Personally I love the idea of taking a drab piece of brickwork and concrete and turning it into something colourful and a little bizarre. If I had the money I'd quite like to just drop statues into random places, just to make life more interesting.
Now I have written about Southsea's wall art before before (HERE) but some of the murals have been replaced recently and it seemed like a good idea to post an update.
If anybody knows the artists - and they aren't likely to end up in court - I'd love to hear from them.
This is the last and largest mural.
Also the only one you're likely to see unless you're actually in the alley.
It's on the side of a building so visible from Kent Rd, that runs across the top of the pedestrian precinct.
Sci-Fi buff that I am, I do like this a lot.
I also like the little honeycomb thingies in the background.
The only mural that was there before but it's now got speech balloon.
Why "Teatray"?
Only the artist knows for sure.
A couple of access panels get brightened up somewhat.
Another one where you'd have to ask the artist what it means.
It is striking, though.
Tagging with a sense of style.
A little chap with quite a lot of charm.
I think this was somebody getting rid of some stickers they happened to have in their bag.
I'm not complaining though. This does suit the overall tone of the alley.
It took me a while to realise what was actually going on here.
I wonder if the artist was trying to be sinister?
The first one you come to as you duck in from the precinct.
Simple but cheerful.
As I've mentioned already, I like seeing art out on the streets as it were, and it seems to me that there should be some record of the artists' hard work online. I hope nobody minds.
I really love wall art, there are some awesome street artists out there. So much nicer than "Tagging" can't stand tagging. The boy in the rabbit costume is my favorite, very "Where the wild things are"ish.
ReplyDeleteI don't get "tagging" either. It's basically "Billy woz ere" but unreadable.
DeleteRabbit boy does look like he just 'ported in from a children's book, doesn't he?
Adore this! It is a fantastic and peaceful rebellion against all things corporate. We definitely need more of this in our cities. Your site is great, please keep posting.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much. There's a surprising amount of wall art in Portsmouth. I'll try to post some more soonish.
DeleteVery cool wall art. I especially like the black and white striped bunny-thing, the stylish tag, and "Teatray." We've lots of wall art in our neighborhood as well, including one very famous highly decorated tunnel. At Halloween this year, there was to be a large private party held in that tunnel. Some in the neighborhood thought they were somehow capitalizing off the street artists' works (I mean, c'mon, it's graffiti and those artists do it for free), so they came in protest, armed with rollers and gray paint, and completely covered up decades worth of wall art. So now, the entire public is deprived of enjoying the art because a few people thought they were being progressive. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteNow that's a classic example of cutting off your nose to spite your face. "We don't want people enjoying this, so we're going to bollix it up for everybody." Argh! Why are people so frigging stoopid?
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