The End of Hackney Wick – it’s official, I saw today.
November 6th, 2009 | M | Art, Bitching and Junkfood News | 18 Comments »
Created by Harry Lunt
The first of a two -part post, an epic tale of warehouses, fashion shoots, graffitti, cold, sewing, blogging, tweeting, partying – or maybe just a little rant.
We’ve not been hear a year yet and it’s sadly come to an end. As Bitching and Junkfood expands we move to new studios by Broadway Market at the end of the month. We’ve felt it for a while, started with Chloe(fine artist friend), then Martin(another fine artist) then the Dubstep producers next door and, last week, Nick IDM. I was going to wait a couple of weeks before I bid my fairwell with a final blog post but I guess that what I witnessed today underlines the end and pretty much puts a full stop after it too. The is the Hackney Wick Argmageddon and this time it’s not a fashion trend.
When Bitching and Junkfood was a Swarovski-size glint in my eye I decided that Hackney Wick(an East London Warehouse District) was the place to get the little Bitch off the ground. This time last year we started looking for studios – I googled “Warehouse Hackney” and up popped the most amazing space I’d ever seen – a huge warehouse, empty and draughty , the kind of space you’d ususally find a B+Q or maybe even a Tesco. Six of use came together to make this our studio and moved in on the 22nd of December. I flew back from Dublin on the 28th to work 12 hour days with a team of 7 people to build our studios and I mean build – we built the floors, ceilings, stairs, walls. It was probably the most challenging thing I’ve done so far – it was -5 degrees inside and we worked day and night to get the space ready.
Lovely Summer's Day on the canal with some charming graffiti vandals
For those who don’t already know Wick is right beside the Olympics – our studio is in the shadow of the massive stadium that’s being built, each newly erected skeletal rib intimating the end. We all knew it was coming – like the weather, it’s the common conversational topic with other wickers “when are you getting evicted? When are the council coming round your space? What’s your landlord been saying today? where we gonna go next?”.
It’s been the location for countless fashion shoots, videos and even short films – over the Summer we’ve see the Gallagher Bros shoot here and even had a visit from Jay Z. There’s a huge art festival(Hackney Wicked) of which we we part of this Summer – all studios open their doors, we had some tourists visit ours and stand analysing a table with rolled up socks on it thinking it was an art installation(ah the joys of modern art). I guess the one defining feature of Wick apart from concrete is the graffiti, a hypercolored collage of energy splatterd across a drab urban landscape. We’ve been lucky enough to meet some of the boys involved charming chaps that they are. Wick boasts work by Blu, Mighty Mo,Ornamental Conifer, Banksy, Sweet Toof, Stick and countless others.
Well today London says “No” to graffitti. I was on my way back to the studio and literally had to fight my way through what can only be described as an army of neon coated lemmings scrubbing some of London’s finest work off. I stopped to ask why they were doing it and they answered “cause it’s ugly”.
The Lemmings - neon was sooo last season. High vis is hot for SS10 tho. Kudos guys.
Very happy with the work they’ve done – it appears they’ve decided to create an impressionist masterpiece, much more appealing on the eye. Created using a very fine technique involving a kitchen scrubber and some sort of chemical – genius!
Pre-LDA-Impressionism - ugly apparently
Post-LDA-Impressionism - masterpiece don't you think
Pre-apocalypse
Post-apocalypse white-out
Personally I’m not mad about the shade of white – I would have preferred Magnolia, ties in with the colour scheme of the warehouses. There are still two legal Graffitti walls in the area – maybe the Magnolia would look good on these to match the drapes?
Did a quick whip round to give a glimpse of what’s left. You should pay a visit before Hackney Wick self-combusts in a cloud of glittery, Olympic firework smoke.
91 Whitepost Lane - location for countless shoots
By Scum on benefits spending the benefits on cans. Beats crack tho.
Under the Bridge
91 Whitepost Lane - also location for one of the best outdoor parties East London saw this Summer.
Little Monsters - popping up all over Wick
I actually feel genuinely sad about what I’ve seen today(like proper wipe tear sad) – I’m glad I’ve experienced Hackney Wick but I don’t think “the next Hackney Wick” exists. I guess it’s like a big party with the last few stragglers left in a room having fun, 7am – if you leave and go somewhere else, it’s still the same people but the atmosphere changes.
Next post in a few weeks time – parties and fun – so long fare-well, auf-wiedersehen, good-wick.
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aww… this is sad
great post though, fully of emotion x
oh yeah and I realised the hear is spelt here. I’m a real bitch for grammar but I kind of like little brain blips and don’t think they should be corrected(when I’m posting anyway)
Next week I’ll let the other bloggers post cause I’ve been hoggin this week. Soz guys. xx
yeah but it’s kinda happy too. see yizzor in Broadway market. xx
Awh..I’m not happy at all. Also,concerned for your mental health without the mochas and giant croissants from the cafe around the corner!
these brightened up my walk to the wick a treat. I feel like I need to write a kind of eulogy but I’ll stop myself. See you on the other side.
sending good vibes for the new studio!
Oh my gosh the new studio will be amayonaissing! I have a vision in my mind of how perfect it will be, everything sorted into little tiny drawers and in this vision I am a perfect size 8. Actually I look a little like Alexa too. Argh, can’t frickin wait until 1 Dec!!
yeah well since I’m off the sugar body-con is on for Spring.
was a magical adventure . . .
…roll on the next chapter in life of BitchingandJunkfood . . .
Wonder if the idea would catch on to “clean up” the gouvernments act, instead of hiding behind the “Evil’ness” that is graffiti artists? Another reason to get out of this twisted Country and go live in Berlin…now there’s a colourful place.
Great post
x Love x
Love back at ya. I’m sticking with LDN despite the creative “clean-up” – fresh white walls for the graffers, game on. Will post the results.xx
Awww. I feel for you, but all good things must come to an end so that new good things can start.
XXX
That’s absolutely wrong!
Common guys don’t be weak! Be wicked: Save HAcKney Wick!
One Love
graffiti will always be transient and should probably always be so. all this preservation of banksys toy stuff is sentimental b.s. i used to spray in the early 90’s – all gone now, so what? sometimes you would spend hours waiting in the cold to sneak into a train yard and the train would never even run, just go straight to the buff. nevermind.
go get some paint and make your own mark on it.
we’ve made a lot of marks over the area that are all gone – we know it’s transient but this represents the end of something, this isn’t just about graff.
It’s unbelievable how even after graffiti had been swallowed by propaganda and with that huge exhibition at Tate Modern they can still rub the graffiti from the walls and using the same old discourse… Such a shame that in 2009 in London (!!!!) we still face this old mentality from people…
The world is a faster changing place than ever and although it saddens part of me to see the qualities of such a raw environment slowing fading and being changed this appears to be part of a familiar pattern.
Saying this it has inspired many many individuals and however negative the recent and on going actions may seem i believe problems of this nature can be used to our advantage to change our lives and others. Just as initially industrial wasteland was seen to be and used as something so much more. Creativity is the breakfast of superheroes.
Feeling quite emotional! Can’t wait to see the new space. Awesome work…
hi there! I’m UCL MS Student Environment and Sustainable Development. Our group of 6 ppl doing a project related to Hackney Wick, we visit the area often to do surveys and contact different communities there. As part of our study project we are looking at the use of open spaces use and youth involvement in art, in the context of the Olympics legacy. We think that your comments and suggestions would be really helpful and could add some great insight to our project.
Thank you and best regards!
Nargiz