graffiti must be making waves if our nations envoy of modern art, tate modern, decides to put on an exhibition of street art! we decided it couldn’t be missed, so headed up to town to check it out.

approaching on the north bank, the tate modern building loomed into view and the sense of scale was immediately apparent. crossing the millennium bridge is perhaps the best approach, as the six commissioned pieces covering the building grew before our eyes.

jr’s powerful piece at tate modern amply demonstrates the scale of the pieces

the six pieces feature sixeart, jr, faile, os gemeos, nunca and blu, displaying signs of wear and tear already. as well as jr’s piece, sixeart’s piece was well strange, faile’s piece a kind of cut-up, nunca’s humourous pirate drinking a cup of tea, the os gemeos character with some fine details, including a sack of cctv cameras, and blu’s amazing head, which on closer examination showed what looked like a series of thoughts making the mind, a dark and fearful place, full of war and death. below these pieces was an interesting statue by faile…

faile statue of bunny boy

as well as these excellent pieces, which were wonderful in scale and detail, tate had put together a walking tour around the area, starting with some construction hoardings right outside the main entrance, emblazoned with the legend ‘temporary eyesore’. we then followed the map, or at least i thought we were going right, but found it impossible to find the next piece! further exploration unearthed better results. we found odd signs by nano4814, graphical pieces by el tono and nuria, work by spok and a massive installation by 3ttman. there were odd pieces we couldn’t find, which was very frustrating! however, it lead us to a pub by borough market and past a wonderful cemetary and was well worth the effort. perhaps more significant was the apparent inclusion of two or three mosaic pieces by space invader, which appeared to have already been in place before the commissions. a bit like putting on an exhibition and using work from another gallery, though maybe that was the point – the gallery is always open. maybe more significant was the fact that there was no other graffiti visible, except in a children’s park. go to east london and you’re bombarded with it – free art – but here it’s usually buffed.

perhaps a happy consequence the the tate’s stamp of approval might be more tolerance in this borough for this contentious form of expression…?

commit no nuisance

further info:
flickr photos
tate modern street art exhibition
guardian review