Friday, September 29, 2006

Xbox job in brummy land...

Hey this is the latest job fresh off the Monorex conveyor belt! Inkfetish, Alfamale and Ewen all fused together to drop a super duper set of Xbox coloured characters...These are the finished results.



The job took two days and had its ups and downs with Ewen and myself breaking down at 7am outside chalk farm station - 5mins into our journey to Birmingham! But from there the day just got better and better...



It was commissioned by Xbox for the launch of there new Gamestation store in the city centre, and becomes our third job with these computer giants now - it's great when a company as big as Xbox digs your shit!



Oh and that funny looking building is the futuristic Selfridges store...amazing inside and out!

Ok I'm off to sleep as I have been awake for 18 hours now...goodnight!

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Designers Block closing party - New friends were made!

With Squid inc. in force finishing off their wall, and studio Henbo blitzing another space on the other side - we were finally rocking and rolling...

The whole floor looked amazing, every corner by the end of day five had some form of artwork on them...thanks to Morgan and Jay for painting the pillars!

After everything was wrapped up, we all went upstairs for the after party finale....what a night that turned out to be! With some super crazy bands and free booze things again got a little fun...

Our guest from Japan (Aiko) from Furi Furi really enjoyed herself - she was over on a little European tour and we were asked to take her out and about (showing her the sights).

Thanks to all the people that came down: Gabriella, Taka, Morgan, Ewen, Jay, Sichi & friends, Squid Inc., George and co, Inkfetish & finally Piers & Rory for making it all happen!

Same again next year :)

Sunday, September 24, 2006

One big bar crawl....on the creative streets of Shoreditch!



Went on a massive free art party crawl on Thursday, Me and Gabriella started off @ Designers Block where the tasty Russian beers were flowing and then we moved onto Brick lane for a quick curry...



Once topped up with some super tasty Bangle food we rolled onto Kept and D*Face's showcase gallery at the Stolen Space - Beer had already run out :( so after catching up with some peeps we moved on.



Next stop being the Scrawl collective's party down near the vice bar, it was hosted in the most amazing space - A huge open planned car workshop with two old tube cars placed neatly on the roof!!

The canvases made for the show were all spot on with Danny Sangra and the boys smashing it!! I particularly liked Will Barras's biggest canvas hung from the ceiling.

Again the booze had run dry but the party was still booming with shit loads of creative people...After we had a good look at all the tight artwork by Scrawl we slowly moved on home.

Good night

Designers Block [ ] [ ] featuring Monorex



Sorry I have been so distant, me and the fellow Monorex troopers have been working hard on a couple of fairly prestigious projects....one being painting 1200 sq ft of fresh white warehouse wall @ The infamous Designers block......



Need to say a big thank you to Piers for getting us involved, and also a massive big up to all the artists that have spared there time to come along over the 5 days to paint this huge space! THANKS GUYS...



We basically turned a cellar of this massive building into one big Secret Wars battle field....with over 12 artists competing they went brush to brush to the death! It reminded me of the scene in Fight Club where a gathering of people came to battle in the basement of a bar...

Like I have told you before Secret Wars are going on all over the place - you just don't know!!

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Teck 1 rips it up @ the Yungun/ Mr Thing Album launch



Our boy Teck 1 smashed it at Cargo last night with a sick Silent Soundz/Secret Wars piece on the famous brick walls....



With a full packout in attendance and a shit load of press, Teck flourished in the busy surroundings.



The night was a wicked laugh with Verb T, Harry Love, Yungun, Mr Thing and Skitz all bringing down the house on the 1's and 2's.



Until next time...

Dinner at Tim & Ophelia's



Me and Gabriella were invited to check out the newly weds new crib down in the deepest darkest streets of Canonbury! The food was spot on and the hosts were more than cheerful....The roast lamb was so nice I am still dreaming of it now!

Oh and I stumbled across a fish and chip shop called "Ali Baba's traditional fish & chips", I thought that was pretty funny at the time but is suppose I was tanked full of wine.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Some new friends I have acquired...:)

If you know me you have probably seen my small but rapidly growing toy collection, well this is my next bunch of friends i bought to sit alongside Pete Fowler's Monsters and James Jarvis's crew...

If you was born like me in the early 80's then you should remember the Visionairies!!! They kicked some serious hologram ass...

Anyway enough chattin please admire them below

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Enjoy

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Air Festival - Nike Party @ Nike Town London

I was recently invited to attend the "invite only" launch of AIR, this was a special super duper party celebrating everything NIKE AIR!! Held at the mega store Nike town this little party had all the ingredients for a perfect night of fun....A basketball net where you could test and measure your jump, art gallery with I-saw, Dave White and co all exhibiting and to top it all off free booze and canapés!



Me and my beautiful lady Gabriella went along to see what all the fuss was about and as soon as we got there it was buzzing with people who didn’t have a ticket but were desperate to get in. Then after wrestling and body slamming a few people we arrived at the front of the queue where our friend Acyde was standing. He shuffled us in and directed us to the party, it was really surreal with cameras lined up taking snaps of you as you pass through to the bar.



