One of the biggest street art events of the year ‘Meeting of Styles’ has returned to Shoreditch for the third year running. More specifically the Nomadic Community Gardens has hosted the event for the past two years.
As venues go, the gardens are pretty special. An eco oasis in the middle of London’s East End. Just round the corner from the busy vibrancy of Brick Lane it was until a few years ago a cordoned off strip of waste ground which was formerly a railway siding.
Organised by the End of the Line crew and sponsored this year by Relentless the event took place over May bank holiday weekend and featured a number of artists we’ve featured on this blog before alongside a host of others coming especially for the event.
The set piece wall for the event is the giant side of a railway access tunnel, it’s one of the biggest walls in the area available for artists to paint on although it’s access is strictly restricted to this one event. It’s previous iterations over the past two years have been impressive with multiple artists using cherry pickers to add their sections to what ultimately becomes an epic collaboration. You can see results from 2014 here and 2015 here.
Meanwhile just behind the wall, the access tunnel itself has also been opened up as a painting spot. Normally off limits from street artists it did instead attract taggers and fly tippers resulting in a less than perfect atmosphere, if artists are allowed to freely paint in the tunnel beyond this event then there’s no doubt it will change the dynamics of the space. The likes of Annatomix and Airborne Mark in particular were two of the artists we know well who were breaking in the spot.
Finally around the corner on Pedley Street, Fanakapan and Louis Masai returned to an area of town they know very well although this time in a collaboration to raise awareness of dangers facing dolphins. The duo’s joint effort pictures the dolphins as toys, Fanakapan creating toy balloon creatures and Masai creating toy patchwork ones. The premise being that once they are gone, the only thing left will be the toy. This piece though focused more on the way giant sea creatures are treated particularly those in captivity.
So anyway there was lots going on in what was a sunny bank holiday weekend. The vibe in the gardens was great with music, food and plenty of drink. Eventually this spot will go, it’ll be taken over by developments so enjoy it while it lasts, it’s a unique place and a fitting host for the London leg of the Meeting of Styles.
Meeting of Styles Gallery
Pedley Street Art
The Nomadic Community Gardens
The Tunnel
The Meeting of Styles took place over the weekend of 28th and 29th May 2016 at the Nomadic Community Gardens in Shoreditch.
Good post and photos. I checked it out on Monday morning when it was deserted.
Thanks Duncan, not a bad time to visit I had a wander round on Monday too
Great coverage of the whole event Stuart. I’ve enjoyed individual pics on IG but exciting to see it all as a piece. And you captured the vibe well too.