This afternoon (well, yesterday evening now as I could not finish my post due to the website hosting company having technical issues), I headed over to Ackroyd Drive at Mile End, London in order to see the street art paint mural project ENDANGERED 13. This event is sponsored by Human Nature and Louis Masai, a street artist whose work supports endangered species and who painted a beautiful coral wall off of Redchurch Street last summer (covered here). ENDANGERED 13 brings together several street artists (Louis Masai, Andy Council, Jonesy, Vibes, Dr Zadok, Jim Vision, Xylo, and others) to paint an 120 metre stretch of railway arches about a ten minute walk from Mile End tube station.
The goal of the event is to bring about awareness about endangered species and to show that this issue affects all of us globally. Hopefully, the exposure of highlighting these issues will allow these endangered species and their habitats to be saved before it is far too late. While I was at Ackroyd Drive this afternoon, I spoke to a few of the street artists taking part. One of the artists, Vibes, told me that each artist was randomly given an endangered species to draw.
The first work I came across was a rhino by Louis Masai. The rhino was in the quilt patchwork pattern that I have seen him use in the past.
This is a finished piece, and it looks beautiful. The three-dimensional effect really makes it come off the wall.
Next to this piece was a collaboration in progress by Carrie Reichardt and an artist who would prefer to be anonymous. Carrie Reichardt created all of the tiles with political and environmental messages on them. Her focus was on bees. I think this will look amazing once it's finished.
Next up, I discovered a colourful bird by Sheffield-based street artist Faunagraphic. The artist was not around when I got this photograph.
Next, I came across South African street artist Fiyas who was painting this gorilla. The sketches of the gorilla can be seen as the work is in progress. His work is grafitti-style but appears to be experimenting with graphical elements, grafitti, and other topics (such as animals). I did speak to him briefly and also came across Jonesy, who I will mention later on.
Louis Masai had a second finished piece on the next wall. The finished piece represents to colourful endangered coral reefs with a colourful array of tropical fishes and plant life. It's a beautiful mural that reminds me of the large-scale mural on Redchurch Street near Brick Lane.
The next work was a polar bear by Jim Vision, showing a scene where the world's cities are creating so much heat and pollution that the polar bear is stranded and holding on to a small sliver of iceberg. This highlights global warming's role in extinction.
Next up are two pieces from Jonesy on Ackroyd Drive. I love seeing Jonesy's works as they are unexpected, and you need to look up high to see them. A lot of his work is perched on the top of signs. The first one is an abstract being with broken chains and has a message underneath "break free from fossil fuel". Jonesy's work is usually comprised of environmental messages, so that makes him an excellent artist for this cause. I overheard him tell a person who chanced to walk by and wondered what was going on that this piece was open to interpretation.
There are more photographs of the same piece below as it was very difficult to photograph it. The second piece was the first photograph in this post, and it featured a sitting gorilla with words that we (humans) are also in danger because rainforests clean the co2 in the air.
Next up are two birds by London-based street artist ATM. ATM is a wildlife photographer and artist, and his primary subject to paint is birds.
Next to this piece, Louis Masai was working on his third piece at Ackroyd Drive, a whale. The artist is working on the patchwork quilt pattern for the whale, and I am sure that this will look amazing when it's completed.
Vibes was hard at work next to Masai on a tiger-human hybrid. I've previously covered his work, and I love the style where his subjects are 'pulled out' with various features enlarged into 'squares'. In this piece, he is meshing up a human and a tiger. He told me that the random endangered species that he received was the tiger, and it was a challenge for him as he normally paints people. I can't wait to see the finished piece.
I believe the next artist, who was hard at work with a burning rainforest scene, is Dr Zadok or Xenz. Not much of the wall was complete, but it will look like an eye-catching piece when it's finished.
Andy Council, a popular Bristol-based street artist, was painting the last wall. I've covered his work previously, and the artist was also in London about a month ago and painted a wall near Cambridge Heath station. I have not posted that yet, but some of his work can be seen in last year's Bristol Upfest post. Andy Council often creates futuristic and abstract cityscapes. He's sketched out the image below before filling in the colour and detail, and the image appears to depict an elephant with some of London's recognisable buildings at the bottom.
The words above the railway arches in the photograph below say "all of nature rests in the hands of man's wisedom. Let us not be fools'. The words are by Tanya Dee and the artist is Von Leadfoot.
Here's the different sections of railway arches and the works in progress from the late afternoon on Saturday.
The street art will be continued until 7:00pm on Sunday. Visitors can turn up to see the artists paint from mid-day.
http://www.humannatureshow.com/endangered13/
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