Round Stokes Croft

Stokes Croft long ago became a bit of a Dean Lane, pointless keeping on top of with a blog, because it all changes so fast. It’s slowed down a bit recently though, and it’s been a while, so time for a bit of a snapshot as of the last week.

These boards next to the Junction are still getting some good work on them, will be a shame to see them go once the development behind them (where Mary’s shop was) finishes. Would hazard to put a name on them, but after last time, anyone want to confirm?

Above that, this piece will be passing some people by at the moment, but should look great once the scaffolding’s down. 3Dom and Voyder if memory serves.

Here’s a bit of a closer one.

The Kai et al Limited Press piece looks pretty much done now. Nice big advert for them on a main road. Shame about the scaffolding still obscuring it, guess it’s a security thing?

Further up, these boards have needed redoing for a while, especially now a bit of boards been turned round or replace on them. Someone’s done a quick character on the gap recently though, shouldn’t think it will take long for them to get redone fully.

Interesting in a way, Stokes Croft is doing really well as a result of all the work that’s being ut up around it, yet a lot of it depends on the place being run down and shops covered with boards. If the project carries on working and getting more people and businesses coming back to the area, then it will start destroying its own space for pieces and productions. It risks being a literal victim of its own success.

Incidentally, one other thing that’s gone up round the place recently are police/community safety signs warning people about CCTV, violence, and arrest amongst other things.

Photo: PRSC

Hardly cheery messages for an area that’s trying to improve its reputation as a nice place to visit right now, and according to PRSC they were put up without community consultation. Apparently a local councillor, Jon Rogers, is already on the case, but if you want to see them taken down too, it wouldn’t hurt to email him on jon.rogers AT bristol.gov.uk.

Readers Wives At Dean Lane

As mentioned before, the good guys from Guernsey have been over for the last week or so, enjoying a break and a bit of a paint.

Legal walls aren’t a noted feature of Guernsey, so here’s a bit of action from them down in Dean Lane over the weekend, Bedminster’s very own tourist attraction.

Dred

and another shot from Weapon of Choice last Tuesday, further along in the evening than this blog managed.

Paris And Xenz – Badverts For Hire

This just in from two gentlemen of the TCF. Mess with them, and they’ll let people know. First target, Stokes Croft, where the word of the badvert is straightforward to spread.

Here’s the official statement.

We warned the guy in so called “Best” Supermarket on Stokes Croft that if he ripped us off with a 68p Wispa we would write it on a wall…..

Paris & Xenz, 2009

The guy with an expensive Wispa though may have started a new public service. The statement goes on to say…

Got a gripe?, Been ripped off ? We can help, big words for hire, coming to a wall near you soon, next target, those sharks in Cartridge world….

If you have a problem, if no-one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire, the Badvert team.

Hillgrove Street Shop Painted Over

An hour or so ago the Paris pieces on Hillgrove Street were painted over. All sorts going on apparently, proper permission not sorted out, owner annoyed, Police get involved, all seems to have ended ok though.

Miss B has the more of the story.

Get Dring Mobile – The Photos

Top night down at Paintworks last night for the Get Dring Mobile auction, some great live painting outside, great music and a whole lot of bidding for a great guy. Well, bidding for art to raise money for a great guy, Mike himself of course not being for sale.

It was interesting to see how the bidding went. Some pieces were an absolute steal, other went for far more than you would ever have thought. As a wise man put it last night, ‘a picture’s only worth what someone is willing to pay for it’. Stencil work still seems to be very much in fashion with the buyerati, wonder how much longer that will last.

In total, the auction raised something like £24,500, before you count in the bar receipts, pieces that sold outside of the auction and all sorts. So well on the way to getting Mike’s car sorted then, awesome stuff.

There’s more to come still too, lots of pieces left to be sold on Ebay very soon, including a lovely Will Barras that lots of people were coveting last night, so keep an eye out.

