Fallen leaves and spent gum are not the only intruders upon the slabs of Bloomsbury. Mysterious stencils, depicting the noble countenances of eminent (male) scientists, recently appeared on our local sidewalks.
The pavement portraiture extends around the main UCL campus and Wellcome Trust buildings, taking in Gower Street, Byng Place, Gordon Street and Euston Road. I spotted Darwin, Newton, Einstein, Maxwell, Rontgen, Planck and Hubble, among others.
The high-brow graffiti was reportedly spawned from a Big Draw event, which took place at UCL last month. Although the event is now over, its legacy can still be enjoyed by seeking out this most academic of street art.
Having grown up in a town in which street vandals could barely spell, I’m so proud to be a Londoner when we get graffiti art like this.
Apparently, this Einstein gem is in Wandsworth.
Angela, that looks like a Banksy. Is it, do you know?
A quick scan of image libraries suggests its by Focus and not Banksy. Anyway Banksy would have had more irony in the composition.
I have no idea to be honest. I used to live near Brick Lane – which is stuffed with Banksy’s work – but I still can’t tell a genuine one when I see it.
It’s definitely not Banksy. I think Brian’s got it right.
We had a ‘big draw’ event in Cromer. It was on hoardings around the building site where now exists the wholly spendid North Norfolk Tourist Information Centre. Lots of local groups, people, schools contributed. The remarkable thing was that it did not seem to attract any freelance graffiti, ‘tags’ and so on. But I’m glad it’s down – after a few months it began to look a little tatty.
As a native and current resident of the type of US city in which tags are ubiquitous, annoying, and utterly banal, I have to say that I really like street art that has a message (political or otherwise) and some originality and flair. I look forward to seeing the scientist stencils, as well as some Banksy art, in London.
There used to be sidewalk “word” art outside the Art League of Houston. You can see a bit of it in one of the upper photos here, where there are images of the old bungalows turned into an art installation (“Inversion”), before they were demolished.