Posts

Wark This Way!

/5 Comments/in

As regular readers of Eat Rio will know, I have a small obsession with graffiti. I love spotting new pieces as they appear and getting to recognise the work of particular artists or crews. Soon after I arrived here, one character caught my attention and the more I travelled within the city, the more I saw his rather unseemly face.

Not a particularly friendly or happy character is he?

 

I have to say, I wasn’t a big fan of this series of often sneering characters. But they were striking and something about them really  jumped out at me. In my head I dubbed them ‘Ballmen’ and the more I looked around, the more I realised that there were many different variations dotted around the streets of Rio.

Read more

There’s graffiti all over the school!

/4 Comments/in

I grew up in the city of Winchester on the south coast of England. It was a great place to be a kid/teenager – by no means a village, but small enough that if you didn’t know someone directly, you probably knew someone who knew them. It is just an hour from London on the train, yet it is situated in a particularly lovely part of Hampshire, characterised by gorgeous, gentle countryside (a million miles from the dramatic mountains, forests and beaches of Rio).

Thatched cottages in Wherwell, Hampshire. Putting the Shire into Hampshire.

Winchester is a fairly wealthy city with a population of just 40,000 – when I was growing up crime levels were very low. So you can imagine my shock when I arrived at school aged 11 to hear there had been an attack.

Read more

Street Runes from São Paulo

/5 Comments/in

About a year ago I spent about a week in São Paulo. I didn’t have much money (and São Paulo is expensive!) so I spent quite a lot of time wandering around and getting a feel for the city. Before going I had read this article on the BBC website, which tells of some of the strong culture of creativity in Brazil’s largest city. 


I was particularly intrigued by mention of Beco do Batman (Batman’s alley), a 100m stretch of alleyway, covered in all kinds of awesome looking street art. Somewhat typically of me, I never got round to going to this place (I’m saving it for my next visit), but while strolling around the streets I did see loads of amazing street art. 


But as well as loads of nice images, I noticed a lot of strange rune-like symbols all over the place.

Read more

Today is special…

/0 Comments/in

…because it’s my wife’s birthday. Therefore I’ll keep this short and leave you with a little preview of tomorrow’s post. 

 

Things you find under bridges in Rio

/6 Comments/in

The photo, taken in Botafogo,  shows one of my favourite pieces of street art in Rio. Technically excellent, stylistically interesting and (hopefully) it makes you think.

I’m not great with art history and arty references, but this piece by How & Nosm reminded me of Picasso and Cubism in general (I just googled this to make sure I wasn’t being utterly ridiculous. Can now confirm there is definitely a resemblance!).

 

It’s a beautiful piece by identical twins Davide and Raoul Perre, better known as How & Nosm. They are known as the other identical twins in the graffiti world, in reference to Brazil’s very own Os Gêmeos (the twins).

Read more