Results tagged “sculpture”

At the end of last year, fifty statues of Paddington the Bear appeared across London. Paddington Bear is a book by Michael Bond about a Peruvian bear who ends up in Paddington station in London with a note "Please look after this bear" tied around him. A film adaption (simply known as Paddington) has been in cinemas since the end of November, and this sculpture trail consists of several painted Paddington Bear sculptures to celebrate the film. Many of the bears are designed by British celebrities and other celebrities that had some influence in the film, such as Hugh Bonneville, Peter Capaldi, Nicole Kidman, David Beckham, and Emma Watson. The bear sculptures will be auctioned for children's charity NSPCC at the beginning of January.

Hugh Bonneville - The Journey of Marmalade

The Paddington Bear sculptures were on the streets from the beginning of November until the end of December, so they have sadly all gone now. They were spread across London, so I sadly did not get to see all of them due to them being scattered about the city and for the fact that the past two months have been busy with the Christmas season, holidays, and shorter hours of daylight. I saw all apart from five of the sculptures, so I did not do too badly considering one was far out as Heathrow.

Peru - Wonders of the World

Nicole Kidman - Blush

David Beckham - Golden Paws

Michael Sheen - Shakesbear

Ripley's Believe it or Not! - Paddington the Explorer

Matthew Williamson - Thread Bear

Ryan McElhinney - Fragile

Rankin - Bear in the Wood

Bears by Boris Johnson, Darcey Bussell, Emma Watson, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Ben Whishaw, Marc Quinn, Benedict Cumberbatch, Frankie Bridge

Zaha Hadid - R; G; B

Michael Howells - Good Morning London

Julie Walters - Primrose Paddington

Taylor Wimpey - Bearing Up

Canterbury of New Zealand - Paws Engage

Robin Partington & Partners - Brick Bear

Jonathan Ross - Futuristic Robot Bear

Lulu Guinness - Love Paddington x

Costain Skanska and the Paddington Partnership - The Mayor of Paddington

Davina McCall - Paddington Jack

Guy Ritchie - Dapper Bear

The Telegraph - Good News Bear

Bears by Benjamin Shine, Peru, Stephen Fry, Westminster Academy

Some of the bears were orgnaised into a trail. Although not all of the bears could be seen this way, this was a good way to see some of the bears. The trails included:

• Royal Parks: This went through Hyde Park and up through to Westminster but only contained six bears over a long walking distance. 
• Paddington Trail: This trail went around the Paddington and Little Venice area of London and consisted of several bears in a small area.
• River and Historical London: This trail contains approximately eight bears centrered around the London Bridge area of the Thames
• The Christmas Trail: This trail contained several of the sculptures around west London to allow visitors to combine this trail with seeing with Christmas lights.

Did you see any of the bear sculptures in the Paddington Bear Trail? I could not pick a favourite sculpture as all of them were completely different and there were so many good designs. The Paddington Trail map and information about the bears can be seen here: http://www.visitlondon.com/paddington/trail-map 

This year's Sculpture in the City 2014 (around London's Square Mile financial district) is even bigger than last year's. (For photographs of last year's Sculpture in the City, visit my write-up here at Sculpture in the City 2013.) This year marks the fourth year of the public art event and features work by international artists such as Cerith Wyn Evans, Lynn Chadwick, Ben Long, Julian Wild, Nigel Hall, Paul Hosking, Peter Randall-Page, Antony Gormley, Jim Lambie and Richard Wentworth. The sculptures will be on display until the end of May 2015.

This year for the first time, students in schools could participate in one of the workshops help to draw London's landmarks in the City, hear talks by the artists, and build their own sculptures.

'Stairs' by Lynn Chadwick is located at the corner of Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street and shows what appears to be two feminine figures ascending and descending stairs. The artist wanted to capture movement and relationships with space and made the figures show that they do not acknowledge each other despite their passing on the stairs. I suppose that this is a perfect sculpture for a large city.

'Stairs' by Lynn Chadwick

'High Wind' by Lynn Chadwick is located next to the Gherkin. The sculpture experimented with drapery and movement in wind in this piece. The piece freezes the moment when the woman's hair and dress blow in the wind.

'High Wind' by Lynn Chadwick

'Work Scaffolding Sculpture' by Ben Long was inspired by the 1960s spirit and Robert Indiana's work, such as LOVE. The word 'Work' is choosen to evoke survival and daily existence, similar to LOVE.

'Work Scaffolding Sculpture' by Ben Long

'Salvia' by Julian Wild is inspired by plants found in the British countryside. This piece is coloured after the small flower by the same name and includes a mass of twisted steel pointing to the heavens.

'Salvia' by Julian Wild

'Shapes in Cloud I; IV; V' by Peter Randall-Page represents three large granite boulders that have been sculptued into rounded natural shapes. They look a little like clouds. Capturing a photograph of these was difficult at the time because they were blocked off in an area where construction work was taking place. 

'Shapes in Cloud I; IV; V' by Peter Randall-Page

'Flow; Edge; Flux; Within; Fall' by Paul Hosking is a series of hanging sculptures from a tree in a churchyard. The work reminds me of paper snowflakes that I made as a child and would hang up in winter.

