Hoardings – the new gallery of the streets

News in pictures
News in pictures
On Facebook
Arts & Ents blogs

Heidi: I don’t want my night to ever fizzle off, I want to finish it with an explosion

In Miami last year I discovered a DJ named Heidi Van Den Amstel, who played a brilliant set at Sunda...

Becoming Damien Hirst? You’re not the first

Damien Hirst, the richest, probably most famous, contemporary living artist, once remarked: “I don't...

The Photography Blog: Rise of the smartphone, but smart photography too?

Assuming Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t got his sums wrong, the market for smartphone photography is booming...

Have you noticed how art on hoardings is everywhere these days? Whether it's pencil sketches by the Swedish artist Martin Karlsson on the Transforming Tate hoardings at the Tate Modern, or the Graffiti Kings collective making their commissioned mark on a new development of flats on the Holloway Road, or the Bankside Gallery's London Lives competition where the winning artists will have their work blown-up on a huge hoarding on Blackfriars Bridge for a year (from September) – the hoarding has become another artistic outlet worth taking notice of.

And it's not just in London that this is happening either. Regeneration schemes across the country are using art as a way of making areas visually appealing and in some cases, even cutting crime. In Stoke-on-Trent, Glassball Arts Projects have created Living Gallery, a digital street gallery with over 150 works of art on boarded-up windows and doors and are now working on designs for 500 metres of hoarding. Great Yarmouth is using the skills of the graffiti artist Silent Hobo to create a timeline with the history of the area in his bold Manga style on a hoarding around St George's chapel while they develop a new cultural quarter, due to open in 2012. And, in Birmingham, the photographer Adam Magyar has used Olympic finish-line technology for his Walking As One project on hoardings outside the new library, which show the diverse population of the city walking together.

As James Hurst, director of the illustration agency HigginsonHurst, who recently co-commissioned five revolving hoarding artworks for Busaba Eathai's first East London restaurant – including images by the photographer Jason Lowe, which will be up until Monday – says, "the argument about what is public space and where work can be created is always rife in the art scene. It's easy for companies to come in and reinforce their brand, but what's clever and brave is that here they gave an incredibly open brief. It doesn't look like an advert; it looks like art".

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Career Services

Day In a Page

Bee Gees star Robin Gibb loses cancer battle

Bee Gees star Robin Gibb dies

British songwriter who defined disco described as second only to the Beatles
Antelope first seen 20 years ago is on brink of extinction

Endangered animals

The good news and the bad news
Second best day of his life? Zuckerberg surprises friends with secret wedding

Second best day of his life?

Zuckerberg surprises friends with secret wedding
Laurie Penny: In the age of camera phones the message is that protesters are watching police too

Occupy in the age of the camera phone

In Chicago, you can't see the cops for the cameras
Exclusive extract: How Cameron tried to evade Murdoch's embrace

Exclusive book extract

How Cameron tried to evade Murdoch's embrace
Pathetic fantasist or Nazi spy? The mysterious Mrs O'Grady

Pathetic fantasist or Nazi spy? The mysterious Mrs O'Grady

She was the only British woman sentenced to death for treason during the Second World War. Now, a new book revisits her bizarre case
Introducing the wellderly

Introducing the wellderly

Growing numbers of the over-65s want to keep working, volunteer or go on gap years
Penny Junor: 'I'm absolutely not a friend of Prince Charles'

Penny Junor interview

'I'm absolutely not a friend of Prince Charles'
Joe Strummer: The angry young man who grew up

Joe Strummer

How to remember the punk hero?
Patrick Cockburn: Goodbye to recent delusions - the age of nationalism is back with a vengeance

Patrick Cockburn: Goodbye to recent delusions...

... the age of nationalism is back with a vengeance
AN Wilson: Can Hollande live down the rain on his parade?

Can Hollande live down the rain on his parade?

The new French President's debut last week has drawn comparisons with Clouseau. But AN Wilson says curious things can happen after a downpour
Slumdog the musical calls in Julian Fellowes

Slumdog the musical calls in Julian Fellowes

Danny Boyle has broken off talks on staging his hit movie after an argument over artistic control
Like hotcakes: Bill Granger thinks the world is about to go pancake-crazy

Like hotcakes

Bill Granger thinks the world is about to go pancake-crazy
Siren sisters: The fishy tale of America's strangest theme park

Siren sisters

The fishy tale of America's strangest theme park
Blade Runner with a female lead: All-action gals... just like mother

All-action gals... just like mother

It's no surprise Ridley Scott is to remake his sci-fi action thriller 'Blade Runner' with a female lead