street art

Above And Beyond The Streets

docoBanksy has emerged from their bunker, taking a road trip down the M4 to That London last week. It was a pilgrimage of sorts and a kind of celebration. They were visiting the Beyond The Streets exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. It’s an exploration of the history and legacy of street art. Our merry prankster felt right at home.

doco tried a little stickery intervention of their own, but polite and observant gallery staff foiled the effort. Oh well, always worth a try. Di-faced goodies were dropped elsewhere in the vicinity. Eagle-eyed observers might want to keep an eye open. doco is always happy to make an exhibition of themselves in public.

Attempted contribution to the show stymied, they contented themselves with a dignified exit through the gift shop and a couple of supportive purchases. When in doubt, indulge in retail therapy.

But the episode put the urge to restart the fire and bring art to the people raging into doco’s fevered little brain. What to do? How to kick things up a notch? doco deals in the interconnection between subject and artist. The two loop together, informing and generating, subtext piling on subtext, theme and commentary spinning in a self-powering cycle. Who is doco? Where is doco? Why is doco? At what point does the art stop and the person begin? If there isn’t a clearly defined point (and kids, if you’ve been with us on the ride this long you know nothing about this project is clearly defined) then wherewhathow do the cross points and borders of myth and mania combine? 

It’s easy to get lost in all this. The gods of graffiti and and the saints of street art are cruel and fickle deities. Their church is cavernously vast. The best thing you can do is pick a wall and start stickering or spraying. Make a mark. Shout your name. The fundamental need for human self-expression is at the core of street art. If you can land your tag in a place where everyone can see it, then you have a chance, however fleeting, for immortality. At least until the council guy with the paint pot and the big brush comes around. 


What, then, is doco planning? Let’s put it like this. Hollywood managed three billboards. We don’t have that sort of budget. But prepare to see our sticker game get well and truly pimped. Somehow, doco has gathered friends who are happy to help out and bring the maddest of their ideas to life. doco is humbled. doco is grateful. doco is–honestly a little confused as to why people would want to keep this crazy train rolling. But they do, so doco blows the whistle and shovels coal into the engine. Are they just blowing off steam, or are they on track this time? Is there a destination or are we, as ever, just going round and round in circles? Inevitably, the only way to find out is to watch the streets. Let’s just say we’re going big for this one. We don’t think you’re going to miss it. Keep your feeds locked to this channel, and doco will make dang sure you won’t.

Dom and Stewy at Portobello

A couple of months ago we talked about a short film that Dom made in partnership with elusive Bristol street artist Stewy. That film was shown at the People’s Museum in Manchester as part of a day in which he re-created one of his works–a stencil portrait of feminist icon Mary Wollstonecroft.

Dom and Stewy’s film was accepted for screening at the Portobello Film Festival, taking place in early September. It was shown in the iconic Pop-Up Cinema underneath the Westway, and presented an opportunity for an art happening that Stewy couldn’t resist.

Stewy’s work is largely based on the notion of site-specific portraiture–that is, celebrating famous people in the areas where they lived and worked. The Westway and Ladbroke Grove is rich in pop culture history, and Stewy chose his subject carefully.

The Pop-Up has hosted graf work by renowned artists like Blek Le Rat, so Stewy was in good company when he and Dom rocked up at the Pop-up, spray-cans and stencils in hand. Under cover of darkness, Stewy got to work.

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The work went quickly (the joy of stencil graf is that all of the prep is done off-site, so you can throw up a piece incredibly quickly) and within ten minutes the Pop-Up had a new resident.

None other than the mighty Ian Dury.

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The documentary was well-received by the usual crowd of West London scenesters. Dom and Stewy made their way back to Bristol with the warm feeling that they’d definitely made an impression.

As a sign of appreciation for Dom’s hard work on the documentary, Stewy presented him with an original work. This is Laurent Fignon, French cycling legend and one of Dom’s heroes. Lovely gesture, don’t you think?

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***BREAKING NEWS***

We’ve heard that Stewy, Woolstonecraft And Graffiti has been nominated for a Documentary Award at the 2015 Portobello Film Festival. This is obviously great news and serves as vindication for the hard work that both Dom and Stewy put into the film. Well done, chaps!

In celebration… let’s ‘ave a little dance, eh?

Stewy, Wollstonecroft And Graffiti

Made by Wade have just delivered a short documentary about street artist Stewy, which was screened as part of a day showing the creation of one of his works at the People’s Museum in Manchester. That image, of iconic early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, was featured in a BBC programme on the suffragettes and their legacy. A clip from that programme, Suffragettes Forever: The Story of Women and Power, starts off the film.

Stewy’s work focusses on stencilled portraits of famous figures in settings that are meaningful to them. For example, his Dylan Thomas piece is on a wall in Laugherne, the town where the poet spent the last four years of his life. Meanwhile, Manchester is home to portraits of hometown icons like Tony Wilson and Frank Sidebottom.

The documentary features an exclusive interview with the reclusive Stewy, shot in a burnt-out garage somewhere in Bristol. We’ve made sure that his identity remains a secret. Stewy stresses that interest should be shown in the art rather than the artist.

Dominic and Made By Wade have followed and documented Stewy since his first work, a cheeky stencilled pigeon, appeared in Shoreditch in 2007. Since then he has gone from strength to strength, and his art is enjoyed and embraced by the communities in which he works.

Unusually, he seeks permission before spraying. This explains why works such as his Wollstonecraft, which is on the side of the Unitarian chapel in Newington Green where she lived and worked, has become a part of the scenery of the area rather than simply being painted over as graffiti.

As part of the show, Stewy also created a new edition of his Wollstonecraft image, with a green background as a nod to the locality in which the original is sited.

Following the Manchester screening, the documentary has been shown at Bluescreen in Bristol, with further excursions planned this summer. Keep it locked to Made By Wade’s news page for more info on where you can see this film on the big screen.

For more information on Stewy and his work, check out http://www.stewy.eu/

Now for a musical interlude, as part of Made By Wade’s intention to both entertain and educate. Please enjoy Like Soldiers Do by Billy Bragg, as featured in the documentary.

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