Watching Paint Dry #8: Burning The Olympic Wick

Hello campers.
Excuse the delay in this week’s column going up. My fault. I’ve been busy beavering away in Hackney Wick working. But something is afoot over there. Something I feel I must speak on.

Hackney Wick is a large industrial estate, which now also houses a ton of creative types of all shapes and sizes (see a column from a few weeks back looking at some of the art down there). There is all kinds of creative forward thinking going on here. The true artistic part of Hackney, not the glossy bits the Shoreditch gallery going punters see. This is where the magic starts, this is the place where the true creation begins. This is the heart of London’s art and design culture. Right here. In this sweaty industrial estate. For years artists have worked from this area, living collectively in warehouses they have converted. They live, work and breathe this place. it’s their home, it’s where they make the magic. The very same magic that Boris praises the city for. And during all this time, for years I might add, the place has seen peace between its residents and the “authorities”. The creative’s working away, keeping their heads down, they have been of no cause for concern to anyone.. but we must remember the Wick now sits under the edge of the all new Olympic village. Its spaceship like structure looms above the estate. Ever present it towers over all, reminiscent of the alien ship in movie “District 9″. During the last 12 months or so during the building of the village all has remained cool, until now… Now the vibe has changed. The streets have a new feel.

In the past month or so, the whole area has been like a police state. 24 hours a day unmarked cars, CCTV cars, uniform cars and even riot vans of policemen roam the area. Stopping everyone, searching them, stopping cars and generally harassing the residents of the area. And dare I say it but the tactics are beginning to get a little underhand. For example, why are the CCTV cars following people walking down the streets, at walking pace, cameras rolling… Why are the police taking peoples phones out of their hands and looking at where their Google maps says to find out where they have just been? Why are the police asking people on the streets if they know other people they have searched by name? A lot of these tactics seem underhand to me and surely to anyone? The streets are heat. All day, every day. Residents are becoming used to being searched when they go to buy milk. The same residents who have caused no hassle for all this time. They don’t deserve this treatment. You have to ask why? And when you do, the answer seems pretty obvious to me. Money. It’s all about the money. With creative’s being evicted all of a sudden and all this police presence it seems that Boris wants rid of these people. I mean hey, they’re artists and that makes them almost terrorists after all eh. It seems to me that A. large media companies are coming in and buying out the landlords for their prime filming spots, And B. corporations like Starbucks and Foot Locker are also getting in on the act building “pop – up” stores. Did you know that local cafe’s are NOT allowed to trade during the Olympics? Only official sponsors can. Seems a little unfair to me somehow. A lot of this seems unfair and it appears it is all driven by the money in the background. Police in the area even have special powers over a certain radius of the stadium to pretty much do what they like. Who said this was OK? When did they ask us the public if this was OK? Oh yeah course we were distracted weren’t we. Riots, recession, terrorism etc… All that was going on wasn’t it. But hey let’s not despair some of us have tickets to see these wonderful sporting games. So everything’s OK isn’t it? Some of you out there might get to watch a bit of weightlifting or equestrian. You probably wanted to see something else but hey! Think yourself lucky you have a ticket. The poor bastards getting turfed out of their homes don’t. They didn’t get anything, just rolled over by Boris’s Olympic Mafia.

Not everyone likes sport. Not everyone wants the Olympics. In fact I don’t know a single person whose gives a shit about this event. And all the time, the Wick residents get treated like criminals when they have done nothing. So where does graffiti and street art fit in to all this Seeds? I hear you ask.. Well for a start since this crackdown has begun virtually all the painted walls in the area have been cleaned. Anyone caught painting is being locked up and god forbid you go anywhere near the perimeter fence, they don’t like that AT ALL. But the writers are still going for it; tags, dubs, stickers and pieces are still flying up in the face of adversity. These cats aren’t going to roll over for you Boris, far from it. You’ve made a terrible mistake by playing it like this. You will lose this battle for surfaces. You can’t watch every wall, every minute.

So to everyone bombing the Wick, Keep on keeping on. We have a story to tell, let’s tell it via the best way we know. The writing is on the wall Boris, start reading.

Here’s some photo’s of stuff I’ve spotted going up in the last week or so…
Until next week stay up!

Oh and just before I go, a shout to everyone struggling in the Wick, as my man Sage would say FILM THE POLICE! And a special shout out to the Northerner with the mad skills… You know who you are big up ya bad self…

Seeds