'Flow; Edge; Flux; Within; Fall' by Paul Hosking

'False Ceiling' by Richard Wentworh is located in Leadenhall Market and is a sculpture made from a ceiling of books suspended in air. The artist was inspired by seeing books appear for sale at second-hand markets and how common books are.

'False Ceiling' by Richard Wentworh

'Kiss' by Nigel Hall features two objects that rely on each other for support.

'Kiss' by Nigel Hall 

'Southern Shade 1; V' by Nigel Hall is a study of shapes in the world. The sculpture mimics shaded canopy of trees. It is located near the Lloyds Building.

'Southern Shade 1; V' by Nigel Hall

'Deadly Nightshade' by Julian Wild is located on the front of a building on Bishopsgate. The sculpture symbolises plants that grow in the countryside, and the colours choosen are to remind us that the brightest are usually the deadliest.

'Deadly Nightshade' by Julian Wild 

'Secret Affair (Silver)' by Jim Lamble is located in St. Botolph-without-Bishopsgate Gardens. The piece is meant to invite viewers to walk through it and interact with it, and it also acts as a frame. I did spend some time shooting the piece at different angles, such as framing the steeple of the church inside the keyhole, but my favourite shot was the one below.

'Secret Affair (Silver)' by Jim Lamble

'Time here becomes spac, space here becomes time' by Cerith Wyn Evans is an illuminated installation appearing in Leadenhall Market. Both phrases are displayed but the words are reversed, depending on the point of view you are viewing the installation from.  

'Time here becomes spac, space here becomes time' by Cerith Wyn Evans

In addition to the above, there was one more piece that had construction work happening around it in front of the Gherkin that I was not able to photograph. The piece, "Box-Sized DIE Featuring Unfathomable Runination' by Onofre was visible but closed up. Apparently local Death Metal bands are invitd to play inside the box and the viewer is meant to view the box's vibrations when the music is played inside it.

The final piece is on display again this year, and that piece is 'Parallel Field' by Antony Gormley. A photograph of this piece can be seen by visiting my previous entry here: Sculpture in the City 2013.

This year, I finally managed to book the "Magical Ice Kingdom" at Winter Wonderland. I tried the previous two years, but all of the spaces were taken as I had tried to arrange it too late. This year I arranged it early and decided that this would be something that we could do on Thanksgiving after our Thanksgiving lunch (Thanksgiving at Christopher's Bar and Grill), so we made our way across to Winter Wonderland for our time slot. The tickets were also discounted as Winter Wonderland had only been open for a couple of days and this first week is not as busy as the holiday season progresses.

This year's theme for the Magical Ice Kingdom was King Arthur's Kingdom. We walked around the trail and admired the woodland creatures (wolves, owls, squirrels, bears) made out of ice and large columns or stalagmites of ice rising from the floor. Pine trees seculded each area so that we could be surprised before we approached the next sculptures.

As we walked further along, we came upon the sword in the stone (or ice), a wizard (Merlin), a Celtic cross, and a large ice knight standing guard. The first larger sculpture that we came across was two jousting knights on horseback. Most of the ice used was clear, but the knights and their horses were snowy white.

After seeing the knights, we walked a few more steps to discover a fairy and a tree with a face. Merlin (pictured in one of the photographs above) was in this setting.

We walked further around, and we came to the castle with sculptures and a throne room. A photographer was taking photographs of the visitors who wanted to sit down in the thrones. Many people did do this, and they could purchae their photograph at the exit.

The lighting ranged from violet to blue in the throne room. Behind the throne room, visitors could walk up to go onto the slide. I decided to do this, wearing a cotton dress, which was not clever because obviously my legs stuck to the slide and the slide was extremely cold. This would have worked if that had provided a matt to give us to slide down on. (Wearing jeans would have worked as the material is stronger.)

After the slide fiasco, I continued to walk the trail. The next stop was a frozen fountain that people had thrown coins into.

This was followed by a sculpture of the Lady of the Lake holding King Arthur's sword while standing in the lake with two unicorns on the embankment. I thought that this one with the water was cleverly-created.

Further along the trail was the largest sculpture featuring soldiers and an archer in ice chain mail attacking a large snowy white ice dragon with glowing yellow eyes. This was impressive.

A little further along was a bar made out of ice barrels. Alcoholic of hot drinks could be purchased here. I was not able to get photographs because a large group turned up just afterwards and decided to buy some drinks and hang around the bar, but this looked awesome.

The final sculpture was a round table made of ice with a sword and chalice in the middle of the ice table. This was situated inside a stone (ice) circle of ice boulders.

I did not particularly want to leave, but we were getting a little cold by then as the temperature in the Magical Ice Kingdom was around -10 degrees Celsius so that the sculptures would not melt. When we did leave to go back outside, the outside weather felt almost tropical, and the outside weather was chilly before we entered the Magical Ice Kingdom.

