My rediscovery of the technique of spirit photography, but freed from the trickery of the Victorian parlour would seem to have given entities a new way to manifest. As we journey back into darkness and the nights draw ever in we mark the end of harvest and the time of Samhain, the Festival of the Dead. The border between this world and the other becomes thinner until they can reach back through the veil that separated them from the living.
“As I once was so you are now. As I am now, so you must be.”
To follow you I’m not content, how do I know which way you went?
The main attraction for many revellers for the last few years has been one of the smaller, more underground arenas known as Arcadia.
Arcadia is a synchronised pyrotechnic stage and lightshow sculpture arena featuring world class bands and deejays and illuminated by lasers, intelligent lighting, water jets and flamethrowers and is built from military and NASA scrap, primarily jet engine components.
Deejays and bands play live surrounded by what must be the most incredible spectacle of light, smoke and flame on the planet, as tens of thousands of people dance in an ecstasy of ritual theatrics and shamanic pyrotechnics.
Think Heironymous Bosch meets Mad Max versus ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’ and you’re getting somewhere.
I was delighted to find out that my painting is thought of so highly by the visionary behind Arcadia, Pip Rush, that I have been asked to design and paint all artwork for the entire Arcadia arena at this years Glastonbury, 2010; the festival’s 40th Birthday.
Pip’s the younger brother of Joe Rush, founder of the Mutoid Waste Company and has spent much of his life since a baby in the delirium of Joe’s events; we share many similar inspirations and themes in our work.
The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter- A Painting by Me…..
…and some Graffiti by me…..
We put our heads together and have been bouncing ideas backwards and forwards so expect something a bit special.
Year by year Arcadia Spectacular have expanded at Glastonbury, starting off in ‘Trash City’ in 2008 with the Mutoid Waste Company. It was so successful that they were given their own field in 2009, this was in turn so successful that this year, 2010; to quote organiser Micheal Eavis…
"We’re giving over an extra 15 acres to Arcadia …..because the feedback we got on that area was fantastic.”
As a result the Arcadia crew are ramping up the spectacular even further, featuring a new top secret ‘Afterburner’, the main stage structure, which takes the whole show to the next level.
Mutating daredevils on highwires and trapezes will do battle with actual lightning bolts, pyrotechnics and flamethrowers high above the arena in a mid air extravaganza of cosmic significance and electric delight that will bring the ‘invisible world’ into living focus before your very eyes and ears.
I will be doing my best to provide this sensory feast with an incredible surround of amazing art that will help Arcadia to transport minds to places and times far from this dimension.
Thanks to the guys at Chrome and Black paint shop in Shoreditch, East London, yet again, for looking after us so well….
Arcadia Stage Line Up Glastonbury 2010
Weds 23rd-Sun 27th June 2010
DAY
MUSIC ACT
Thursday
evening
King Porter Stomp
FRIDAY
3PM-4PM
Gadjo
4PM-5PM
Astroboy
5PM-6PM
The Soul Jazz Orchestra
6PM-7.30PM
Rob da bank
7.30PM-8.30PM
Swing Zazou
8.30PM-9.30PM
The Correspondents
9.30PM-10PM
light up
10-11PM
Beardyman vs. Arcadia
11PM-12
Foamo
12-12.30AM
Arcadia spectacular featuring Freefall Collective
12.30-1AM
Arcadia allstars
1-2AM
Kissy sell out
2AM-3AM
Dog Show
SATURDAY
3PM-4PM
Joe Acheson Quartet
4PM-5PM
Mr Woodnote
5PM-6PM
The Beat
6PM-7PM
A Skillz
7PM-8PM
Smerins Anti Social Club
8PM-9PM
Dubrovnik DJ set
9PM-9.45PM
Doc Daneeka
9.45PM-10.15PM
light up
10.15-11PM
Dr Meaker
11PM-12
Hostage
12-12.30
Arcadia spectacular featuring Freefall Collective
12.30-2AM
Wonkavision
2-3AM
McMash Clan
SUNDAY
3PM-4PM
Professor Skank and African Simba
4PM-5PM
DJ ASBO
5PM-6PM
Vibronics live
6PM-7PM
Mungo’s Hi Fi featuring MC Ishu
7PM-8PM
Gentlemans dub club
8PM-9.30PM
Powersteppers
9.30PM-10PM
Light up
10-11PM
David Rodigan
11PM-12
Warrior One
12-12.30AM
Arcadia spectacular featuring Freefall Collective
12.30-1AM
Arcadia allstars
1AM-2AM
Passenger records presents: Aquasky & The Ragga Twins (History of Breaks set)
We kick off part two of this post with the golden age train writer Cazbee 53 from DSS Crew Da Sure Shots, from Ladbroke Grove piecing the outer wall of the MuTate Britain mechanical zoo….Many of Cazbees pieces rolled past this spot on trains,or were under the Westway itself.
