The Lord Napier - A Whole Building as a Canvas

An old disused and abandoned pub in the heart of Hackney Wick has become an important and ever changing canvas for street artists great & small. Periodically the whole building on two sides gets a new look and over the years it's become a well photographed document of the trajectory of a few very well known Street Artists.

The Orange Look

I captured this series when the building had been daubed a particularly striking soft orange colour with lots of black & white eye motifs from Noriaki, a squirrel suited creature by Himbad and a beautifully crafted skull, a topical and dark portrait of the late & reviled / disgraced sexual predator Jimmy Saville by Pang among the other gems which would ultimately be gone in a matter of weeks or months to be replaced by a new exhibition.

CentrePiece

The main piece of art which interested me in this set wraps around both sides of the building and defies description. It's quite magnificent as I'm sure you'll agree, made up of a series of interlocking elements by the very talented Street artist Anna Rewinska aka AR. It's a real pleasure to see this kind of original large scale work and it feels important to document it with photography. Ephemeral is as ephemeral does, like dreams; drawn today, not gone tomorrow but remembered.

Curation & Conservation

It's important to document art which can disappear at a moments notice and in among my collection of street art photography there inevitably is the odd piece which nobody else documented before it was wiped from the collective consciousness. I'd like to think I've saved a few pieces of work from the ultimate obscurity of oblivion.

• Ethically Ethnically Edwin - Pang - I'll be Watching You - AR mural 1/2000th @f3.5 ISO 100

• Eyes Cream - Noriaki 1/1000th @ f5.3 ISO 100

• Rocking Horse element AR 1/1250th @ f4.5 ISO 100

• A fantastic machine Mural element wrapping around the building AR 1/1250th @f4 ISO 100

• Himbad sneaks a squirrel suited thing out of the doorway 1/800th @f5.3 ISO 100

• Ethically Ethnically -Edwin / Pang Portrait 1/1000th @ f5 ISO 100

• A Impressionistic Screaming Skull 1/640th @ f5.6 ISO 100

• The eyes have it Noriaki / AR Strange Bunny 1/800th @ f5 ISO 100

• Pang Portait 1/320th @f5.6 ISO 100

• Big Bird Battered- Sesame Street 1/320th @f3.8 ISO 100

• Noriaki Eyes Flower detail 1/100th @ f4.5 ISO 100

Here's an image of how The Lord Napier looked when it was open, late 60's / early 70's
source = http://pubshistory.com

all other photographs copyright Christos Hatjoullis (OUTERGROUND)