I also had booked Bar Ice, Winter Wonderland's very own Ice Bar. The Ice Bar is new to Winter Wonderland this year, and it is actually a part of the same building as the Magical Ice Kingdom. We had to wait about an hour before our time slot came up, so we wandered around Winter Wonderland. Ice Bar London has a permanent location off Regent Street that changes its theme every few months, and I went the summer before last with friends and covered this in Nights Out: ICE BAR. My next post will feature my experience at Bar Ice Winter Wonderland.

This autumn, nearly fifty painted bus charity sculptures have appeared in London's streets to celebrate 2014 as the Year of the Bus. The bus sculptures started to appear at the end of October and will remain in their locations until early December. The buses have been brought to London by the London Transport Musuem (and Wild in Art, the company responsible for many of the charity art sculpture trails) to raise money for charities.

Stephen McKay - London Telephone Bus

I spent a couple of lunch breaks and had trips up to London at the weekend in order to track down this bus art sculptures across London! I am showing my favourites here.

Sian Storey - Swinging London

The Year of the Bus celebrates London's iconic red buses. This year marks the anniversaries of different types of buses, and a hundred years have passed since the first motor bus, which carried soldiers in 1914. This year also marked the introduction of the new Routemaster buses, which I saw unveiled at the London Transport Museum three years ago, to London's streets. 

Mandii Pope - Buckingham Palace Bus

Four main trails for the bus sculptures included the Olympic Park, City of London, River (around London Bridge), and Westminster/Soho.

Beth Quinton - Moquette

The Great War was a theme common for some of the buses. Another bus was decoated like Buckingham Palace, and another was painted to look like a row of telephone boxes.

Crispin Finn - Ding! Ding!

I honestly cannot pick a favourite bus art design! There were so many that Ioved, and the bus is a great canvas. More photographs are below.

Sarah Jane Grace - Poppy Fields

Cath Kidston

Damien Jeffery - Rock 'n' Royal

Kristel Pillkhan - Spectrum

Jane Callan - Brollybus

Mini Moderns - Push Once

Srokowski Design - Invisible to the Environment

A large selection of buses

Michelle Heron - Tower Bridge Bus

Detail from 'Travels with Edward' by Valerie Osment

Jenny Leonard - Lord Mayor of the City of Westminster bus

These are not all of the buses on display at the moment. Another trail of buses will appear on London's streets before Christmas, and word has it that it will be based in Croydon. I believe that the bus art sculptures will be auctioned off in January.

This weekend, the Truman Brewery hosts The Other Art Fair and the Monkier Art Fair. I received a ticket through my workplace, so I went along to view the artwork during my lunch hour. The exhibition (art fair) was quite busy when I visited it on the Friday. For those readers looking for something to do this weekend, have a browse of this exhibition. There is a price for tickets to enter, but you can see some great pieces of work and buy a piece if you like it enough.

The Other Art Fair showcases work by emerging artists, which has been picked by famous artists. The work is on display and on sale at the fair. I saw illuminated pieces by Rocco Wonderland, sculptures made from books by Alexander Korzer-Robinson, photographs, sculptures, pottery and clay, and artwork made of wire.

(For more information about The Other Art Fair, visit the official website at http://www.theotherartfair.com.)

A craft beer bar had been set up in the gallery, so visitors could sip a beer and admire the artwork.

Another section of the Truman Brewery warehouse, next to The Other Art Fair, hosts the Monkier Art Fair. This fair celebrates urban artists and is in its fifth year. I actually preferred some of the artwork in this section and did recognise several of the artists' work because some of them do create artwork on the street. Benjamin Murphy, David Shillinglaw, and Shephard Fairey were among some I recognised. There were some other pieces I loved, such as the painted stormtrooper helmets (known as Art Wars) by Ben Moore, a series of images made with Lego figures, and various other pieces that I did not photograph.

One of my favourite displays was David Shillinglaw's, which I took photographs of and posted below. He had a large section of wall in a prime area near the craft beer bar.

For more information about the Monkier Art Fair, visit the official website at http://monikerartfair.com/artworks/.

As I left the Truman Brewery warehouse and the exhibition, I saw this painted MINI car parked right outside the door.

After Books About Town Art Sculpture Trail, I've waited all summer for charity art sculpture trails, and then two come along at once! This autumn, the "Year of the Bus" is celebrated by Traffic For London (TFL), and the streets around Westminster, the Olympic Park, and the City will host approximately fifty painted bus sculptures dubbed BusArt. At roughly the same time and to celebrate the new Paddington Bear film, fifty Paddington Bear sculptures will be waiting to be discovered throughout London at various locations.

This morning, the BusArt sculptures (Year of the Bus Sculpture Trail) launched in Trafalgar Square. Unfortunately, the sculptures were only available to view from 8:30-10:00 this morning. I was hoping that they would be available to view at about 7:00-8:00, before I have to get over to work in Brick Lane, and I was planning to get in to London really early to see them. I found out the actual times late last night and realised that it was not possible for me to see them due to the timing. I will just have to wait for them to be placed on their trails. The sculpture trail officially starts on Monday, and it runs until early December. I know that I will be doing a lot of walking over the next few weeks.

Here's a sneak peek of a couple of the buses in Trafalgar Square, courtesy of Transport For London's Twitter feed. [EDIT - added later in the day.]

