Early 2020, before the pandemic set in, I wanted to pick up the street art persona I had created the year before for Cursed City Dark Tide and create more street art. I had it seems, developed a taste for running around the streets at night with a bucket of paste, a fox mask and some newly created pieces of art. I didn’t want to leave @lissitch2019 behind and I wanted to continue to develop the persona of the street art pasting fox.
I recalled that there was a time a few years ago where there were lots of paste-up artists working the streets around Southsea, but recently there seemed to be less people doing it. So, I thought to myself, why not have paste-up festival and put up lots of artists work around the city. I had seen others do this and I knew there was a lively scene exchanging art and pasting it up for each other around the world. In fact, only the year before an exchange with #daddystreetfox had resulted in my own work going up in Melbourne and London, while I had also pasted up some pieces in Lisbon the previous December.
So #pasteuppompey was born with a message to fellow Instagrammers to send me their paste-ups. I promised to take a photo and tag them in, plus I even suggested that #lissitch2019 might even be filmed putting them up. I was surprised at the response and I quickly started getting letters and parcels from literally all over the world. Paste-ups of all shapes, sizes and styles started arriving with a reciprocal offer to put up my own work (should I ever find time to make some again). In all some 26+ artists from around the world shared their art with me as you can see in the gallery. Plus, there are a few photos that capture the work of local artists who were out and about during the period April to October 2020 when the festival occurred.
You can find all of the artists tagged in their photos on the @lissitch2019 Instagram feed, but I will name them all here anyway as I want to say a big thank you to them for making this prank possible: @ssosva @urbanninjasquadron @ahhdart @bentoghoul @laquart79 @putt.farken @trp613 @pig.vicious @Vez_streetart @zuko_75 @sm4ck_1 @whatifier @planetselfie @thecatscult @vermin.mcr @agit8d1 @tweet_streetart @sophiegasparianfineart @herr.eifel @visionox11 @punkflamungo @youralrightyouare @bilmo_de_bachata @vanityscareart @___ghostcat____ .
The whole thing reminded me of the Mail Art (https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/mail-art) movement from back in the 1960’s when artists started mailing postcards inscribed with drawings to extended lists of contacts. These address lists became a commodity themselves and would be exchanged by artists seeking new audiences for their work. With the advent of Instgram and its adoption by the street art community, it’s easy to see how hashtags work in a similar way to these collections of addresses, allowing the poster to send out their art to a wide audience of strangers.
Initially I would go out, often with a friend to capture some video of the fox pasting up artworks, with just a few pieces and put them up in a few of the popular spots around the city. The trick is to find places where they won’t get taken down quickly. I also found a couple of good gallery spots and slowly started adding pieces over time. More recently, I noticed a disused shop front I had adopted as a wall a few months back still had the original, now weather faded piece up on it. So, I started adding more work and weeks later, once it was clear nobody was bothered, I took over the entre shop front as a public gallery.
#pasteuppompey is pretty much done now, I have a few pieces left over including quite a large one I am saving for a new, as yet undiscovered location. I think I will do this again, it feels like I am part of a community now, plus I like the similarities with the Mail Art movement, it feels like I can also be part of something bigger than just me and my bucket of paste. One thing I noticed when out and about with people assisting me. Is how they started to notice the street art around them after coming out with me, that before then they just walked by and didn’t even see it. So, I guess my message to everyone is next time you are walking around town; open your eyes and see the magic.
#PasteUpPompey Street Art Festival – One Fox & a Bucket of Paste!
#pasteuppomepy is a street art festival staged on the streets of Southsea, Portsmouth, UK during April to October 2020. Artists from international destinations contributed work to the festival after responding to an Instagram call for submissions.
The festival features work by contributing artists: @ssosva @urbanninjasquadron @ahhdart @bentoghoul @laquart79 @putt.farken @trp613 @pig.vicious @Vez_streetart @zuko_75 @sm4ck_1 @whatifier @planetselfie @thecatscult @vermin.mcr @agit8d1 @tweet_streetart @sophiegasparianfineart @herr.eifel @visionox11 @punkflamungo @youralrightyouare @bilmo_de_bachata @vanityscareart @___ghostcat____
All of the photos are available via the @lisstich2019 Instagram feed where they are tagged and referenced to the relevant artists.
Open your eyes and see the magic.
#PasteUpPompey Street Art Festival – One Fox & a Bucket of Paste!
#pasteuppomepy is a street art festival staged on the streets of Southsea, Portsmouth, UK during April to October 2020. Follow the hashtag or go to @lisstich2019 for properly tagged and referenced images.