BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.
Many people asked me about the pictures which I posted a couple of weeks ago in Tara's Gallery
The Boy also thinks they are spectacular, and on a 'not quite authorised' trip to Brick Lane last Friday, he came across this:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCYXVDoRG_bFO_pmF3QQpORYgP4992JvHxSGTWqebQeNo4RVRInRFwEZNehPU6nsSwGprMym2Fyd3u9E5YMZ1OMxm8dACLpIGSOlY-B5yDG4Fq63GSGyGidDn1vRxgZd0HCpDG1hiP47c/s400/Photo-0043.jpg)
I think they are spectacular too, so it wasn't too much of a hardship to investigate further, and just by googling 'big animal paintings Hackney Road' I soon found out they are by a Belgian street artist called Roa. Most excitingly, I found a map...a treasure map...which identified where other Roa's can be found. This is the map:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio2NQvhyphenhyphenUftT1eYPcNnGvqmbBlcjmHhvwcEOZ5bifNIvlUUV_toDQPwyPALVTB3HS2ae75tc_KXNiUuJG9yLYRkUl46ZqnVbBaj3B3fGHT3FjWOIRaqdpCDHTOI1lqV5Q4lvbgvbbGs5I/s400/Map.jpg)
So on Tuesday, The Cat's Mum and I set out on a quest. We guessed from the map that not all would still be there...and indeed some weren't, but we found a few...and also had a very good chat with the owner of the Pure Evil gallery that represents him in the UK. We even found one of his pieces down in their basement, obscured by a pile of debris
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA54avl9jFECOtQ6psDFwSyMOLHrP01VvnhcrrwvWWGNQn4NKyjwFsuW4gz6RDxYNew-Xed5CorjloAaFHKv2mL3hxOqpNnEVxVhPrAiIBxXzewRqG2SlnOcjLgnN3EQcUzdhwLTK6eRg/s400/06072010153.jpg)
It was a hot evening, so our adventure was punctuated by stops at watering holes, and because they've just opened a new railway line (yes even in central London!), we couldn't reach one picture, but here are the results of our endeavours:
This is the one we couldn't get to:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipNTDBJzkcfRLmUV06_IXFRlxLv5eVu8GG4jQkduBMiR8EILrnnLwfYooeQjo1mmtWXMIhOvCgDUaFVEn-wlet7DsSJVSwir-aVyRZ9PUijyOiw-DnUl_ag8vKaIVvWpcUlYG-XKFKAgc/s400/birds.jpg)
And this is one that's been painted over:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbaazN1xWpi4ld6LSbr-PKR3q-NZADSk8tCWEc3n-_hn9GboVbkO1IWVvIrxC1b_G6QG8RVQvyVF3jyUiG7n_7jXR16q0NDuHOIXmnlOBZusY7bhhG2clBPxM-rOiqxVdne08WEJ-PVEw/s400/rat.jpg)
And this is something that we came across that I thought was very clever but nothing to do with Roa:
I wanted to add a bit now about how as a young, jet setting PR Executive I was in Madrid 20 years ago and stumbled across an exhibition which blew my mind...it was by a then relatively unknown (outside the art world) artist called Anish Kapoor, and I've been a devoted follower ever since. More recently, but still a few years ago, when The Boy and I lived in Hoxton, we came across various brilliant pieces by a then completely unknown artist who goes by the name of Banksy....
Half the fun with art is in the discovery,and I hope to see much more of Roa in the coming years. It's a shame street art is so transitory, but that is its nature, and whilst it lasts it helps make urban environments so much more entertaining.
* I realise that this isn't actually a Transit Van, but Fiat Van doesn't seem to work quite so well