During most of the same weeks, the buses will be joined by the Paddington Bear Trail. This trail covers a larger area and is ideal for those who are not afraid to cycle in London. All of the bear and bus sculptures are painted by local artists to raise money for charity, and in the case of the Paddington Bears, some are designed and painted by celebrities. Nicole Kidman, Peter Capaldi, Emma Watson, Michael Sheen, Benedict Cumberbatch, David Beckham, Guy Ritchie, Ant & Dec, Jonathan Ross, and mayor Boris Johnson are among the celebrity list. The Paddington Trail begins on November the fourth and ends at the end of December.

I know that I am going to get into shape over the next two months while I track down all of the sculptures.

Find out more:
Paddington Bear: http://www.visitlondon.com/paddington/
Year of the Bus: http://www.wildinart.co.uk/bus-art

Artist Alex Chinneck has constructed a building that resembles a part of the London Covent Garden market that seems to flat in mid-air. The installation took 500 hours to paint, and over 100 people were involved in its construction. The piece, titled "Take My Lighting But Don't Steal My Thunder", is on show until October 24.

The artwork is made from foam and is actually held-up by a counterweight designed like a market kiosk, which is located on one of the sides of the installation. The artwork had attracted a lot of attention when I visited it on Saturday morning.

A few weeks ago, reddish-brown faces started to appear out of the brickwork in London's east-end. Some featured eyes and nose. Others featured just the mouth and chin. They seemed to form out of the bricks, as if peeking out with their own expressions. These plaster masks are the work of French artist Yazz and appeared on or just off of Brick Lane in east London. Earlier this year, we had similar sculpture masks appear by French artist Gregos, which I covered here: Street Art Masks by Gregos.

The difference between the two artists is that Yazz's faces and torsos appear to be coming out of the buildings and brickwork. Certainly, his larger pieces based in other countries show the figures appearing to walk out of the walls.

For more information about the artist and to see more of his work, visit his Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/street.yazz

On my visit to Battersea Power Station to see Battersea Fire Garden by Carabosse about a week ago now, I took a walk to pay a new visitor a visit. Courtesy of the Totally Thames Festival, a large wooden hippo turned up and made London his home. The sculpture has been created by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, who is famous for the giant rubber duck that appeared in some Asian countries. The hippo, named 'HippopoThames', is residing in the Thames at Nine Elms and will remain there until the end of the month, when the Totally Thames Festival finishes. The artist was inspired by the river's history in the creation; these animals were once common in the Thames.

The Totally Thames Festival celebrates the river, and in the past, it was simply branded as Thames Festival. It is the last London festival of the summer.

To visit HippopoThames, the nearest station is Vauxhall. Walk down to Nine Elms Lane, along the river, and follow the riverside walk. It is signposted. There's a small garden on the embankment here, and the hippo is located in the river here. Access is free.

A couple of months ago, I mentioned "Fire Garden" to one of my friends and looked it up in a search engine to discover that actually they were going to be in London for the Totally Thames Festival, which was rebranded this year from "Thames Festival", as it was known in previous years. I was excited, and this was the top event on my "Totally Thames" schedule. I saw them in Milton Keynes in 2012 with a friend as the Salisbury Fire Garden event that my partner and I had planned to attend was rained out a week or so before. (Photographs of the Milton Keynes Fire Garden can be seen in my post here.)

The ticketing was a bad joke, unfortuantely. I actually would not have minded paying for the ticket so that I was guaranteed entry. A couple of times each day for a couple of weeks, I took a peek on the website to see if booking had opened, and when they announced that that tickets were randomly given to those who sign up, I was beyond gutted. I was gutted because it was not "first come, first served", as I have never had luck with winning anything. After registering with a couple of different email address and getting a couple of friends to register on my behalf, I was not lucky.  Surprise, surprise!

I decided to turn up by myself after work on the Friday (the day that I wanted to attend) and hope for the best. When I arrived at 6:00, about ten people were already in the "non-ticket-holder" queue in front of me. I waited. I watched the ticket-holder queue get a bit longer. Then, when the queue started to disappear inside, a few people in that queue announced that they had extra tickets. It is no surprise that these people had signed up for multiple tickets and got lucky with the "random ticket ballot" twice. This is why this random ballot ticketing system does not work. The same person enters multiple times, and they get extra tickets. In a few cases, it was people who ordered four tickets, but only some of the people turned up. I was gutted with this whole ticket system. Rant over.

A nice lady had an extra "single person only" ticket to Fire Garden, so I jumped at the chance after the two single people ahead of me got previous offers from other ticket holders. Since I live outside of London, I was worried about staying too late to catch my train home. When I arrived inside the venue, the lights were just starting to be lit and the sun had yet to set. Bars and food stands were available, and I ordered a cocktail and waited for the light to fade.

The Fire Garden was held at Battersea Power Station, which is one of London's most iconic buildings. The power station featured on an album cover by Pink Floyd. The building has been unused for years now, and there was talk that it may be torn down. The Nine Elms area, including the Battersea Power Station, are actually being regenerated at the moment. Battersea Power Station will contain housing and cafes/restaurants once it has finished. At the moment, it is an empty shell.

