graffiti
Seeing pictures of the 2 Men Kissing made me curious about the hype over it. Prior to visiting the East Side Gallery in Berlin, I thought that said image would be the most impressive art piece/wall, since it is so iconic and everyone enjoys instagramming pictures of it.
Let me first apologise for using the image as my blog header image. The Kiss was photographed in 1979 and it is a "common ritual for socialist buddies" according to Stars and Stripes. But (and here's why I apologised), THERE IS MORE to the East Side Gallery than the The Kiss.
The East Side Gallery is filled with walls and walls of detailed and impressive street art, some (in my opinion) are so much more interesting/thought provoking than The Kiss. Yet I don't understand why they aren't featured. WHY?
Let me first give tribute to my favourite wall. Favourite for no concrete specific reason actually. It is not the most colourful wall, neither is it the most detailed, but I really like it. Maybe it's because of my love for masquerades and masks. Then again, this wall can be interpreted in so many ways. From that of living in a masked society, to... just pretty masked animal look-a-likes.
In fact, the pictures that are shown here of all the walls are those that left an impression. They made me stop and stare before bothering to snap a photo. They made me go "Wow! how to people paint something like that?!" Honestly, these are such thought provoking images, they definitely deserve more recognition.
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| I found this image to be so haunting. |
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| THIS. IS. GOLD. |
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| This is a gate that use to be an entrance between both sides of the wall. |
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| Check Point Charlie Illustration. |
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| This one really reminded me of Japan! |
Anyway, for my outfit that day, I went with a mostly black and grey ensemble (didn't want to clash with the colours for the berlin wall!) with a pop of blue on top. Never used to enjoy wearing turtle necks in the past, I always thought they made me look like i had no neck or too long a neck. But this one has such a nice colour plus it keeps me warm!
Here's what I wore:
Grey Winter Coat: Coldwear (Similar Here) | Black Pants: Takashimaya (Similar Here) | Black Ankle Boots: Ecco (Similar Here) | Light Purple Knit Turtle Neck: New Look
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| Ending off with an image that shows both side of the berlin wall, a reminder of Divide. |
Hope you enjoyed the pictures of the East Side Gallery. What are your thoughts?
Colours of the East Side Gallery - Berlin, Germany
27 January 2015 East Side Gallery, Mühlenstraße, 10243 Berlin, Germany
Studying in 5 days a week leaves me very little time to explore the other areas of London. The only saturday afternoon Jerald was in London, I decided to not think about school work, and we head out to East London.
Brick Lane is such a unique and quirky place. There were so many cool vintage shops, markets selling all sorts of food, underground clothing markets with so many variety of clothes (think *scape-esque except bigger and edgier.) From second hand fur coats, vintage hats and dresses, leather bags, to quirky sunglasses, and cute knit sweaters. I was so tempted to buy something, many things in fact.
But I didn't.
I'm taking this saving-up-to-travel thing very seriously as you can see. Resisting all my inner desires to get more clothes.
The people who were hanging out in Brick Lane were dressed to express; unafraid to let their inner fashionista shine. I saw this girl who reminded me of a modern day Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She wore the most amazing midi, slightly-flared greenish-blue dress, an equally long dark oxblood coat, paired the look with dainty gold flats and had her hair up in a bun. Base on the description, you would think all the colours would have clashed dramatically. But they complemented her dark skin really well. I just stopped and stared as she hurried by before I could say "I love your outfit!"
The streets around Brick Lane are also filled with shops selling curry, each one claiming to be the best. Instead of going for curry, I was more interested in taking photographs of the graffiti along the streets.
I must say, the street seemed to have its own character, its own life.
I love how on one side you have young couples taking wedding photos, on another guys posing weirdly in front of a graffiti wall. You occasionally walk by some uninhibited areas / abandoned corners and you get to see teenagers having an amateur photo shoot in the area.
Brick Lane is definitely a place that fuels creativity, and is a place to go if one needs a little bit of inspiration.
After roaming around the vintage stalls in Brick Lane, we headed to Box Park, and were lucky enough to catch the sunset! After being here for a while, I realised that being able to see the different shades of pink orange and blue is pretty uncommon in London. With so many clouds and the almost-always-overcast sky, opportunities to see beautiful sunsets are minimum.
Box Park is a place where the stalls are set up in containers, and each stall had a # in front of its name. On the 2nd level, you have food varieties whilst on the ground level, stalls sell a mixture of hair, make-up and fashion items.
We came across a Champagne candle, and that is by far the BEST thing i've ever smelt. Unfortunately, we're not allowed to burn candles in my hall, plus i'm not about to spend 25 pounds on a candle.
Whilst roaming around the nearby areas of Box Park, we saw halloween decorations for the 31st of october. Entire wall spray painted just for that occasion, to suit the thematic atmosphere, to create an experience.
Colourful, Detailed, Artistic.
In the end, we spent more time roaming around Brick Lane than we did at the Box Park. East London sure is a fun place to be in for the weekend.
