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Wednesday 4 December 2013

Wall Art in Portsmouth and Southsea

  I'm not one of life's travellers. Some bloggers are out there trekking around the world, watching the sunrise from the mountains of Peru, drinking tea with Tuaregs, dancing on a beach in the moonlight...that sort of thing. And good luck to them.
Me? I'd rather stay home with a good book and a plate of nice biscuits.
Still, in my own small way I do a spot of exploring from time to time. Instead of going left to go home, I'll go right. I'll suddenly decide to see what's down the little alley I've walked past a hundred times. Sometimes it's fun to see what happens when you go the long way round.
 That's how I came to be poking about around the back of Southsea's shopping centre and discovered that somebody had done a spot of decorating;
southsea wall art

Wall art

Southsea street art
 For context, each of these is about 6 feet tall.

 That got me thinking. "Y'know, there's other stuff like this that I walk past all the time. Maybe it's worth documenting"
 The next set of pictures are all from Guildhall Walk, on the wall above..err...the public bogs. 
Sci-fi wall art
 A few years back the Portsmouth City museum had a Sci-Fi exhibition and these went up to promote it.
Pompey street art
 The exhibition has been and gone but the aliens and monsters are still here.
Portsmouth street art
I did a bit of Googling and it turns out these were done by Sifer Design
If you look HERE  you can see all of the paintings in context.

The last pics are from the hoardings surrounding the old Zurich building, just off Portsmouth city centre. There's quite a few of them but these two are my favourites.
Strong island mural
  I'm convinced that whoever did this is a Metalhead. If it's not on a metal album cover, it ought to be. 
Portsmouth mural
Sadly this one has been knocked about by wind and rain so a bit battered. Shame.

A little bit of research reveals that these were done with official sanction by a team of graffitti artists under the banner of We Are Pseudonym.  Article HERE.

 There's more artwork scattered across Portsmouth and Southsea so next time I'm feeling energetic, I think I'll dig out my camera and go do a spot of exploring. 

 That's all folks. 

6 comments:

  1. Quite a contrast between the first and second set of pictures. Love the one with the Buddha and the two rabbits.

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  2. I love this kind of art, and my neighborhood is full of it. Colorful murals and cartoons and fantastic creatures everywhere. I think every city should allow artists to beautify concrete structures and the sides of old buildings in this manner.Great post!

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    1. Sounds like a great place to live.
      And I'm inclined to agree. Why have boring old hoardings up alongside building sites when you can have something that's pleasing to the eye and the spirit?

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  3. Thanks BigD. Nice work.
    I abhor the mindless tagging, but do love innovative graffiti.
    Cheers, ic

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    1. I don't mind tagging when it's done with a little panache. The big, colourful stuff you see around sometimes. When it's some little grob scrawling "Daz woz here" then I'm not so impressed.

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  4. Sometimes when you're on the buses in London you must go pass certain areas who have some really good artwork on the walls. It's done in a real professional way and looks great. I prefer a lot of abstract stuff with vibrant colours. I like that crazy look.

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