Fire Garden is the work of French arts company Carabosse. Sculpture, fire, music and smell play a part to create stunning works of art. While walking around, the warmth and heat of the fires added another dimension to this work, as well as the smokey smell and fumes given off. The sculptures also move or erupt with smoke and flame, and some make a noise when they move, and this adds another level to the experience as the viewer awaits and examines the metal frames and figures.

A large collection of glowing orbs was displayed along the Thames, with the silhouettes of metal cranes in the background.

Sculptures covered with fire moved and changed shape before our eyes.

New for the company, and the highlight of the Battersea Fire Garden, is the chandalier made of flames. The Battersea Power Station itself was turned into a flaming sculpture as strands of flames hung from its brickwork.

Some of the sculptures of figures were a little more interactive, such as the two below. One uses a watering can, and the other has a torch pointed at a fountain. Others has faces with expressions, and one even had a clock face.

Some of the sculptures could blow flames out of stacks when a wheel was turned. 

My photographs came out alright considering that I did not bring my tripod as I was not sure that I would get access to the Fire Garden. (I used a tripod and manual settings for my SLR digital camera in Milton Keynes, and the results are noticably better.) 

The Fire Garden is on for a final night on Saturday night. For those who do not have tickets, turn up early and hope that someone who was lucky enough to get tickets has a spare. According to their website, they do let non-ticket holders in after a certain length of time.

When I was in Belfast earlier this summer, I popped in to have a look at Belfast's Cathedral, St. Anne's. The cathedral is in the heart of the famous "Cathedral Quarter" (naturally...), opposite Writer's Square. It is a centre of artists and writers, and that is where it gets its name. The area was bombed extensively in the second World War, so many of the older buildings no longer exist and the cathedral took damage. Near the square was the headquarters of a newspaper that intercepted the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 and published it before England's king had word or sight of it. 

Exterior of St. Anne's in Belfast with its large Celtic Cross, completed 1981

St. Anne's cathedral started to be built in 1899, so it is a relatively new cathedral. After the first World War, a new part of the cathedral was added in memory of the Ulster men and women who served. In addition, there are many plaques around the interior of the church to commemorate those and also to commemorate the victims of other wars. New architectural additions to the cathedral have been made throughout the 1900s and are as recent as 2007.

Interior of St. Anne's

The Baptistery, located near the entrance to the cathedral, has a beautiful ceiling decoration and beautiful stained glass windows. 

Baptistery

The most recent edition to the cathedral was made in 2007 with its modern steel spire; the spire is 40 metres in length. It is known as "The Spire of Hope" and is illuminated at night. Visitors inside the cathedral can look up from the nave and see it. There's a photograph of it from the nave in the photograph below, and you can see part of the metal spire in the first photograph in this entry. 

On the left-hand side as you enter the cathedral is the "Chapel of the Holy Spirit". It is dedicated to St. Patrick. In the photograph below, Saint Patrick is the middle figure, and the boat below is his with the Mourne Mountains in the distance on his way to bring Christianity to the people of Ireland. 

"Spire of Hope" and "Chapel of Holy Spirit"

Stained glass windows

The cathedral also has a reputation of charity at Christmas. This started many years ago when the Dean of Belfast started a "sit out" on the stairs of the cathedral in the week leading up to Christmas to collect donations for local charities. He was nicknamed "Black Santa" because of the outfit he wore to keep warm. The tradition is still held every year before Christmas, the those who collect the charity are still called "Black Santa".

Facade of the cathedral from Writer's Square

I hope you enjoyed photographs of St. Anne's in Belfast.

London's streets are currently home to fifty book bench art sculptures; these have been on display from the beginning of July and will be removed on the 15th of September. The works of art will be auctioned for charity after this. The book benches are created for the National Literacy Trust, which is a charity that helps people learn how to read. The books celebrate reading and authors or books are picked based on London's literary connections. The money raised will allow the National Literacy Trust to continue their work in helping people to read (and to learn how to read). According to the National Literacy Trust website, 16% (5.2 million) adults in Britain are illiterate.

Fever Pitch - Sophie Green

I have been exploring the book trails over the past several weeks and managed to track down the books, so this post is photograph-heavy as there were so many of these that I liked (or liked my photograph of). I cannot choose a favourite because they are all so unique, but I did enjoy the two below. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was particularly nice because one side of the bench was a winter scene with the two characters from the book and the lion on the back. The sides also held hidden treasures. I also liked the bright colours used in the Peter Pan bench. Both benches are on the Bloomsbury trail.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - Quad Digital Mandii Pope

Peter Pan - Sian Storey

My favourite trails were the Bloomsbury and the Riverside trails as there are so many great designs, and the settings were also nice for some of them. Greenwich was a little problematic for me to get to and required making several changes because it is difficult for me to get to, unless I want the O2 at North Greenwich, but the trail was located around the Observatory and the Cutty Sark.