Here’s some photos from it all then, the live painting as it went along, and the works inside the auction as well.

Boswell marking out

Paris paints his Pop Stop Shop sign

Lokey early on

Milk and Dora painting together

FLX early on

Boswell and Vermin a bit further along

Inkie earlier on

Mr Jago starting out with a roller

Mr Jago and Inkie

Eelus hangs his first stencil

Xenz with the can control

Eelus masking off another triangle

View from up high

Inkie and Jago

Mr Jago further on

Boswell and Vermin further on

Lokey on the background

More Milk and Dora

Eelus removing another layer of stencil

Xenz clouds finished

FLX nearly finished

Inkie with masking tape

Boswell and Vermin nearly done

Mr Jago nearly done

Lokey adding a silhouetted tree

Xenz finished

Inkie finished

Boswell and Vermin come back after the auction to add an ink and cider wash

Boswell and Vermin finished

Mr Jago finished

Milk and Dora Finished

Paris sign finished

Lokey finished

Sepr, decks and so on

Long wall of work

Andy Council et al

Miss Bugs, Brian Jones, etc

Xenz on its own stand

Huge Mudwig and nice Richt

Turroe, Acer, Jef Aerosol, etc

Eco, Milk, Guy Denning

The Dora that started a bidding war, top left

Very nice Mr Jago up top

That statue totally had a nob

Jody juxtaposed

Nice framing on a Nick Walker AP print

Some of the £50 work upstairs

The ‘artier’ side of things downstairs

With some of the postcards all framed up

FLX up high, above Pure Evil

Huge Will Barras

Dicy up behind the bar

Nick Walker opening the auction

Epok And Sepr At Weapon Of Choice

You’ll have probably sen this one by now, but here’s a reminder for you. Epok and Sepr opening a solo show down at the Weapon of Choice Gallery tomorrow night. Should be great, here’s the flyer.

Incidentally, the first issue of the Weapon of Choice magazine came out online yesterday, free to download, and it should be out in hard copy at the start of next week apparently. There’s interviews with Epok and Sepr in it appropriately enough, go check it out.

Weapon Of Choice, Zeke and Dred

Fun night down at Mr Wolf’s last night for Weapon of Choice, back in its usual home after the Thekla extravaganza. Painting this month were Zeke Clough from Manchester and Dred from the Reader’s Wives Collective, who are over here from Guernsey at the moment enjoying the sites and sounds of Bristol. Top blokes, say hello if you see them.

The painting was a slower and more considered affair at this one, like it sometimes is with people who haven’t spent years, or indeed any time, running around bombing illegally. Still really cool though, an interesting mix of styles, Dred’s more stylised and cheery, Zeke’s, well, giving Boswell a run for his money in darkness.

Here’s some snaps as the evening went on…

Get Dring Mobile – Now Open!

After months of planning, the day’s finally arrived. The Get Dring Mobile auction opened for viewing at 11am today, and will be open down at Paintworks until 9pm tonight. Tomorrow’s the biggy though, opens at 12pm, with live painting from Inkie, Mr Jago, Xenz, Dora, Eelus, Vermin, Milk, Boswell and Paris from 4pm, and the auction starting at 7pm. Paris’s Pop Stop has been confirmed as popping up down there too, as part of its world tour.

Don’t forget if you want to bid on any of the work to help raise funds for the legendary Mike Dring, then you have to register in advance. You can put in commission bids or bid over the web though too, so don’t let not being in Bristol put you off now will you? Here’s all the details one last time…

A full pdf document and lot listing can also be found on the Dreweatts web-site at http://www.dnfa.com/auctions.asp?view=saledetails&aucno=20372&avail=1 where commission bids can also be placed.

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Get signed up to bid as per below

FULL BIDDING DETAILS

1: Bidding at the event

To bid at the event you need to register and be assigned a paddle number this can be done at the venue during the viewing days (14th & 15th October) or prior to this be emailing the following details to getdringmobile@live.co.uk

Full name including title
Full address including postcode
Telephone number
E-mail address
Date of birth
How you heard about the auction

Once this is received we will inform you of your paddle number – the paddle then needs to be collected from the registration tables at the entrance of the Paintworks.

