street art central

Nathan Bowen tells me he was stopped by the coppers. They talked about
an 80 quid fine....

Makes a change to come across an explicitly political work... this on
Old Street.

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Prolific and talented street artist Nathan Bowen was formally
cautioned by the City of London police on 17th November for causing
£100 worth of "damage" to building boards in the City of London. He spent two hours at
Snowhill police station  being cautioned and
having his DNA taken.

This DNA will be in the controversial police national database for
life. It will show up in employment checks for five years and possibly
more. Nathan has NOT been convicted of a crime. He was only arrested.
Yet he has been criminalised by UK's database which is the biggest in
the world per head of population. What justice is there in affecting
someone's rights and life chances by putting them on a database even
if they have not been convicted?

Two of us were with Nathan. When the police asked us for our details,
we asked why. They said they are concerned about terrorist attacks
near St Pauls and it is not usual to find people with high powered
cameras. Section 24 was mentioned and one policeman wanted to
confiscate our footage. The presiding sergeant thankfully had more
sense.

Two and half hours of time was wasted by the police on the day of
Nathan's arrest. Another two hours of police time on the day of his
caution. And god knows how many more hours were wasted in behind the
scenes paperwork and DNA analysis and database input and what not. And
in aid of what exactly?

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Here is Nathan drawing in the City of London today. Within forty minutes of starting his work under a CCTV camera, he was arrested. My colleague and I were cautioned by three police offers for "abetting him." The police don't like cameras in the City of London apparently. Section 24 was mentioned.  If you recall, it was Tony Blair who once signed up to a Keep Britain Tidy campaign which explicitly stated "Graffiti is not art. it is crime." Blair saw crimes and criminals everywhere not to mention weapons of mass destruction. Strange is it not  that graffiti or street art over the 5 years since that statement has become so prominent in cultural and artistic life in the UK. Banksy is hugely bankable. Various city councils are aiding and abetting criminal behaviour by protecting his work. The Tate Modern has held a major exhibition on graffiti and Bristol has gone Banksy and 3D gaga. Even the NHS has produced a report using street art as the style theme....and yet the City of London police who are, they told us,  ever so vigilant about terrorist attacks near St Pauls, thought it appropriate to arrest Nathan Bowen on a sunny sunday afternoon for drawing cartoon figures of builders on fencing panels and then drive him away to the police station.

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Click to enlarge. If you wish to see more of Nathan's work click the tag "nathan bowen." Me mate and partner in crime Harry B took these shots.

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Click to enlarge. Click the 2nd image to get an idea of the scale of the piece.

An incredibly detailed piece of work by Nathan Bowen. He portrays builders as demons. Not because he thinks they are demonic but because....ah, well...I am afraid you will have to wait another day for the whole story.  But just to reassure you that nothing anti-working class is going on, he is a builder himself... Here is a video of him talking about "Sindustry."

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Having been intrigued by Nathan Bowen's work in Brick Lane, I got in touch with him and three of us met up with him for a drink at the Vibe bar. One of his pieces had just been buffed by another graffiti artist. So I thought I would get Nathan on video in front of his huge work at the start of Brick Lane before it too disappeared. Nathan explains some of the ideas behind his "After Lives" work. Click the Nathan Bowen tag to see examples of this work in Brick Lane. This vid is a little teaser. I will do some quick vids of some of his other work and put it up here.

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Another piece by the prolific Nathan Bowen. Click photo to enlarge.

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These are details from very large works by Nathan. 

     

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Another by Nathan Bowen. Anyone know anything about him? What is this a reference to? The bankers up the road or the pharmaceutical companies making a killing out of swine flu or what?

Check this interesting take on his work by Fashion Saboteur.

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I was walking in Brick Lane today and clearly a new talent has been beavering away on the shutters and walls of this amazing street. Mr Nathan Bowen has covered quite an area and I must go back and photograph more. He sometimes draws faces it seems but mainly his street art - or at least that which i saw in Brick Lane - is composed of intensely repeated patterns (faces, creatures, teeth etc)  with disconcerting creatures coming out of them.  He signs his work legibly though....

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