Slight Return With A Few Shows

As happens occasionally, real life has got in the way of blogging. Sorry about that, doubly annoying as there’s lots of good stuff on at the moment.

First up, the Burning Candy show opens tonight down at the Emporium on Stokes Croft. Should be great, and alongside it, the building next to Metropolis on Cheltenham Road has just has a load of scaffolding and sheeting removed to reveal a huge Burning Candy production over the whole thing. Looks great, but can’t find any photos on the web as yet, so if someone happens to get some and wants to send them in, that would be very cool indeed.

If you fancy something on more of an arty tip this evening though, then Andy Council’s doing a talk about his work down at the Watershed tonight, which should be pretty darn interesting.

Looking ahead a bit further, Acer’s keeping on a roll, and has got a photography show organised at the Golden Lion further up the Gloucester Road with Okermedia.

It opens this Saturday (7th November) with free entry and music from saxaphonist James Morton (collaborator with peewee ellis and fred wesley of the JBs), so should be a top night all round.

More blogging soon. Promise. In the meantime, if anyone’s got stuff they want blogging, do send it on it.

Burning Candy Show At The Emporium Next Thursday

Now this looks a bit special, a Burning Candy group show at The Emporium down on Stokes Croft. Opening a week today, and only open for a short time, there’s going to be work in there from the whole Burning Candy crew.

Here’s the chat…

SOME RAW BUSINESS : Feat – Cept, Cyclops, Dscreet, Gold Peg, LL Brainwash, Mighty Monkey, Rowdy, Sweet Toof and Tek 33

Opening Night – Nov 5th, 6- 10 pm then daily 12 – 7pm till Nov 9th

This Bonfire night Burning Candy, the UK’s foremost Savant Garde autistic spectrum graffiti crew, come together to set aflame and pay respect to the memory of Guido Fawkes…..the guy with the right idea.
Expect fireworks, sweet stuff and some jazzy painting.

If you like looking at slightly creepy artwork, or you’ve ever admired that enormous skull, tooth, crocodile combo atop Wetmoreland house, come along. Bring some sparklers!!!

BC, or Burning Candy, or Before Chrome comprises old school writers, lovers, fighters, anthropologists, ice cream rocking queens, Royal Acedemicians, film makers and anarcho croc rockers.

Born in bombed out East London, BC has spread across the world, from Sweden to Bombay and from Paris to Bangkok, bringing a new, colourful and free visual aesthetic to the world of graffiti.

Collected by Saatchi, hung in the Tate modern, still smashing the streets. 2009 BC
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The Emporium, 37 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3PY

Kid Zoom, Vermin and Remo On Stokes Croft

The boards down the road may be black, but a more interesting darkness went up further up the road over the weekend. The kind of work that’s had people getting in touch asking who it’s by.

So ta to Vermin for the pic, It’s by Kid Zoom from Australia, Vermin from round these parts ish, and a stencil by Remo, also from Australia. Nice big pic, as revelealed by clicking on it.

There’s a new Petro piece on the shutters of the shop by Turbo Island on Jamaica Street too, but as with this time of year, the shutters are only down when it’s dark. Worth a look if you’re round that way though.

Hillgrove Street Boards Black Again

After them getting repainted again a couple of weeks ago with a more political message than normal, it seems the Hillgrove Street boards have been repainted black again. Not got a photo, but you all know what they look like when black by now.

Seems it might have been at the owner’s request though, apparently he was heard shouting “This is not a free painting space anymore”. Feel sorry for the bloke in a way, he tries to do something good to help brighten up the local community and ends up in a world of hassle between the council, painters and police.

Given the last work done on there (in the link above) wasn’t done with permission initially, perhaps Stokes Croft needs a system of signs giving the status of each painting wall there. Those that are open to paint whenever, those that need permission and those that are off limits. Not in the spirit of graf, but then Stokes Croft is more ‘Street Art’ these days anyway isn’t it. Just a thought, feel free to flame it in the comments!

Friend And Co Show Photos

So then, as promised yesterday, here’s some photos of what’s in the Friend and Co show in their new gallery, opening as this post goes live. These photos are from yesterday, so you’ll have to get down there to see the pieces in situ, including the Will Barras, along with all the prints too. But here’s a taste if you want to check it out from the comfort of home first.

