Princess Hijab: Shape and Situate #6

My submission to the latest issue of Shape and Situate: Posters of Inspirational Women in Europe. I have been in awe of the work of Princess Hijab for a while and excitedly looked for some of her work on the Metro while I was visiting Paris (sadly I didn't see any). If you are not familiar with her work, this is what it looks like and as you can see, it's not just images of women that get "hijabized":



When the latest call out for poster submissions arrived, I was right in the middle of a long-term, painful wrist injury that was stopping me from doing most things. The most upsetting thing was not being able to draw but using Princess Hijab's super fast, drippy style, I was able to draw this simple shape using my giant tagging marker, which was the only thing comfortable enough for me to hold. Creating something again helped pull me out of a worry-filled funk. I guess inspiration can mean lots of different things.

Order copies of the zine here and keep up to date about the zine by liking the Facebook page (or maybe even contribute a poster to the next issue yourself).

For the uncaged birds

This is a project that has been in the works for well over a year. The Caged Bird Club's intent is to reclaim space in order to make cities more beautiful and livable and that means nature needs to be one of our beneficiaries. Every part of these bird boxes is made from someone else's waste; the wood was tossed out, the paint was returned to the hardware store by unhappy consumers and the bike inner tubes holding the roofs on were punctured beyond repair.

On fabric, in the woods

It would be understandable if you assumed I had given up putting my work on the streets in exchange for a cushty life of legitimate indoor exhibitions and poster making. But that doesn't mean that assumption is right. All this time, I've been cooking up something new and this is what it looks like.

Lladd

There is a new version of my tribute to Margaret Kilgallen in Cardiff. Margaret often combined her interests in typography and the vernacular.

A Tale of two cities in Yorkshire: Part 2 York

The night the Health and Social Care Bill actually passed through the House of Lords, I was in York. I couldn't believe that one of the main reasons I tolerate living 4000 miles away from most of my friends and family may be permanently altered.

A tale of two cities in Yorkshire: Part 1 Shipley

A long weekend visiting friends in Yorkshire was tarnished by one of the most unforgivable crimes committed by the Coalition government so far: the passage of the nearly universally derided Health and Social Care Bill. This bill ramps up the march toward privatization, dismantling a national health care system that is the envy of people around the world.

Pivo's signature

Rather than signing my work lately, I've developed a signature stencil to put up in the general vicinity of it. The one on the left was pasted up along the Cornish coastal path west of St Ives where I put this. The one on the right is in Edinburgh near where I put this and this.

Pivo & Flax: I never will marry

Needlework, like samplers have traditionally provided girls and women with a wholesome activity (preventing the devil from influencing their idle hands) and often included bible verses or quotes about morality. A quality sampler was also seen as an indication of how marriageable the girl who stitched it was and how ordered a house she would keep.

Pivo's neice in Edinburgh

Pivo's neice, featured earlier here, took a trip last summer to Scotland. On the day she visited Edinburgh (while a heatwave hit the rest of the UK) it rained and it rained and it was cold and it was miserable.

Caged Bird Club in Edinburgh

The Caged Bird Club put up our third exhibition this weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland featuring incredible artist Rudy, aged only five. A major focus of Rudy's work is creatures of the sea, which can now be seen swimming around the streets of Leith.

Voltairine de Cleyre

Voltairine de Cleyre was an anarchist, feminist writer and speaker who grew up in grinding poverty in rural Michigan. Among other things, she spoke out against marriage and criticised the way religion was used to suppress women's sexuality and limit their rights.

What's not to love?

I originally made this with the haters in mind. An open question about why graffiti in London gets taken down or painted over so quickly (unless you are one of a handful of mostly white male street artists who are asked to put your stuff up repeatedly in Shoreditch). 

Seasons greetings from Pivo

See the red and green in there? That's as festive as I'm willing to get. Before any Scrooge accusations get thrown around though, this isn't just about a dislike of Christmas. I put a much larger version of this up on the 15th of December for Occupy Everywhere day (with five kids in a pyramid formation, the bottom row saying 'Occupy the walls').

Pivo's neice is now 21

Ever since my niece was old enough to express her first opinion, my sister has teased the two of us that we are clones. I have to admit, it's difficult to understand how else we could have a freckle in the exact same place on our palms and the back of our knees. But mostly this has been based on the amazingly close relationship we've had ever since she was born.

Swoon at the Bank of Ideas

We organised an amazing talk from Swoon at the Bank of Ideas on Thursday. A bunch of us were so inspired by her that we are meeting up tomorrow to talk collective and collaborative craziness. If you are in London, come along here! There are 7 short videos in this post.

Caged Bird Club exhibition - London 2008

The second Caged Bird Club exhibition featured photographs by Wyn Gilley of sparrows eating crumbs on a table in Berlin. You can get a better view of these amazing photographs here.

Caged Bird Club exhibition - Berlin 2008

I am finally getting around to posting about the first ever Caged Bird Club exhibition that was pasted up in Berlin way back in 2008. It featured beautiful photographs of Seattle house numbers taken by Matthew Cunningham. (He is also the photographer who provides all the photos for this blog and you can see more of his work here and here.)

Pivo: letting go

Berliners have a different attitude to graffiti than most people. My friend explained to me how the local fire station in his neighborhood has had it's entire garage door covered but there is no effort to get rid of it because the door still works so what difference does it really make? Indeed.

Happy birthday John

A portrait of John's (and maybe everyone's) favorite cat pasted up in a doorway on Oranienstraße in Berlin. 

Pivo: dig deep

Earlier this month, my city and my neighborhood in particular got a little bit scary. Immediately, the right-wing was hardened and those in power have begun the backlash. The British public was outraged by what they were witnessing and so the politicians decided they would respond to their calls for blood and ruthlessness first with talk of water cannon and curfews and now with disproportionately harsh sentencing.