nonpermanent featuring Secret Wars (On Tour) - Birmingham @ The Custard Factory

nonpermanent featuring Secret Wars "Allstars edition" - Pete Fowler vs. Jon Burgerman

All in the name of charity....we dropped a huge live art bash up at the lovely Custard Factory in B'ham, and what an event it turned out to be.

With lots of creative heads turning up including Ian Stevenson, Kid Acne, Pete Fowler, Jon Burgerman, Lunartik, Teck 1, Agent, and more - we decided to give out £3000 worth of POSCA pens to the crowd and then asked them to get involved by doodling on the endless amounts of white walls! what a mess they left.....10 large buckets of emulsion to clean!

A big thanks to Ian and Matt for laying this whole show on and look forward to collaborating again in the near future...

Our future home - a Shoreditch train carriage...

New home from March 07...Fully working train carriage in East London

Office commission - Simple Genius @ Whitechapel

Coming soon...

Secret Wars - 1st Semi Final - Teck 1 vs. Gustav (Chris)

With the final only a matter of weeks away, the crowds turned up in droves for the Secret Wars semi final between Gustav Balderdash and Teck 1. Juno bar was all set for the night, having had a pre semi final Secret Wars revamp on the walls. The whole venue is plastered with black and white spray from various artists who either have been or possibly will be Secret wars entrants in the future.

It all looks very well put together and just syncs the battle to the venue even more. The night was to see a slight change from the regular formula with only two artists stepping out in front of the crowds. With obviously half a wall extra to fill for each contender, the battle would be rendered a much harder task to pull off. Because of the extra space the artists had an extended time of 120 minutes to finish their piece, rather than the usual 90. Pens a ready and with the timer set the battle could begin. As anyone who has ever witnessed any of the tournaments will know, it is impossible to decide on a favourite contender till the end of each battle. It is only when you have the whole finished piece n front of you that you can really judge the artists technique and planning.

From the offset it was clear that the two artists had totally different artistic approaches. Gustav Balderdash immediately got down to his sketch filling a small amount of space with what looked like the start of a human shaped character. Teck 1 on the other hand started with a sketch that filled the whole space, followed by a quick dash up the ladder to adorn the surface with black paint, reminiscent of his first battle against Fybe back in September of last year.With each of the pieces taking shape, it was easy to see the different use of space between the two artists. Gustav had drawn a fierce wrestler character wearing a mask and the words “El Nino” engraved on its teeth. The wrestler, whilst holding two plugs had robot like arm extensions protruding from its wrists giving the impression that this character was powering something robotic.

This little detail may have been a slight dig towards Teck 1’s famous robot character. Teck 1 as always kept the battle theme alive with a cleverly thought out plan to attack Gustav’s crew, The Undergrowth by composing a piece of a country scene with a granny mowing down the lawn. Included were the slogans, “Mown Down” and “The Undergrowth”. Once the timer announced the battles end, the judges Hugo from Daydream magazine and Andreas from German sticker company Cromatics had to climb the ladder and cast their vote. After a five minute long explanation from Andreas, he voted for Teck 1, leaving the next vote down to the crowds.

With an 118 decibel Secret Wars record high reading on the clap meter, and to the surprise of many of the crowd (especially the Teck 1 fan who had turned up with a mega phone in hand) Gustav Balderdash won the vote. It was all up to Daydream’s Hugo to determine the fate of each artist by casting his deciding vote. With all eyes and cameras facing the front, Hugo announced that the winner of the first semi final was … Teck 1.Congratulations to both lads who done well to get so far. Who will join Teck in the live grand final? Why not come on down to Juno bar on March the 8th to find out.

written by Gabriella Weekes (Nani?)http://nanilondon.blogspot.com/

Check www.secretwars.co.uk for more details.

Secret Wars - Q final 2 - 27th Jan @ Juno

SECRET WARS - QUARTER FINAL (2) SICKBOY vs ALFAMALE & INKIE vs 5683

Photography by Micheal Antoniou

Woohoo, the second night in the quarterfinal stage of the Secret Wars tournament is finally here. The night saw the biggest artists in the whole first series fight with all guns blazing. Without a doubt the night superseded any of the previous battles in terms of crowd turn out. Juno bar was officially packed to the rafters with eager fans desperate to get a glimpse of their favourite artist’s piece. Due to the overcrowding even the artists had minimal foot space behind their walls, which meant they really had to concentrate on what they were drawing, as it would be impossible to stand back and observe the piece as a whole.

First battle of the night was between Bristol’s Sickboy and Kingston’s Alfamale. Both artists have two totally different battle styles, with Sickboy’s quirky and random approach contrasting to Alfamale’s more dark and sinister line of attack.

With less of a status in the Graff world, Alfamale had more of a challenge on his hands, but he certainly had loads of support in the crowds and once the battle got off to a start it was pleasure to watch both of the guys at work.