Xenz tiles

Xenz fireguard

Xenz birds on gold

Xenz birds on blue

Hand drawn framed Mudwig

Mudwig framed guy with no face

Mudwig framed chopped dog

Framed Mr Jago Tryptych

Smaller Eine piece

Another smaller Eine piece

Big Eine piece

Big Mr Jago

Big framed Xenz

Paris At Park Row Mack Daddys

Mack Daddys has long been known for its artwork inside the shops from some of Bristol’s best. Now Paris has taken the Park Row one to the outside as well with this fine work…

Bit closer on the wall.

It’s a pretty colourless area round there really, so nice to see this makes a nice change. Still love them letters with landscapes in too.

Weapon Of Choice Magazine Launch Party Tonight

It’s been online for a short while now, but tonight’s the formal launch party for Weapon of Choice magazine, a new venture from the good people at WOC. Here’s the chat…

Though the magazine has been in circulation and available online, we thought we’d host a little party at the WoC Gallery in celebration of launching this new Bristol arts magazine.

With live painting from some of the magazines featured artist’s such as ANDY COUNCIL, DYLAN SHIPLEY & LORENZO! And of course your chance to pick up your free copy of Issue 1

Issue 1 includes artwork from: SickBoy, Stanley Donwood, Lokey, Dylan Shipley, Soker, Turroe, Eko, JODY, DORA, 45rpm, Haka & many more…

ALSO interviews with Task Force, Epok & Sepr, Nikill AND… Design and WIN your own pair of Pumas

It’s just up the road from the new Friend and Co place too of course, so it’s party central down St Michael’s Hill/Park Row way this evening. If you want to have a read of the magazine online beforehand, then you can download a copy here.

Friend And Co – New Gallery Preview

So, after a cracking run of shows, the world’s smallest gallery moves to a bigger location finally, up where Level nightclub used to be on Park Row. Level was huge, but over the last couple of years since it was closed, they’ve completely changed the building to make loads of flats, so the space Friend and Co have isn’t gargantuan to be fair. It’s all having the finishing touches put to it right now, so here’s what you’ll see if you go before tomorrow night.

But here’s the space they’re using, well before anything was put together. Well, most of it, there’s more space (and the all essential gallery toilet at last) behind this photo too.

So, as usual, the full photos of the pieces in there are going to go live on here when doors open at 7pm tomorrow (Friday) night, but it really is going to be special this one. A bunch of top people putting some of their best and latest work into a carefully constructed show. Here’s some slightly cryptic close ups of what’s there.

Eine…

…Mr Jago…

…Mudwig…

…Xenz…

This show’s got Will Barras in it too, but his work hadn’t arrived yet earlier. Some may guess why.

Incidentally, this show’s also got a shed load of prints in from the people involved. A photo of the Xenz one has hit the web already, but it’s not really of the finished thing. It’s going to be done on a range of different papers and so on, as Xenz tends to do, so this photo’s just a bit of a work in progress on the Screen One racks really.

There’s a small book put together to go with it too, lots of different images from the people in the show, but not photos of pieces in it. Well worth getting your hands on, here’s a section of a Will Barras image from it.

So, there y’go. Opening night tomorrow night, do get on down if you can.

If you can’t though, Saturday’s worth going down for too, as ‘Beak’ are holding a live album launch at the gallery. You probably haven’t heard of them, but it’s a new project from Geoff Barrow (Portishead), Matt Williams (Team Brick) and Billy Fuller (Fuzz Against Junk). Should be great given the line up, here’s the flyer.

Art And Sound Book Launch

It’s the official launch of the ‘Art and Sound of the Bristol Underground‘ book tonight down at the Arnolfini if you fancy it. The authors will be signing copies, there’s a bar (obviously), and Krissy Kris, one of the DJs from the book, will be playing some tunes too. 6-11pm, free entry, what’s not to like?

Painting Down The Bearpit – The Results

Blogged it happening before, but didn’t get a chance to go back and get photos of the finished thing for a while. Nice big mural down in the Bearpit (St James Barton Roundabout for those abroad), proving that there might yet be hope for brightening up one of the most run down parts of the centre.

Really nice work, fits in with all the wildflowers that were planted down there a couple of years back, apparently by the council surprisingly. They’ve gone over a bit now, but should look even better next summer.

Bit of detail on the bees…

…and on the other side. Spot Stokes Croft in there.

And the credits, some names you may recognise, and perhaps not expect to be doing this sort of stuff.

Nice work. Hope it’s just the start of doing something to brighten that place up and encourage people to use it more, rather than just trying to design out people congregating there (check the individual metal seats next time you’re there. They look absurd).