any time we visit london we incorporate a trip to brick lane and the shoreditch area, seeing as it’s walls are teeming with vibrant art and subversive messages. on this particular trip our mission was to seek out the pure evil gallery on leonard street and, after an hour or so of wandering the freezing cold streets, we were within view of our goal, when something caught our eye up curtain road and we went to investigate.
the first piece we came across was one of dr. d’s ‘bent commandments’ – honour thy labels and thy plastic – done in strips down one side of a corrugated shutter. the effect was such that at one angle the entire piece could be seen, but move to the side and it began to break up. excellent stuff. then we noticed two shepard fairey pieces up on a rooftop, then a mutoid sculpture by a doorway. it was all too good to pass up, so we crossed the road and walked brazenly past a guy on his mobile phone, to be greeted by a door covered in characters. that took us through into a fantasy world of robots and weird machines, with sprayed up walls of scenes from fantastic worlds, half futuristic science museum, half entrance to hell itself. trying to describe the machines is almost pointless, you REALLY have to try and catch it or check out anyone’s good photos or video footage, but a rotary wheel of giant hands perplexed me, till i realised it must be a round of applause. where were we? i just love the sculpture below…
stepping through into the next room we were suddenly immersed in a fab exhibition space and the penny dropped – we had accidentally stumbled upon the mutate britain show! podiums displayed a huge variety of sculptures by an artist called joe rush, whose work i had previously only seen at glastonbury, in the guise of the mutoid waste company robotic machines. his creations take power tools and other metal objects and assemble them into characters, full of life and expression, imbued with a wonderful sense of humour. sitting in the corner is a massive jet vehicle straight out of babylon5, while the walls are lined with a series of aircraft panels painted up like the ww2 bombers, only with characters and messages by a number of top graf artists. poignant and moving, they varied between hard social comment to an attempt to beautify a macabre artform. a panel by eelus stands out in my mind, but all of them contribute to an impressive, cohesive display.
but it doesn’t end there. the stairwells are covered in a variety of pieces, luring the visitor further into the building. on the next floor is the gallery, featuring a vast variety of work from different artists, all for sale! there’s even a print shop in the corner. i was enjoying a piece by snub23, when i realised that the £600 price tag is actually for a square of canvas in the middle of the work, the rest being attractive overspray. now i know this technique is a good way to impart the notion that these canvases are usually sprayed on walls, but I WANTED THE WHOLE THING – WALL AND ALL! he has more stuff in the stairwell going up to the next floor, with a cabaret area for nighttime performances. we’d have tried to get up to the roof too, only the building wasn’t really open to the public and it was locked.
it took us about the same amount of time to get back downstairs as it had to get upstairs, such were the delights on show. this is a fabulous display of talent, not least that of sculptor, joe rush, whose body of work is stunning. all i can say is get up there and take a look if you can. its size and cohesiveness makes it a stand-out, high-calibre, world-class show.
it’s on every friday, saturday and sunday until xmas at the behind the shutters gallery on curtain street, london, ec2a 33s. check site for daily hours. it was certainly the highlight of our visit to the area, though we did get to the pure evil gallery eventually…
further info:
graffiti badges flickr photos
mutate britain website
dr. d on wooster