11.04.2020

The graffiti has recently taken on an existential bent. Even the most primitive scrawls suddenly seem profound.

Take this for example.

I believe this appeared during the early stages of reality collapse. Back when things seemed normal, when we thought this shop was selling perfume.

 Back when people were still stabbing each other in streets.

And street art didn’t get much more insightful than this.

Capitalism was still functioning well.

People lived, loved, laughed.

Most of all their country.

Good old days.

Anyway, this has been an evolving work. Someone seems to have painted over certain letters, but the artist has returned making their original point even more powerful.

I’m not being facetious when I say I think this is a masterpiece of economic communication. It’s one word, that some kid probably thought sounded cool, but every attribute conveys meaning. There’s nothing superfluous about it. It’s site specific, located at the end of a dead end street, sorrow is stopping you get anywhere, it’s a brick wall you smash into. The letters distance from each other talks about solitude, isolation, alienation and the wobbly form of the letters speaks of frailty, uncertainty, weakness maybe. Vulnerability. And the fly tipped mattress near by adds to the atmosphere of the piece beautifully. Even the missing R on the second iteration tells us about loss and alienation. It’s like a primitive roar of discontent. Who can say what the artist intended, but it reads like a very good representation of how people are feeling at the moment.

And this is fantastic. When I was younger people used to write tags, or do bigger more ornate pieces known as dubs, of made up words. A kid round the corner from where I grew up, the son of a nice man who ran an off licence used to write ZAIN everywhere. He got caught and was charged something like half a million pound damages which ruined his poor father. The shop is flats now I think. The paradoxical, post modern, nihilistic wit of this work is brilliant. It really seems like the kids doing graffiti round here now are really thinking at a higher level and taking their work seriously.

This was in Wapping, a much more middle, or even upper class area, just next to a Waitrose. Still very relevant, thanks for the solidarity. Maybe a few landlords will see it.

There’s a fervent Christian artist round our way too. I think it’s the same person who made the pieces on the old mortuary in the park I put photos of up the other day. The FREE JULIAN ASSANGE was there previously, but I think the crucifix over the alcove, or door, is new. Maybe it’s referencing the cave Jesus’ body was resurrected from after he died on the cross. I’m not sure what the birds represent. But it seems like a nice sentiment.

These are all great, don’t all make literal sense, but perfect figurative sense.

This sticker is nice too. I’ve seen a lot more of this kind of anti capitalist work going up recently. This was on the corner of Kingsway and High Holborn, about a month ago. Last week of my course before the virus shit really hit the fan.

Can’t remember where this was.

I shared this the other day. I saw it on the corner of Camden Road and Holloway Road. Again, I really like the way the execution adds to the meaning. The drippy sprayed on paint, and distorted words look quite horrific. It looks rushed, not much care taken over it, like an angry person really just wants to get this message out. Although it’s possible it’s just a word someone thinks looks and sounds cool. Who knows.

This is a simple message of support and solidarity, all the better for its lack of fuss.

I don’t know who’s behind these bill poster messages. I suppose brands aren’t really doing any ads, so media companies are making their own messages.

These lovely messages make me think the current crop of young kids are going to grow up to be good socialists.

Meanwhile, the government attempts to reassure us are the most terrifying of all. If I asked a set builder to mock up a horrific image of dystopian London, it would look exactly like this.

I saw this on Commercial Road, up the Limehouse end. It struck me as odd that we are now living in a reality that used to be a game played for fun.

I would love to get an art critic or a psychologist to analyse this work.

Abandoned public realm services building 

I saw most of it walking the dog up to Limehouse yesterday. We wanted to go a bit further but there were so many smug arseholes in lycra on racing bikes, or ‘wavy’ bucket hats, that it was impossible to stay 2 meters away. We really don’t want this virus so we walked home.

On the way back, about a mile walk down Commercial Road, which to be fair, is probably the main route between the Royal London, the largest hospital in Europe, and the Nightingale field hospital at the ExCel centre (apparently one of the biggest in the world), over about ten minutes, including a wait outside this unusually bountiful shop, I saw eight ambulances. That’s not normal. Makes me think of that prick the other day who said it was all nonsense.

And yesterday we had 980 hospital deaths in the UK. It’s awful. We have the highest daily deaths in Europe. On that day, this was the front page of the Sun (the day after the previous highest daily toll in Europe). It’s been Boris on the front pages every day for about five days, meanwhile people are really suffering.

Matt Hancock took the daily government update yesterday. He said there was enough personal protective equipment if only the people who need to use it did. Already shifting the blame for the shortages to the people actually risking their lives to fight the virus. A reporter asked the chief nurse how many members of NHS staff died. She said it would be inappropriate to say. I think she meant inconvenient.

Today’s just another day in.

The Ritalin is really starting to work though. I got up early, walked the dog, taped up any holes the mice might be getting in, shaved my head with my beard trimmer, cleaned the bathroom, cleaned the bedroom, washed the windows and wrote this blog. Just achieving one of those things would have been difficult and stressful before. People with normal brains have it so easy!

 The problem with taping up al the mouse holes was that one mouse remained, stranded without escape. We attempted a home made humane mouse trap by putting peanut butter on the end of a spoon over a bucket, so when mousey gets the grub, it’ll fall into the pot and we can release it outside. That didn’t really work, so we left the balcony door open and built a barrier to encourage it to leave. I announced to the mouse we appreciated his visit and valued his company, but it was time to go, like you’re supposed to do with poltergeists. Hopefully he got the message.

British food has really improved in the last few years. 

Stay well folks.