I recently got a few images of this lovely wall by UK artist Sam Worthington, also known as Wasp Elder painted for this year’s experimental playground at IBUG 2017.
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In this occasion, he decided to create a piece based on the German concept of Augenwischerei which means creating a deceptively favourable impression or something for appearance only.
Like in the rest of his work, Wasp Elder makes use of photography as a reference for his painting, a clear impression of reality that at some point gets left behind giving way to a change of focus towards the process of painting, making the image (memories) into something physical like a painting. It is in this process that memories and thoughts become blurred. The artist explains the idea behind this mural as follows:
“Through out the festival I tried to create an experimental piece of work that would echo how we filter information around us. The result being presented like a blurred memory of an idea or statement, not the statement its self.”
This lovely piece is part of the 12th edition of the IBUG street art and graffiti project that has transformed an old abandoned factory, called SPEMAFA or formerly „VEB Spezialmaschinenfabrik“, into a temporary venue for a colourful, varied and exciting exhibition.
The iBUG project was initiated in 2006 by German graffiti and hyperrealist painter TASSO in the city of Meerane. The first small get-together was over 10 years ago, becoming with the time an internationally known festival for urban art and culture.
Traditionally taking place at the last weekend in August somewhere in West-Saxony, an industrial brownfield is opened for Streetart-, Graffiti-, and MediaArtists from all over the world. The mix of genres, styles, materials and techniques as well as the history of the brownfield play a key role in the annual experiment.
About the artist
Wasp Elder aka Sam Worthington was born in the UK in 1986. Wasp Elder is a socially engaged artist who paints pictures populated by enigmatic figures and unstressed backgrounds, enticing a sentiment of an obscure journey. His paintings present an evocative combination of solitary figures, collaged scenes, close-ups, obscured features, and potential catastrophe. Through this working process he is able to present often marginalised figures through a dignified representation. Highlighting their humanity outside of the conflict that is seen to define them.
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
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