Tuesday 22 September 2009

President Cakes Illustration

For a short story for Oh! Fringe.

Street Art Club.

A review of this thing that we did.

Club day 1:

So, there are nineteen of us, we’re at the Bernard Shaw, we’ve pretty much all got a pint in front of us. But we’re not just there for pints, we’ve got some serious street art to do. Will starts us off with drawing dots in boxes (still not exactly sure where that fits in in the grand scheme of things), but before long we’re cutting and snipping and making. And drinking. We had to come up with a wicked cool street art name, but unfortunately I drew a blank and settled with “Ah yeah”. Credible, right? This one girl picked “Miley Cyrus” ironically, or perhaps tragically. We all make little collages on canvas and are then sent off to drop them off in various locations around town. On the back of each piece is a message asking the finder to keep the art and send the artist an email. My boss took my one home. It’s sitting on his desk now. The concept, in this case, slightly diluted.

Club day 2:

It’s a very sunny day. We’re out the back of the GBS again. We’ve all brought white T-shirts. We’ve all, once more, got pints. And this time, Will gives us free knives. A knife each. We’ve to cut stencils and make T-shirt prints. This time Will is aided by prolific street artist Sophie. One girl once again creates a Miley Cyrus themed piece, and we all edge away from her (and talk about her behind her back). Anyway, our new stencil cutting stills acquired, we all pose with our new, self-made T-shirts.

Club day 3:

The mission is to make paste-ups for the jacks. The theme? Mutant Super-heroes. A good theme, everyone agrees. The Miley Cyrus obsessed girl now creates a super villain called Hetrosexuality, who is a New York Jew who forces gay men to have sex with her. Fittingly, I created Super Gay Animal Orgy... Man, who enjoys the company of sharks, seals and turtles. In our toilet wall graffiti universe they are nemeses. Also, as an aside, the girl’s toilets in the Bernard Shaw are twice, if not thrice as beautiful as the men’s.

We’ve still got another workshop to go, before we get to graduate as rad cool street artists. I’m already working out the best way to sell out and go corporate. I think Absolut Ah Yeah has a nice ring to it. Ah yeah.