Sickboy on the far left of the wall, decided to follow suit with a similar style to that of his winning piece from his first battle back in October. Drawn was a factory-like building with a tree growing from the roof, symbolising the difference between the two mediums of nature and man-made, fake produce. This was shown through the image of an apple which both appeared on the tree, but also on and around the factory. At the top left of the piece there was written the slogan, “Why eat an apple…when you can bite my style.” Because of the quote the idea sprang to mind that Sickboy was making a direct attack at the artists that sell-out and seek commercialism as a way of making money. Just as the tree grows apples, the factory also produces apples, which get boxed up and sent away. Sickboy even drew an apple in a television set showing how marketable it can be. The apple, it appears, represents the artists drawing or style, whilst the small crying character in the centre of the tree appears to be a symbolic representation of an artist who is so far removed and isolated from the actual art.

It was ironic therefore that Alfamale chose to draw a city scene where the only buildings on show were imitations of Sickboy’s famous temple design. Alfamale, whose love of the whole battle theme certainly helped out in earlier stages of the tournament, certainly didn’t let the crowd down. In the foreground was a temple with Alfa’s skull character emblazoned on the roof. The background consisted of a giant baby character in a romper suit, with what looked like chicken pock’s, (an obvious direct attack at Sickboy’s name), stomping on all the temple’s whilst ripping several of them from the ground with it’s arm. Very bold in design, there were also little details to be found, such as the dummy hanging from the baby’s wrist, as well as the “?” on the dancing character’s hat in the foreground of the piece.

Once time was over it was left for judges Lunartik and Whiteman of Non-Permanent to cast their votes alongside the clap meter, which rendered (much to his surprise) Alfamale the winner. Who would be next to join him in the semi-finals, only the next battle would decide.

After a short interval featuring entertainment from the likes of beat boxing sensation Dirty Harry, the second battle could begin. The two artists fighting it out for the chance to meet Alfamale in the semi-finals were 5683 and Inkie.

In his piece artist 5683 attacked Inkie’s status more than his name; it was a clever and slightly different approach than winner Alfamale. Composed was a piece consisting of a gigantic eyeball headed angel, seated in a wheel chair. This angel character had an arrow shot right through the centre of it’s eyeball head with the words, “All Hail St. Inky” written above. The line was meant as a diss towards Inky who is obviously a noted graff artist. The statement attached to the picture gave mixed messages. Whilst the illustration clearly showed a frail, crippled character that would not really be idolised by anyone, The statement in comparison was in favour of Inkie as if the name was falsely put next to the character by mistake. Even a little fly character was drawn with the slogan, “Ain’t nowt but a dying eyeball” next to it. This gave the impression that the attack could also be focused on the fact that Inkie is probably one of the oldest artists in the competition. This idea was also confirmed with yet another statement from another one of 5683’s talking fly characters saying, “where’s Inkie? Gone to bed”. Even the t-shirt that the St.Inkie character was wearing read “I love 5683”.

Inkie always similar in his style stuck to what he knows best, with his traditional girl character although with a different twist. As well as his usual fine detail drawings, Inkie also managed to incorporate the theme of the battle into his piece by drawing a skeleton character with the numbers 5683 etched in the skull. If that wasn’t bad enough Inkie also attacked 5683 with several slogans of his own. One read, “Ain’t nothing but a number” and the other, “Art classes you can’t afford” as if to say that 5683 had no credible art talent. Even Inkie’s usually pristine girl character made a swipe at 5683 with two statements, one discreetly written on a lock of the characters hair, reading, “your mumma ain’t hot like this” whilst the characters medallion read, “coz you ain't down” as if to say that 5683 didn’t have a clue what was cool. The rest of the piece consisted of Inkie’s traditional style with giant plants and flowers filling the space behind.

Even though both pieces were very clever in design, there could only be one winner. Who would the judges and the crowd go for? Would the newcomer or the veteran win? It was down to the clap meter and the crowd cheered to determine Inkie as the fourth and final quarterfinal champion of the tournament. He now awaits Alfamale at the semi finals in February alongside Teck 1 who is battling Gustav Balderdash for a place at the Grand Final on March 31st. Ooh the excitement is just getting too much. Secret Wars is even going on a little UK tour to let off some steam. They are hitting Birmingham on the 17th of February, Brighton on the 3rd of March and Southampton on the 15th March with even more in the pipeline. Don’t forget to check http://www.secretwars.co.uk/ for more details on the tournament and any information about the forthcoming tours.

Gabriella Weekes

Events coming up - The Monorex diary!

Hey our diary is getting packed with cool events and free parties, so get ya diary out and pencil all these dates in.......