Dr. Seuss - Theodore Suess Giesel (original) created by Jane Headford

I only had one slight issue with the book benches, and that was down to the artwork actually becoming a bench that could be sat on. Seeing the books in the City during my lunch break (even when I took a late lunch to avoid having to ask people to move so that I could snap a photograph) was particularly difficult. A lack of places to sit in the City and glorius summer weather at the start of the book bench art trail meant that every book bench in the City was occupied by at least one person, even outside the normal "lunch" hours. Except for one difficult person in Postman's Park, everyone asked did move, though a handful of those were reluctant to move when nicely asked and didn't understand the fuss. Additionally, I noticed that a couple of the benches had become worn where they had been sat on, and one looked particularly bad. 

The book benches in the tourist areas became popular, especially when the tourists noticed that I was taking a photograph of the bench. One large group of tourists walked by the bench outside the Globe previously. After they saw me photographing it, they became excited and crowded around to get a group photograph. This happened a few times when others took interest after seeing someone else take interest. Seeing the reactions of others is always interesting.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt - Helen Oxenbury (design) created by Gerard Strong

As with other art sculpture charity trails, I did see others specifically mapping out all of the books. I did not see as many families or people in general taking part. Perhaps they did, but I did not notice because the four trails were quite short and I completed most of them during the week.

The Railway Children - One Red Shoe

My favourite classic writer and favourite classic book is The Time Machine, so I had to include that book bench below.

The Time Machine - Di Ralston

Many of the book benches had an event hosted around them. For example, one event was for a world record attempt  for the largest number of people dressed as Sherlock Holmes. Others included book giveaways or a photo booth opportunity. I was going to try to make the James Bond book giveaway, but unfortunately something came up at work and I could not attend it to get a free James Bond book.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole - Andrea Joseph

Without further discussion, I have included the remainder of the photographs below because there were quite a few that I liked or liked my photograph of. These also give a good view on the selection of different books and artwork.

Shakespeare - Lucy Dalzell

Noughts and Crosses - Oliver Dean

The Origin of the Species - Jane Callan

Elmer the Elephant - David McKee (original), recreated by Giles Boardman

Peter Pan - Laura Elizabeth Bolton

Captain Scott - Charles Bezzina

Gruffalo and Scarecrows - Alex Scheffler

How to Train Your Dragon - Cressida Cowell (original) - by Gerard Strong

Samuel Pepys' Diary - Michele Petit-Jean

1984 - Thomas Dowdeswell

Various bookbenches

To discover the trails, visit the official website for the book benches at: http://www.booksabouttown.org.uk

For more information about the National Literacy Trust, visit http://www.literacytrust.org.uk 

This summer, South Bank hosts the "Festival of Love". This festival celebrates all aspects of love and romance, and the Same Sex Couple Act in particular. To celebrate, there is a group wedding taking place at the end of the month. Other events include music, art, poetry, workshops, burlesque, cocktail-making, caberet, and so much more. There's also the Museum of Broken Relationships. (The Museum of Broken Relationships displays items donated by the public that were a memory of a failed relationship.)

"Temple of Agape" is a wooden structure painted with bright colours and 1960s-1970s style typography. The artists behind this, Luke Morgan and Morag Myserscough, were inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.

There are also several brightly-coloured boxes made of neon ribbon along the river that offer a little bit of privacy.

A couple of slides also offer family fun, and these are located at the top of the South Bank area. The Temple of Agape can be used to climb up to that area instead of taking the stairs up and then back down again.

Located on the south side of the Royal Festival Hall where the South Bank market is located are several streamers, known as Tanabata Fukinagashi decorations. These commemorate the Japanese festival of stars. The story is about two lovers represented by the stars Vega and Altair, who are only allowed to meet once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month by crossing the Milky Way.

Tanabata Fukinagashi

There's various works of art with love associations that can be found both inside and outside the buildings on South Bank.

More information about South Bank's "Festival of Love" can be read here: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/festival-of-love

Throughout the month of July, Greenwich Village in London hosted a charity sculpture trail of 32 animal sculptures based on well-known UK creatures. These includes owls, cows, pigs, horses, and frogs. Many of the shops and Greenwich Market contained one or more of these animal sculptures on display. Books About Town, another sculpture trail, also had a couple smaller-sized books on display as a part of this trail. 

The sculptures were painted by Corelli College students, and they were painted to raise money for various animal charities. The sculptures were also meant to engage and inspire visitors to use social media to share their photographs. 

Unfortunately the animal trail has ended now, but more of these animal sculptures can be seen on their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/corellicreaturecarnival

A new mural by Cityzen Kane appeared in Shoreditch recently. This is the largest one by the artist yet. Cityzen Kane is an artist who uses moulds to create clay sculptures that are then pasted up onto walls. The artist takes inspiration for African art. I published an entry with more of his work and information almost two years ago, and this can be read here: Street Art: Cityzen Kane - Jenikya's Blog. 

The new piece features a red and black design with a masked face in the middle. The artwork is dedicated in memory to the artist's son.

The last time the artist added anything to the streets was last autumn (New Street Art by Cityzen Kane - Jenikya's Blog), but this piece is the largest one yet. 

