DAY 6 Street Art and SIX

The Street Art walk began in the Spitalfields area of London.  The first few works we looked at were sculptures.  This included about twenty baby orphan elephants, a goat standing on packing cases, a loom interpretation and a sidecar. 

The sidecar and baby orphan elephants are by Australian artists.  The elephants are to raise awareness of the poaching of elephants for their tusks through the baby elephants left behind. The goat sculpture was selected by locals to represent their history. The boxes represent trade and the goat from nose to tail represents the character of the area. The area was a Huguenot weaving center so the loom sculpture captures that perspective including the impact of modernization. 

The Street Art varied from smaller sculptures and other objects on poles and walls to poster-type applications to painted surfaces. 

The art below was "bombed. " The first one by covering it with wool thread giving it a blue lined look. Our guide said covering the art work with wool threads was a recent innovation. Most, like the second one below, are bombed with paint and signatures until they eventually get painted over. 

The area has one of the first Banksy street art pieces, a car (on wall in center of picture) that had the Grim Reaper as driver.

We walked along a street that the BBC and others use for historical dramas.  One house on the street still has its original 17th century interior. 

We crossed over into an area of Shoreditch also known for its street art.  There were some commercial artists at work.

The street art here was as varied and included some of the artists we had seen in Spitalfields. 

There was also another Banksy. 

In this area, a theater where Shakespeare's plays were presented was discovered during modern construction.  The outside of a building near the site depicts a scene from Romeo and Juliette. 

My day ended with the evening production of the musical SIX.  The musical tells the stories of the six wives of Henry VIII from their individual perspectives.  The performance was a mix of Abba and Hamilton with live music, song, choreographed dance and story telling.