French artist Space Invader has just returned to London since 2013 for a 18th wave of invasion. As part of an art commission for the London Games Festival organised by Film London, 12 new artworks have appeared on iconic buildings and streets.
As always location is key, and to celebrate spring, brand new CCTV flowers have popped up across the city, including a union jack one next to the British Film Institute surrounded by four other video cameras .
A pixelated cheeky prince with crown and 3D glasses is flying high above the Prince Charles Cinema in the West End , while the Arts Building in Finsbury Park is adorned with a paint brush waiving invader mosaic.
Wandering through the Museum of London, visitors can enjoy two new invaders with bowler hats and umbrellas watching each other.
And before looking for the remaining invaders, enjoy a cup of tea in Shoreditch…
A new stencil by Banksy highlighting the use of teargas in the “Jungle” refugee camp in Calais has appeared on a building opposite the French Embassy in London.
The stencil on board features a CS can on the floor spreading a teargas cloud. With the French flag waving in the background, the infamous character Cosette from Les Miserables emerges with tears in her eyes.
The work is the latest in a series of pieces by the graffiti artist criticising Europe’s handling of the ongoing refugees crisis, after earlier his stencils in Calais (featured) . It is a direct comment on the recent actions by French authorities to destroy part of the Jungle and evict around 1,500 refugees.
In a first for the elusive graffiti artist, the artwork is interactive and includes a stencilled QR code beneath. If viewers hold their phone over the code, it links them to an online video of a police raid on the camps on 5 January.
Over 600 artworks critiquing the corporate takeover of the COP21 climate talks were installed in advertising spaces across Paris this weekend -ahead of the United Nations summit beginning Monday 30 November.
Amidst the French state of emergency banning all public gatherings following the terrorist attacks on 13 November in Paris, the ‘Brandalism‘ project has worked with Parisians to insert unauthorised artworks across the city that aim to highlight the links between advertising, consumerism, fossil fuel dependency and climate change.
The artworks were placed in advertising spaces owned by JC Decaux -one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising firms and an official sponsor to the COP21 climate talks.Other prominent corporate sponsors of the climate talks such as AirFrance, GDF Suez (Engie) and Dow Chemicals are parodied in the posters -whilst heads of state such as Francois Hollande, David Cameron, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and Shinzo Abi also feature.
The artworks were created by over 80 renowned artists from 19 countries across the world including Jimmy Cauty, Banksy-collaborator Paul Insect,Escif and Kennard Phillips – many of whom featured at Banksy’s Dismaland exhibition in England this summer (see our coverage here), as well as Aida, Arnaud Liard, AlexOne, Barnbrook, David De La Mano, Fra BiancoShock, Hobz,John Felkner, Ron English, Jon Burgerman, Noel Douglas, Lapiz, Mobstr to name a few.
Joe Elan from Brandalism said, “By sponsoring the climate talks, major polluters such as Air France and GDF-Suez-Engie can promote themselves as part of the solution – when actually they are part of the problem.”
Elan continued, “We are taking their spaces back because we want to challenge the role advertising plays in promoting unsustainable consumerism. Because the advertising industry force feeds our desires for products created from fossil fuels, they are intimately connected to causing climate change. As is the case with the Climate talks and their corporate sponsored events, outdoor advertising ensures that those with the most amount of money are able to ensure that their voices get heard above all else.” The art works were installed on ‘Black Friday‘ or ‘Vendredi Noir’; the most hectic and competitive shopping day of the year.
Other posters called on people to take to the streets as part of the”Climate Games” – the world’s largest disobedient adventure game as well as protesting the “Solutions 21” conference – a large corporate exposition being held at the Grand Palais during the climate talks .
Bill Posters from Brandalism said “Following the tragic events on 13th November in Paris, the government has chosen to ban the big civil society mobilisations – but big business events can continue. The multinationals responsible for climate change can keep green washing their destructive business models, but the communities directly impacted by them are silenced. It’s now more important than ever to call out their lies and speak truth to power. We call on people to take to the streets during the COP21 to confront the fossil fuel industry. We cannot leave the climate talks in the hands of politicians and corporate lobbyists who created this mess in the first place.”
For the Shubbak Festival, A Window on Contemporary Arab Culture, Cedar Lewison invited French Tunisian ‘calligraffiti’ artist eL Seed to paint his first UK commission on the wall of Village Underground in London Shoreditch.
We previously seen his work in person back in 2013 in Paris for La Tour 13 ( covered here) and more recently for Le Pont des Arts.
Blending Arabic calligraphy with graffiti techniques, eL Seed has developed a distinctive and striking style, fusing poetry and language with dramatic design to create large-scale works.
Puerto Rican born, Houston based artist Ana Marietta is currently in London and just finished painting a new mural in Brick Lane featuring her surrealistic animal universe.
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