Now he’s back 20 years later, along with oldskool steel writers Fuel, Skore, Mear, Crok, Don myself and a few of London’s more new skool to take the vibe back to the raw, enabling a potent and complementary mix of the hardcore underground vibes and tribes….
and back inside for another shot of me and Vibes….
……and onto the wild, diverse art within, here’s Jimmy South of War Boutique
Lyle Doghead, LRRY and friend
Elate, Obey
Anarchist Crockery by Carrie Reichart
In Dog We Trust by Jolly Good, made with real dollar bills…
Vera Bong
Dotmaster
The toilets…
New Arrivals…
What I have posted is a fraction of what is there, you really have to get down to this 12,000 foot space and experience the most revolutionary art happening London, probably even the world has ever seen.
Here’s some more pictures from the MuTate Britain Winter Show. I’m going to be adding a whole load more as a separate post at the weekend at some point as I need to rephotograph stuff to a half decent standard.
This has to be one of the best art exhibitions anywhere ever in my humble opinion and I’m very glad to have had a hand in it….If you like your surrealism apocalyptic your graffiti groundbreaking your grime genuine and your people straight up this is the place for you…..We kick of with Rubbish Fairy and House of Doll
Mear
Skore TRC
Crok
Achy
Towns
Fuel
Joe Rush
Elate Vibes Lyle Doghead and LRRY and Pakka
Lyle Doghead and LRRY and Pakka with plane by Sam Haggerty and Dotmasters
Teddy Baden
Joe Rush
Wreckage International
Joe Rush and others
Sam Haggerty
War Boutique
Joe Rush
Sam Haggerty and Joe Rush
Obey Giant
Wolf and PXL
Andy Seize
Elate Vibes
Dotmasters aka Bagsy
Sam Hagarty and Dotmasters
Liam Cordy
Joe Rush
Mutoid Dave and others…
Elate Cazbee
Pure Indulgence
Families are welcome to this multisensory extravaganza!.
Full dates and opening times below. We look forwarding to seeing you!
Opening times:
Opens December 4th to December 20th – FRI / SAT / SUN
Fri – 2pm -10pm Sat-1pm – 10pm Sun – 12pm-9pm
We are also open 2 Wednesdays for the Portobello Winter Festival on the 9th & 16th December – 6pm -10pm
‘One Foot in the Grove’ is back from the 4th of December.
‘Our festival of underground art provides a welcoming, inclusive and visually astounding experience for all ages in an atmospheric 12,000 square foot setting just off Portobello Road. Walk amongst giant sculptures, installations and unique artwork and hang out for good times at our licensed bar with proper music and delicious grub.
We are featuring loads of new work including an epic wall by Elate, Vibes and Obey Giant that cracks and crumbles the Westway to rubble before your eyes!
There’s new work by Joe Rush, a giant collaboration by Sam Haggerty and Dotmasters, new pieces by Teddy Baden, Wreckage, Seize, Code FC, Bleach, Best Ever, Zadok, Fuel, Skore, Crok, Mear, Towns, K-Guy, to name but a few, also light installations, lasers, stalls, bric a brac, curios, and anarchist crockery.
We have rehung our gallery room that offers exclusive posters, prints, originals, sculptures, photography, clothing and object d’art that make perfect prezzies for you and your discerning friends and family.
We provide that much needed alternative to the Xmas chaos of Oxford Street – so don’t miss out on the best show in town.
See giant fire-breathing robots walking, drink at our licensed bar, see and hear film shows, trains thundering past and experience an authentic friendly festival vibe in the heart of London.
This promises to be London’s biggest, most inclusive, interactive and underground street art event this Christmas.
