The giant wall one the side of the Village Underground has long been one of the best places to see street art in Shoreditch. It’s size and location mean that it’s always attracted the very best from the street art scene from London and around the World.
But it’s always been fairly tricky to photograph. Overlooking the narrow road of Holywell Street during the time that we’ve been documenting the ever changing art on the wall, the opposite side was first a make shift car park and then, for the past year or so, a building site.
Now, a new Citizen M hotel overlooks the Village Underground and because of the design of the entrance area, it’s given photographers a new angle from which to shoot the famous wall. Admittedly the hotel is part of the wider gentrification of the area but there’s not a great deal that can be done to stop it and for now at least it has the minor side benefit of giving us a better view of the wall.
And so it is Fanakapan who has added his latest epic mural onto the side. A favourite on the London street art scene, he has a style which is unique and one that has firmly established himself as one of the best around. His work will also often have hidden layers and meaning to them, part of the fun can often be trying to figure it out.
This piece includes a telephone, an out-stretched hand and a revolver set against the background of what seems to be a space scene. According to his instagram account the mural is called “powertools… distraction / distruction”. No doubt there is an obvious deep and meaningful explanation behind it but am not sure what that would be although the obvious answer leads towards the distraction of the phone versus the destruction of the gun. Who knows? It’s good in any case!
The Village Underground wall artwork by Fanakapan was visited on Saturday 26 November 2016. It can be found on Holywell Road in Shoreditch. For more posts featuring art on the Village Underground wall check out these featuring Dave the Chimp, Martin Ron and Amara Por Dios
Fanakapan Village Underground Gallery
Came past here recently and noticed that the supposed hipster hotel was now open.
I’ve been familiar with Village Underground since I was shown around it in 2010 and I think it’s a shame that many of the visitors to the hotel will probably assume the mural opposite (and the tube trains) are some kind of recent addition to aid gentrification of the area rather than having been there a long time and actually done a lot to attract the development to the area.
There are a lot of street art sites being obliterated by development in Shoreditch — the whole area further down Curtain Road on both sides is being massively developed. Perhaps we’ll look back on the early years of this decade as a unique opportunity.
Hackney Wick, Camden and Soho now seem more authentic places to see street art.