LONDON: STREET ART IN SHOREDITCH

The Shoreditch Street Art Tour https://www.shoreditchstreetarttours.co.uk/ was one of my favorite experiences in London this year. Let me get this out of the way… I regret not having seen some of the London standards for tourists (Big Ben, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, etc.). However, I take some consolation in knowing that I saw them 40 years ago. So I’ll let that regret go and move onward! They will be there tomorrow in a way that street art is not intended to be. On the plus side, I was not elbow-nudged in crowded hallways or passing time in long queues… and this experience was definitely an eye-opener!

As for my preoccupation with street art – well, it’s social commentary; the product of a viewpoint by a person experiencing a particular point in time and needing to express that view. It is more than just tagging a name under a bridge. There was a motivation for what was painted, glued, sculpted, etc. into cityscape. It’s incentive for us to LOOK around and to be surprised by non-conventional art that is witty, clever, obvious or surreal that the average person may have unwittingly passed by but was meant to stumble upon.

It is not always spray paint. (Although, there is irony in a canned medium used to express a non-canned concept.) There can be a subtlety to the message or a blatant statement. That most of this art seems to spontaneously appear overnight – like unsolicited thoughts and ideas that pop into one’s head. Like whispers in a crowded room that you might overhear in passing, that shock you with their truth but excite you with knowledge of a juicy secret. And if you are seeking out this art in London, find Dave of Shoreditch Street Art Tours. He is constantly searching for new additions, discussing with the artists, and then will share and enlighten you with Indiana Jones-like excitement whatever he has found.

The above photo is from Dave’s phone (the artist Ben Wilson at work) and a couple samples that we found in Shoreditch. Ben Wilson has created over 10,000 of these gems. If you’re lucky, maybe you will stumble across one someday… or better yet, the artist himself!

Contact information: https://www.shoreditchstreetarttours.co.uk/