Fisticuffs

I’ve long been an admirer of this Irish street artist, we featured some of his work on Fashion Street last summer in our post Egg & Soldiers. Conor Harrington is a painter, and not just of the graffiti variety; he’s a seriously talented painter. Seeing his work on the streets creates fabulous contrast because much of his work would fit comfortably in the finest of fine-art galleries.

I follow Conor on Instagram (@conorsayboom) and this week noticed that he was painting somewhere in South East London, not too far from our house. Frustratingly, I couldn’t find out exactly where and work stopped me really looking in earnest until yesterday when I took the afternoon off. Happily I managed to find the wall but Conor had moved on, only the cherry-picker remained, the work was completed only hours before… Take a look at the work, these enormous fighters tower over pedestrians yet the detail is incredible, this is one of the most powerful pieces of street art I’ve photographed. I would have loved to have photographed this in work progress…

I include pictures of a couple of other recent works that have recently gone up around Shoreditch, one a collaboration with Maser. I’m dying to find more.

Crystal Clear

There’s an awful lot going on for us right now; not least of which is that we have found a new flat to move into, which is keeping us busy in terms of preparation etc. It’s not so far away but a little bit bigger and slightly more modern and we can’t wait to move over there now, I’ve already started sketching ideas of things we want to make and modify…

Another thing dramatic changing currently is work, maybe more about that another time. I was in Stockholm for a whole 24 hours yesterday and although a super-fast trip (where we saw nothing of the actual city); the hotel we stayed in, the food and views across the icy water made it an extremely inspirational visit. The light had an unusually pure quality that I would have loved to capture with my real camera but this time again, you’ll have to make do with my iPhone shots from Instagram I’m afraid…

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Agents of Change

If you are a follower of street art in London, you will have seen the Megaro Hotel’s impressive face-lift opposite King’s Cross St Pancras last year. Agents of Change were commissioned by the hotel owner to paint the huge 6-storey facade and because of it’s scale and location, has naturally received an awful lot of attention, mostly positive. I personally loved it.

Passing through East Dulwich this weekend, I spotted the famous mural’s smaller lesser-known cousin on Crawthew Grove. This was done back in 2011 by Remi Rough and Augustine Kofie and if you use this link, you can see the time lapse of them painting it _ enjoy.

侍 (Samurai)

It was snowing and freezing cold; walking around the dark castle in Matsue was an eerie experience. It always seems to be terrible weather when I go to Matsue-jo but walking up the tight steps through layers of history is an incredible glimpse into the past. Matsue-jo is one of 12 castles still surviving in Japan and one of the oldest and best preserved and can be seen from almost every part of town.

Full suits of samurai armour now sit behind glass yet they still seem somehow alive. The detail in the helmets, masks and body panels is amazing; beautiful and terrifying in equal measures…

Frozen

Well as I am currently sat on a heavily delayed train out of London St Pancras this morning, with no access to my project files, I thought I would share a few more pictures. I was just day-dreaming about our most recent visit to Japan again; congestion and delays always make me think of our holidays, of open space and fresh air.

As we were heading to Miho Jinja, we drove along the Yonago coastline and just off-shore all you could see were fishing boats, each pointing in the same direction, frozen, presumably with their nets down. Atsuko’s sister could sense my fascination and stopped the car to let me take a few pictures although they don’t quite do the scene justice…

やきいか

It wasn’t hard to decide what to eat, or where. The local speciality was yaki ika grilled squid, and the tough old ladies running the car-park where we left the car ran a small stall, which we were expected to stay loyal to. It’s a straightforward dish, fresh squid simply barbecued on an open fire, with a special spicy and fruity sauce. Once cooked and curled, cut roughly with scissors and served in a plastic bag, it was completely fantastic.

There should have been shots of us eating it here but it was just too delicious and capturing the moment went out of my mind completely…

Miho Jinja

As we stepped from the car, across the harbour to arrive at Miho Jinja, a heavy snow shower fell to greet us. Although the structure looks similar to many others, I had never been to a coastal shrine quite like this before. The site is dedicated to 2 different gods, 三穂津姫命 (みほつひめのみこと) Mihotsuhimenomikoto, god of agriculture / cycle of life and ゑびす (えびす) Ebisu, god of fishing and business. Families living in this area have lives built around fish and the fishing industries, and they come here to pray for the well-being of those going out to sea and for the long-term health of the sea life.

A lot of ceremonies take place here through the year and it was a lively shrine with a welcoming atmosphere. Shinto priests and Miko-san wearing ceremonial robes hurried to get out of the snow. We paid our respects at the shrines and each of the sub-shrines and were offered sake and dried fish. It was freezing cold, and people huddled around heaters to read their omikuji fortunes. As quickly as the snow had started, it stopped. We wandered back down the steps to find something to eat.