 2007. Graffoto also found aconcrete playstation casting on the floor in Commercial Street but has never established whether it was Ronzo or a copiest.





Although Ronzo’s website says this installation of Credit Crunch monsters is in celebration of the end of the recession, we like to think that unlike the dragon his tongue is firmly in his cheek. Surely Crunchy looks like he is still on the rampage, devouring coins and economies. Although the plinth mounted Crunchy further up this writing is clearly showing his arse to the gateway dragon, the Crunchy on Bishopsgate was directly facing the dragon on the other side of the road and we prefer to see him as a threat, Crunchy saying that he hasn’t finished his meal of half-baked economy, he shall return.



ps – a “Fenn” of dragons is the correct term according to Little Miss NoLions and she should bloody know.