*Wodewose

JUST a few yards from the South Bank and only a short riverside stroll from Tate Modern, an old Victorian tunnel has been transformed into an art gallery that puts even that grand collection to shame.
But you’ll have to move fast if you want to catch it.
The sculptures, installations and living art are gone already. Many of the terrific pictures painted on the walls – or, in a couple of cases, actually carved out of them – are liable to be defaced, maybe disappear, fast.
That’s despite the fact that one of the stars of the show is possibly the most talented, and certainly the most topical, fine artist currently at work in Britain.
I refer, of course, to the “graffiti” artist Banksy, a few of whose eye-catching pieces currently adorn the walls of the Leake Street tunnel, below the tracks at the end of Waterloo station.
There are also some terrific works by other artists with assumed names – Jef Aerosol, Eelus, Toastcat, Vhils – and some apparently with no names at all.
One of the anonymous efforts is a lifesize painting of a homeless man asleep on a bench with a Do Not Disturb sign dangling from his finger. Brilliant.
Other works are variously witty, entertaining, surreal, thought-provoking or overtly political. Some are extremely technically proficient as art. A number are all of those things at once.
A case in point is a typical Banksy, in which a council worker is seen spraying over a prehistoric cave-painting (see above).
Arriving well after the three-day Cans Festival had closed, I missed the undoubted sense of occasion. I also missed the queues and was able to observe the mass of stencil art still remaining without jostling.
Mind you, there was still a significant stream of admirers.
And since this is quite possibly the single most photographed art exhibition ever, what I decided to capture with my lens was mostly the interaction between the artworks and the viewers.



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I've never favourited so many works by one deviant in one visit as I did when stumbling on *ISMAILEREN's amazing gallery. He doesn't have as good a camera as most of us dA snappers, but his jaw-dropping subjects and his deeply intelligent and humane attitude make his array of images of Afghanistan and its people a must-see - one of the few collections on here I'd describe as important. I shall be writing about him at greater length at some point. In the meantime, consider the pics I've picked out here, go see the rest for yourselves - and tell him I sent you.




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The ~Forefathers gallery celebrates the photography of my father and grandfather from 1910 to 1992 and is administered jointly by me and my brother *coshipi



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