From last summer, nearly 100 elephant sculptures have been on tour in various shopping malls in cities around the UK. The tour started in Watford, west London, and is due to finish at the end of July in Bromley, London. Manchester, Nottingham, Glasgow, Cardiff, and Norwich were other cities that the elephants visited in order to raise money for the charity to aid in elephant conservation. (For those interested, read my entry about the elephant parade in London in 2010: Parading Artistic Elephants in London - Jenikya's Blog.)

'We Love Mosha' by Diane Francis

I saw the elephants at Uxbridge, west London. Each of the fourteen cities hosted thirty elephants for approximately one month. I am assuming that different venues had a few different elephants while part of the herd was the same in all fourteen venues during their 2013-2014 tour. Unfortunately, the elephant parade's shop ran out of maps and postcards. Without this map (it was also not available online), I managed to track down 26 elephants, not including the smaller-sized elephants.

Various elephants in the 2013-2014 elephant parade

A few celebrities had a chance to design an elephant for the elephant parade. These included Rylan Clark, who appeared on X-Factor, the band Union J, who also appeared on X-Factor, and model Claudia Schiffer. Rylan's is the sparkly grey elephant above. Union J's is the larger image. Schiffer's is the dark green elephant with shadows of trees on it. 

'Happiness is for Everyone' by Elaine Maher

This elephant parade was not restricted to one area of the UK, so many other cities could see the sculptures and learn about the charity, but this was heavily-focused to northern England, southern Scotland and the 'suburbs' of London area. 

'Red Arrow' by Richard Powell

'Stone Rosie' by Angie Rogers; 'Mega Nova' by Pete Fowler

Unlike other animal charity sculpture events, I did not see many people and families looking for the elephant sculptures, and my visit was on a sunny weekend when families would have been out. Although the sculptures were in one place, they were easy to see, but some of the fun and excitement was also taken out of this exploration as they are all located in a couple areas throughout a shopping mall. However, it was still nice to see them but I prefer the actual sculpture trails that often lead one to explore or walk other areas in town centres.

'An Elephant's Tale' by Katie Sollohub

'Razzle Dazzle" by Sheara Abrahams

'Sunday Best' by Anna Masters

The elephants will be in Uxbridge until this weekend. Afterwards, they will be in Bromley for a month before the tour comes to an end.

Have you managed to see the elephants on their UK national tour (well, excluding a large area of it)? What did you think, and which elephant is your favourite?

Paris artist Gregos is self-taught and has created a series of masks that are placed around cities around the globe. The artist has been creating street art since the mid-2000s, and masks are one of the common; there are over 500 masks pasted up onto walls all over the world. The artist was in London recently, and a few dozen of these masks went up onto the streets within a day or two. However, many of these were removed/stolen very quickly.

The technology used to create the masks is 3D scanning with 3D printing and adjustment of wireframes before a plaster mould is created. These are then painted and pasted onto walls.

I have only managed to spot a few of these masks, but I have seen that there is more out there. However, some of those were taken immediately as I walked to some of the areas looking the same day or the day after they were pasted up. I had a lot of fun looking around Shoreditch and Spitalfields and discovering these.

Gregos' work reminds me of some pieces that appeared around London last summer. The pieces were by Urban Solid (See my published write-up here: Street Art: Urban Solid). 

Sometimes, the masks pop out because they are brightly-coloured. Other times, the masks seemingly blend in to their surrounding.

For more information about the artist and photographs of his work, see http://www.gregosart.com or https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gregos-Art/118749327867

Please tell me if you know where more of the masks are located. I would like to track down all of these.

This post showcases two artists who work with sculpture: Isaac Cordal and Marcus Juncal. Both have visited London in the past and have left small sculptures around. I occassionally discover a new one that I have never seen before; they have been there for a little while now, and a lot of the work is looking weathered now.

Isaac Cordal is an artist from Brussels who creates and installs several ceramic/cement figures around city streets in a series of portrayals called "Cement Eclipes". The figures are placed in absurb situations to portray city life and interactions with the city around them. These can be on the tops of signs and buildings. Often, many people can walk past them without noticing them.

Columbia Road

Various torsos

A series of cement figurines by Isaac Cordal

For more information about Isaac Cordal's work, view http://cementeclipses.com/Works/ or http://www.flickr.com/photos/27963055@N02/ 

Marcus Juncal's work can be seen in a few places around Brick Lane, but it's fading quite a bit now as the work has been there for a long while now. They feature plastic dolls with McDonalds restaurant bags over their heads and bodies. The artwork seems to relay a message to the viewer. 

For more of the artist's work, visit the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/JUNCAL-Street-art-/121876764495608 

I have been finally catching up with my backlog of street art that I have taken over the past eighteen months, so I will be featuring more recent pieces earlier than a lot of times in the past, as this also enables me to spot any new pieces and upload them. Last year's treasured finds for me would include meeting Paul "Don" Smith and getting a spray-painted image in my sketch pad (New Street Art and a Meeting with Paul Don Smith (the Banker)) and discovering street artist ALO's work (Street Art: Alo, Part 3). There have been other highlights as well, of course. 

Last year was a busy one for street art, and I am hoping that 2014 has a lot more in store. Here are a few that I have managed to capture so far this year, and this includes a few leftover pieces from later in 2013. 

