Toronto is a grey place. Grey skies, grey buildings, grey lake, grey roads, grey people. When the sun un-expectedly burst through the clouds I grabbed my camera and went looking for a bit of wall colour.
I found brickloads, in a system of alleyways just south of Queen St West, between Spadina and Portland. Tons and tons of wild style, quite a bit of art.
The pieces curiously were very dated, ranging between 2005 and 2007, there didn’t seem to be much renewal, much churn. Quite a lot had commercial overtones and appeared to link to art shops or recording studios nearby. It had the appearance of being rather formal and sanctioned and in my eyes for that lost some appeal.
Walking along Queen St W, there was a healthy quantity of roof top tagging and roller jobs but unfortunately my camera battery had died. There was even a building with a slanted line along the side and the message “Proposal: tilt this building 5 degrees”! Again, a nice idea tainted by a whiff of legitimacy.
The pictures below are a few of my favourites from this wander. Lots more on flickr as per usual.
A Nigerian cabbie (I got his life story and his business plan!) told me there was a lot in the area of Kensington Market and Chinatown, though as I was on my way to the airport I mentally noted this for my next trip. If there is one.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymvk3HsocqQ
in reMemory of KASE2 & all the midnite writers…
Motion's GRAF, directed by Eklipz, feat. Zion
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Peace
Motion
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GRAF, by Motion, directed by Eklipz, feat. Zion
This is a piece I first had the opportunity to view when I spoke to Motion about doing a piece for the Hip Hop Homage site. When I read the piece I put some simple graphics to it in order to post it. A short time later Motion contacted me inquiring about putting some visuals to the piece and we started to brainstorm what we'd like to see. I thought having ZIon in it would be important and Motion whole heartily agreed. And he was down to be apart of it. We had a great team shoot day. Shouts to my other camera man Robbie J, My son Origin who handled lights and anything else we asked. Motions hair was done by Safiyah's House of Creations, And Locations, make up and styling was done by Sonilda Teaque. Shouts to Supa 83, Kolor Brown,Fresh Kilz, King RC who all had a hand in creating the soundscape. Today we learned that a legend the King of Style Kase2/Case2 has passed away and we wanted to drop this piece today in celebration of his Life and his impact on the graffiti movement. Also with Loving memory of Ramsay Jones who gets a special dedication on the wall. Motion and Myself would like to thank all the people that were involved in the project. And those writer's who have given us impactful and beautiful art to inspire our works.
Eklipz
director
http://www.storehousemedia.com
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