Families are welcome to this multisensory extravaganza!.
Full dates and opening times below. We look forwarding to seeing you!
Opening times:
Opens December 4th to December 20th – FRI / SAT / SUN
Fri – 2pm -10pm Sat-1pm – 10pm Sun – 12pm-9pm
We are also open 2 Wednesdays for the Portobello Winter Festival on the 9th & 16th December – 6pm -10pm
For those that haven’t heard, the exhibition One Foot in the Grove by Mutate Britain is currently on under the Westway, Ladbroke Grove, West London; each weekend until November the 1st 2009, 12-10pm.
The Westway is where the UK graffiti scene started in earnest when the Clash bought Futura 2000 there to paint in 1982.
The Mutoid Waste Company are a travelling band of punk-squatter mechanic artists led by Joe Rush that infected the acid house party movement with their dark and surreal bio-mechanoid humour, building scrap metal wastelands and delirious mindscapes in a shock juxtaposition of realities guaranteed to give any trip a hair raising edge.
Think Heironymous Bosch versus Tron and you’re getting somewhere…
Inspired by the desolation of the 80s to escape into a parallel post apocalyptic universe they inspired a generation to create, myself included.
Some of the best acid parties I attended in the late Eighties and early Nineties had input from the Mutoid Waste Crew or their many splinter groups Circus Irritant, Circus Warp, Splattered Fantasy etc, these plunged my young, impressionable and highly expanded consciousness into a Bermuda Triangle of anamorphic archetypes, cyborg spectres and grotesque apparitions in parody of human and machine form, fractured and echoed by laser and strobe, syncopated and shaken with deafening electronic bass.
The vibe was always intensely surreal, the most outrageously attired and hideously painted forms appeared from the flickering fog in theatrical convulsions, the music was the most twisted repetitive acid, deep and tribal, which stripped the senses gradually to total derangement, beat after pounding beat, until finally at one with the music the chaotic environment and your inner world became one.
Now twenty years later the Mutoids are under the Westway, and it’s not a squat, the police are not outside, the pounding house and techno has been replaced by an eclectic mix including ragga, reggae, punk, soca and rockabilly and the sweating, swaying trance-dancers have grown into bespectacled media professionals pushing buggys.
They still roll out the 303 acid sound when the fire-breathing machines get loose though…
Their amazing signature art, friendly warm family atmosphere and tongue-in-cheek vibe is however present in abundance, accessible and inspirational to the whole family, exhibited together with an array of street and graffiti art, so when I was asked to come and paint a wall I was honoured to oblige, being able to give something back to the community that gave so much inspiration to me in the mad days of the late eighties and early nineties!
It was very short notice so I improvised with some graffiti letters with a twist ….
There is no doubt in my mind from the captivated expressions on the faces of their visitors that their inspiration will grow into new and exciting ideas in years to come.
Below you will find details of how to get there and when it’s open. It’s one of London’s biggest underground art events ever. So don’t just hear about it, watch the video, read the info, explore the blog and get down to the show! We promise to look after you with our fully licensed bar, delicious food and inclusive festival atmosphere. There honestly, really and truly is no better way to enjoy art.
Many thanks to Hip Hop and Graffiti documenter and archiver Skire for allowing me to use shots from his amazing archive.
It’s thanks to people like him we can look back on a golden era.
This shot features vintage London handstyles including an old Elate tag at the legendary and much missed Groove Records in Greek Street, Soho, the Mecca for Hip Hop’s early days, and pretty much the main dispenser of all the Hip Hop Electro imports from the US in the mid eighties, and where I spent most of my money back then, starting in around 86.
The Groove Electro charts were our ever changing bible, and mainstay of the Mike Allen show on Capital Radio, the pioneering spirit behind UK Hip Hop.
This place was pretty well hit in those mad old days, as anyone who knows London’s graffiti history will see from the tags…
It’s nice to see my handstyle in its’ transformative phases, (starting with a small e and ending with a capital E at this point!) It’s on the top of the door frame below Rogue and above Noize for those having trouble….
Also I can make out Drax WD, Jinx WD, Rogue, Crime, Up2, Dare2, Noize 207, Fuel, Daube, Cane 1, State of Art and Rome ACR amongst others I’m not 100% on. The piece was by the legendary Fade 2