Jonesy, (originally blogged about here: Street Art: Jonesy) added new pieces around. I captured this bull with human legs and missing arms high on top of a sign on Brick Lane.

Jonesy

Anna Laurini (Street Art: Anna Laurini) was busy last summer, and I occassionally spot a new piece, such as the one below: "when the birdcatcher comes occupy the sky".

Anna Laurini

Cranio made a big impression on London at the beginning of 2013 (Street Art: Cranio), and there were quite a few of his pieces dotted around. Unfortunately, some of his work was eventually painted over, but he visited London again toward the end of the year and painted a new mural off of Brick Lane and fixed the tagged-over work on Rivington Street as well as work on some collaborations (Street Art: Cranio, Senna, HIN, and Mo) and pieces across London. I only recently discovered his pieces on the inside walls of Juno on Shoreditch High Street, but I assume that these were created during his visit toward the end of last year. 

Cranio

Millo, an Italian artist, visited London early in 2013 and left several murals and shutter paintings around east London. He visited London again toward the end of 2013 and collaborated with artist Hunto (Street Art: Hunto) on a piece before completing some crude drawings on the north end of Brick Lane and additional pieces on gates in Shoreditch.  

Millo

Millo

Early this year, new colourful mushrooms and some baby mushrooms sprouted up in east London. These are the works of Christiaan Nagel, whom I blogged about here: Street Art: London's Mushrooms and Baroque the Streets: Dulwich Street Art. Nagel's previous mushrooms have slowly disintegrated over the course of the past year, beginning with the colour fade and the top of the mushrooms being broken off slowly due to weathering. Since the old pieces have mainly disappeared, I have been happy to see some new pieces sprouting up. In addition, there are several baby mushrooms in clusters. The first batch was spotted on Rivington Street; it consisted of a cluster of red baby mushrooms with one single hot pink mushroom. Addition mushrooms sprouted in Dalston and on Brick Lane. 

Nagel

Nagel

Nathan Bowen created some work at the end of last year, and he's also been pasting up signs with his demon character throughout the summer and later part of last year. Orignally, I blogged about him and his work here: Street Art: Nathan Bowen. Since that post, I've captured a few of his signs. The artist was particularly busy at the end of 2013 with some new pieces appearing on Brick Lane and Sclater Street as well as on the railway bridge above Borough Market. 

Nathan Bowen

Nathan Bowen

Nathan Bowen also collaborated with artist Skeleton Cardboard. I remember seeing a couple pieces of his work near Stepney Green at the beginning of last year, but there was nothing major in east London. Skeleton Cardboard's work mainly appeared on Sclater Street with some skeletons appearing on the walls and drawn onto pieces of paper. Additionally, a piece was located at the southern end of Brick Lane, which was a collaboration with Bowen.

Skeleton Cardboard

Dscreet was busy at the end of last year with a large mural painted on the Village Underground (New Street Art by Dscreet at Village Underground). I initially created an entry with some of his work, as there is a lot of it to be seen in east London: Street Art: Dscreet. Earlier in the year, he painted inside the art house in Dulwich. Some of his work was painted over in a popular spot on Bacon Street, and he reclaimed it twice with a new piece. The trademark owl's head appeared off Great Eastern Street.

Dscreet

Additional artwork appeared, including the pieces below.

Eyer

Charlotte Posner

Ben Wilson, an artist who paints bubble gum that has been tracked onto pavements, must have been busy in the autumn in east London. I saw him at work in Dulwich (Open Day at the Street Art House, Dulwich Arts Festival: Part 1), but I had never seen his work on the streets before. I was happy to come across one of his colourful bubblegum pieces on Rivington Street.

Ben Wilson

Ben Slow, famous for realistic portraits, painted a wall of a bakery in Dalston Junction. More of his work can be seen here: Street Art: Ben Slow.

Ben Slow

Artist Paul "Don" Smith painted in a couple of popular places just off of Brick Lane in the new year. One of the highlights of 2013 was seeing the artist painting using stencils and spray paint twice. (For more information about the artist, read New Street Art from Don 'Paul' Smith, including pieces from Whitecross Street). In addition to the artwork prompting visitors to give charity aid, the following figure appeared on Hanbury Street. 

Paul "Don" Smith

Two tributes to Ronnie Biggs, from The Great Train Robbery, were located off Shoreditch High Street and on Hanbury Street.

Paul "Don" Smith

I will continue to post new artwork; I hope that 2014 is a great year for some new street art and graffiti pieces in London.

At the end of July, the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square received a new resident in the form of a giant blue rooster. Previously, the plinth was occupied by a boy on a rocking horse, a work by Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset.  Photographs of it can be seen in my entry here: Trafalgar Square Fourth Plinth 'Rocking Horse'. 

The new work, Hahn/Cock, is by German artist Katharina Fritsch, and it is meant to symbolise posturing and awakening, according to the artist (1). Like a few of the fourth plinth's past sculptures, the giant rooster has created controversy. The giant blue bird will be resident on the plinth until later in 2014.

Blue bird

1) Sinclair, Mark. The big blue cock is nearly here. http://creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/june/blue-cock-fourth-plinth [27 June, 2013].