You cannot bid live in the room without a paddle.

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2: Commission / Absentee Bidding

If you are unable to attend the auction you can place a commission bid, you will need to register to place a commission (please refer to section 1). Once you have registered you can bid by e-mailing
your paddle number, the lot numbers and your maximum bids for each lot.

We will also require valid credit / debit card details – if you prefer not to e-mail these then please contact us on 07789 971273 and we will take them over the phone. We will send you a copy of you bid and and the terms and and conditions.

The auctioneer will then execute bids on your behalf and will undertake to purchase the lots as cheaply as allowed for by other bids and reserves and bidding increments. Winning commission bids will be charged so please ensure your bid is serious.

A full pdf document and lot listing can also be found on the Dreweatts web-site at http://www.dnfa.com/auctions.asp?view=saledetails&aucno=20372&avail=1 where commission bids can also be placed.

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3: Live on-line bidding

A full catalogue listing is also available at http://www.the-saleroom.com/Catalogues/List.aspx?eventId=2777325, where you can listen to the auction live and bid on-line. To do this please follow the registration details on the-saleroom web-site.

Should be a great night tomorrow night. Get down there!

Nick Walker – Wayz Of The Dragon

This has needed sharing for a while, so thanks to Full Cycle for the permission to blog it.

Back in 1998, after all the fun of the Mercury Music Prize and world tours, the good chaps from Reprazent did something a bit different, putting out an album under different names, collectively under the Dope Dragon label. It was launched round the start of June at Powerhouse (as was) down at the bottom of Stokes Croft, with the artwork from the album being projected onto the walls during the night, and a pretty large night it was too.

The artwork’s relevant to the blog though, because it was all done by Nick Walker, not just the cover, but also the CD insert and a special comic to go with it, with the DJs in it represented as cartoon characters. There was a 12″ version of it which must have looked great, but this work’s from the CD version.

So, possibly for the first time on the web, here’s what it was all about artwork wise.

The front cover…

…and back.

The CD came in an insert, with track listings and so on.

The inner comic folded out, and started with this as background for it all.

Here’s the comic stiched together, it’s big (3mb or so each one), so don’t download if you’re on your phone or whatever. As ever, click for bigger.

Side 2

Finally, it you fancy checking out what Full Cycle was offering in the way of merchandise back in 1998 too, there was this at the end of the comic.

So, a big load of tidy work from Nick Walker a fair old time ago. You can still find copies of the album for sale online, but it can cost a fair bit now. So if you want to have a listen, someone’s put all of it up on Youtube here. It’s all pretty bassy and experimental, but this blog would start with this one for something to wobble your legs to.

Enjoy!

Paris’s Pop Stop

Fun night on Thursday, down at Paris’s Pop Stop down on the Gloucester Road. The old Friend and Co Gallery’s only a small place obviously, but it was really interesting to see a wide selection of Paris’s work. Bit of a mix really, from these isometric marker pen drawings….

…to these oil and acrylic ones…

…to this old one from back in 2001.

Nothing priced up, not about the selling really, but one of the most interesting bits was Paris digging in the crates for old photos, like these three, the first piece done by Paris and Xenz in 1988, the first Fantastic Super Heroes piece done in Bristol in 1997, and the first TCF piece done, back  in 1990. You can’t really see them from this photo, go in and see them yourself.

Outside, Paris was selling various things, stickers and fanzines of old photos. There’s going to be quite a few of them done in the future, bringing back the way graf used to be shared and communicated with people before the interweb turned up. Well worth getting your hands  them if you can, they’re proper little history books.

It’s going to be there for a bit, it’s open today in fact, and there will be other shows popping up in the future, so keep an eye on the blog for it all…