The party was a great success with every pissed up and jumping around in their Nike kicks, I know I was wasted alongside Gabriella who was shaking her butt on the dance floor in front of the legend Jazzie B.... I met some cool peeps there from Dave White to Dizzie Rascal (and his diamond grillz), all in all I would give the party a 7/10!



On the way home we hit a 24 hr sushi bar which is pretty random and shuffled on home for a long nights sleep.

Looking forward to the next one

Monday, September 04, 2006

Secret Wars - Heat 1/2


Secret Wars is a battle like no other. Similar to Fight Club it thrives on word of mouth. Put simply, it is a war between artists. The ultimate question however, is who will reign supreme? The only weapon they carry is the pen they hold in their hand.

The rules:
There are sixteen artists in this first series of the competition, each of whom have been hand picked to battle against one another for approximately one and a half hours each round. The aim of the game is to create a piece of art that is going to impress the carefully selected judging panel, who will then cast their vote at the end of each round, determining who will make it to the next stage. The battle itself has been "Set up like the FA cup system in football, each round will be a one on one battle to the death."

LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE! The date: Saturday the 26th August.

As the tiny Juno bar in Shoreditch, London made way for the event of the year; the artists Sam (under the alias Wood), Gustav Balderdash, Capt. Bukioe and Okkle were stretching their fingers and limbering up for the tournaments first battle. Wood and Gustav were first up to the podium and what a battle it turned out to be. So different in style it made it very hard as a spectator to guess what way the judging panel would sway. Wood's piece, with its intricate detail and highly complex meaning had no similarity towards Gustav’s character set-up. Totally different artistic styles brought together not to join hands, but to compete to avoid elimination.



With a judging panel consisting of Matsuri's Taka, Paul from clothing giant Terratag and Edding Markers (sponsoring the event) hero Andy, there was definitely something to be nervous about. With the hour and a half drawing to a close, it was now time for the panel to start making their decision on which artist should go through to the next round. Votes were cast and Gustav Balderdash beat Wood by one vote.

The first casualty of this tournament, Wood described the theme behind his loosing piece, "It's based on War. It is a battle between circle and squares. I wanted to ask the question... Will there ever be peace in geometry? For me the answer is no, not if money can be made from their differences."



Gustav Balderdash who described his work as "clean, fuddy-duddy and sometimes bitter" had these words to say on the theme of his winning piece, "it is basically about an old man reminiscing on his younger days and past adventures." Although pleased with his win, Gustav was not so optimistic about winning the tournament. He saw himself facing Capt. Bukioe in the final and loosing. Capt. Bukioe of course was up next against Gloucesters very own Picasso, Okkle.

From the offset it was clear that this second battle was going to be much harder for the judges to decide. Both artists Capt. Bukioe and Okkle had very similar styles. Like Gustav in the earlier battle, both had character pieces, but both quirky in their own way. Gustav's character won in the last round, but would this round leave the judges torn. Capt. Bukioe had more of a grimy piece with a hooded ape smoking a spliff and drinking a beer, whilst Okkle went for a more cute design with a whale like creature and a cat holding a paintbrush. Both artists tried to make a dig at each other’s pieces with clouds of lightning and the hoody on Bukioe's ape, reminding the spectators that this tournament is really a War of art.



Pens down and the judges had to come to their decision. Some members of the crowd were quite shocked with the outcome. Andy from Edding Markers was the only judge to vote for Capt. Bukioe therefore eliminating him from the tournament and rendering Okkle the winner. Gustav's prediction of facing the Captain in the final was quashed. Instead he would be facing Okkle the underdog who battled to victory in the first stage.

Reading's very own Capt. Bukioe, who described his style as, "sketchy, lopsided and bitter" did not have too much to say on the matter of losing. He has high hopes of Gustav going on to beat Okkle and also win the tournament. He described the theme of his piece as, "The theme of my piece tonight? Hmm I dunno, Reading".

Okkles main inspiration comes from artists like Pete Fowler and Jon Burgerman, described his winning piece as, "a bit quirky". Okkle decided to take part in the tournament after being contacted over the Internet about a year ago by Monorex's very own Terry Guy. When asked if he had a game plan to get through the tournament, Okkle replied that he would, "play it by ear".

This laid back chappy with his cartoony designs may go far, but he certainly has a battle to the death in the quarterfinals when he faces Gustav Balderdash who is mates with Capt. Buckio the looser in Okkles round.

The end of this month sees battle three and four taking place, with artists D Bug facing MR Shrew and Fybe facing Teck 1 each fighting for their own place in the quarter finals. The winner of the tournament will receive a £500 cash prize, a gold pen trophy, their very own foosball table and numerous other goodies. The pressure is building as we get one step closer to the Secret Wars grand final.

Why not check Secretwars.co.uk for more info on the fixtures, the prizes and also the memories of each event. This month's War is on Saturday the 30th of September. With a new judging panel, more DJs, drink offers and of course the live art battle it's set to be an even bigger night than the last.

Gabriella Weekes