Secret Wars on tour featuring Pete Fowler and Jon Burgerman - Feb 17th @ Custard Factory, B'ham

Secret Wars semi final (Series 1) - Feb 24th @ Juno

Secret Wars on tour - Monorex vs Grafik Warfare (Tag team battle) - March 3rd @ RIKI TIK, Brighton

Secret Wars Grand Final (Series 1) - March 31st @ Juno

More in the pipeline so keep your eyes peeled.....

All these events will be off the chain so don't miss out!

WWW.MONOREX.COM
WWW.SECRETWARS.CO.UK
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THESECRETWARS
WWW.MYSPACE.COM/MONOREX

Tiger Beer commission @ Pigs lane (London)

Just a little production piece we did alongside Evo Films who filmed it and timelapsed it for use as an advert....Thanks to Alfmale for smashing it once again - your the master at using the spray can as a fine paint brush!!

Bread + Butter Barcelona - Jan 07

Yo yo yo yo yo - sorry peeps for being away from the computer so long! Been very busy booking up the Monorex/Secret Wars diary for next 12 months....so far so good




Lots of things to tell you about - first of all our little business trip to sunny Barcelona for the coolest trade show on the planet (Bread + Butter).

We were asked to come on over and paint two sections alongside She 1, who rocked it! We took a team of 5 which included artists Alfamale and Teck 1 - We decided on a seperate theme for each....Inside we dropped a Secret Wars style battle piece that was obviously Black and White and included some crazy mutant circus characters. While outside we dropped a spray piece that had the guys characters in the forefront with a brown and yellow city scape of Barcelona (See pics).

We were there for a total of five days and had a super time with all expenses paid!! Met some cool and well respected peeps like Jeff Staple and his right hand man Nico - plus went to a shed load of free parties where drinked flowed at a constant rate.....Alfa had probably 7 drinks on hand at any one time.

Didn't get much time to relax and see the city as the show was full on but I did sneek off at one point to go and check out a large castle on the mountains that was one eery ghost town....eventually we found some peeps and bought some calimari!

All in all the trip was a major success and hopefully exposed the artists aswell as Monorex to the thousands of people who came and saw........meaning big things for 07!

Thanks to Andy @ Edding for supplying the juicy pens we needed to paint the masterpieces and a big up also for the flights....

Another shout out to Peggy @ Bread and Butter for getting us involved and being such great hosts for the five days we were out there....see you in the summer!

Monorex / Matsuri Xmas dinner 07

Mmm, there is nothing better at Christmas time than a good roast dinner and that is exactly what 35 lucky Monorex/Matsuri friends had the chance to munch at the bi-monthly event entitled Chilly con Carnage.





The event aimed to bring together lots of creative people to London’s Below Zero bar, made famous for its frozen Ice Bar upstairs. Although it’s probably the fifth in a line of events held at the Below Zero bar in Heddon St, this one had a little bit of Christmas flavour with champagne reception and lip-smacking buffet dinner for those who bought tickets in advance.




With a menu of turkey with stuffing, roast lamb, ham, salmon, pumpkin, roast potatoes, Foccacia bread, coleslaw and mince pies, fruit and lush chocolate brownies for dessert all the guests ate together around a horse-shoe shaped table with the Christmas tree taking centre stage.





Not only was the dinner a real success, but also the guests went away feeling like Christmas had come early, with every single person going home with their very own present. Nike trainers, Ipods, DVDs and Hulger phones were just a few of the cool and quirky prezzies on offer.



After dinner with most of our bellies fit to burst the party began with DJ sets from the Patchwork Pirates, and the Geisha Disco Boys. The music played late into the night with even a 16year old beat boxer stepping up to impress the crowds. He had an absolutely amazing set that just blew everyone away.




With Pens in hand it was a chance for the artists to have a little freestyle doodle on the specially purchased canvas. All four artists came up with some pretty masterful pieces, especially the artistic styles of Wen and Morgasmic, who having only just been introduced on the night blended very well together.







Everyone went home feeling very merry and slightly sizzled due to the buy one get one free drinks offer open throughout the night.


Gabriella Weekes

INSA SHOW @ BEST!

Went along to the Insa show the other night at Best and saw the talented man's new masterpieces - Everything looked really fresh and it looked like he sold 50% of his art in the first hour or so....

When I got there it was one big que for the Bandana give away - I missed out on this by 4 peeps! but hey ho you can't win em all. I am sure those kids were there 2 or maybe 3 hours before - it felt like being in the middle of a Bathing Ape que.....

Good show, nice booze and met many cool people!

Teck 1 paints fabric!

Yo just a quick update to explain where we have been the last couple of weeks!



We were invited down to the Love Music, Hate Racism gig @ fabric alongside babyshambles and co - so we got Teck up on a little stage painting a canvas in front of the indie / grime kids!

Quite funny watching Teck get props from young girls asking for him to tag their arm etc....



Good night tho and a big thanks to Dave and Olivia for sorting!!!