If anyone knows of other less touristy yet trendy and cool places I can visit in London, please let me know! :)
Initially, I intended to just hit up Shoreditch and roam around the Box Park, a suggestion given to me by my roommate, unfortunately, the district and circle and district lines were down that day, meaning it had to take a longer route to get to East London. Instead of going straight to Shoreditch, Jerald and I decided to walk through Brick Lane which was on the way to Box Park.
Needless to say, we got really distracted at Brick Lane, and our supposed short afternoon excursion took up the entire day.Brick Lane is such a unique and quirky place. There were so many cool vintage shops, markets selling all sorts of food, underground clothing markets with so many variety of clothes (think *scape-esque except bigger and edgier.) From second hand fur coats, vintage hats and dresses, leather bags, to quirky sunglasses, and cute knit sweaters. I was so tempted to buy something, many things in fact.
But I didn't.
I'm taking this saving-up-to-travel thing very seriously as you can see. Resisting all my inner desires to get more clothes.
The people who were hanging out in Brick Lane were dressed to express; unafraid to let their inner fashionista shine. I saw this girl who reminded me of a modern day Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She wore the most amazing midi, slightly-flared greenish-blue dress, an equally long dark oxblood coat, paired the look with dainty gold flats and had her hair up in a bun. Base on the description, you would think all the colours would have clashed dramatically. But they complemented her dark skin really well. I just stopped and stared as she hurried by before I could say "I love your outfit!"
I must say, the street seemed to have its own character, its own life.
I love how on one side you have young couples taking wedding photos, on another guys posing weirdly in front of a graffiti wall. You occasionally walk by some uninhibited areas / abandoned corners and you get to see teenagers having an amateur photo shoot in the area.
Brick Lane is definitely a place that fuels creativity, and is a place to go if one needs a little bit of inspiration.
After roaming around the vintage stalls in Brick Lane, we headed to Box Park, and were lucky enough to catch the sunset! After being here for a while, I realised that being able to see the different shades of pink orange and blue is pretty uncommon in London. With so many clouds and the almost-always-overcast sky, opportunities to see beautiful sunsets are minimum.
Box Park is a place where the stalls are set up in containers, and each stall had a # in front of its name. On the 2nd level, you have food varieties whilst on the ground level, stalls sell a mixture of hair, make-up and fashion items.
We came across a Champagne candle, and that is by far the BEST thing i've ever smelt. Unfortunately, we're not allowed to burn candles in my hall, plus i'm not about to spend 25 pounds on a candle.
Whilst roaming around the nearby areas of Box Park, we saw halloween decorations for the 31st of october. Entire wall spray painted just for that occasion, to suit the thematic atmosphere, to create an experience.
Colourful, Detailed, Artistic.
In the end, we spent more time roaming around Brick Lane than we did at the Box Park. East London sure is a fun place to be in for the weekend.
If anyone knows of other less touristy yet trendy and cool places I can visit in London, please let me know! :)
Fashionistas in London - Brick Lane to Shoreditch
14 November 2014 Brick Lane, London E1 6RL, UK
I've always had a thing for street art. Graffiti is just fascinating. Some people may think its vandalism/unsightly/destroys the facade of buildings. But i think to be able to produce something so macroscopic with just a spray can and a few colours, is art, is talent.
Unlike the streets of Paris, its not common to find graffiti on walls of buildings and street artist painting on floors in London.
While we were walking around Central London, Daryl said "I know of a place nearby called the Graffiti Tunnel." Imagine my excitement when I heard it. And of course, we made our way to the tunnel.
Outside the tunnel there were hipster kids having a photoshoot, whilst punk rock teenagers attempt to shoot a music video with the graffiti as their background.
We even got the privilege of observing someone spray paint, and another guy being more impressive with the use of markers!
They dont have prelimenary sketches, or outlines, they just start painting and drawing. Its incredible how these street artists have such a macroscopic perspective. Respectful indeed.
Photos taken on my iphone 4S of Graffiti Tunnel, London.
Street Art in London
19 October 2014 Leake Street, Lambeth, London SE1 7NN, UK
It was a really hot weekend the other week (I have since lost track of which week it was, thus the OTHER week) Decided to head up to Centre Pompidou and walk around alone, visit the Hôtel de Ville, and just explore the area up to Quai de la Seine, where Paris Plage was held at.
The main area for the City Square. I liked the rows of fountains.
Unfortunately, it was really hard to capture that on camera under the BLAZING sun, plus I was too short to get everything in a properly framed shot.
Little pop up fashion store/area - love how such things are just there, and people walk by like its an everyday affair (well, I guess to them it is!)
Occasional cute cartoon stickers on the walls, they are always just there alone and unaccompanied.
POZETTO - My awesome pistachio and dark chocolate gelato that was melting from the heat, but so good nonetheless!
Can I just say, I LOVE THE RANDOM STREET GRAFFITI. I mean, just look at that! Especially the one of a man's face that goes all the way up to the top of the building! I mean, how do people do that?! Its just amazing.
Stravinsky Fountain. I expected it to be grander, and livelier though :( Was way more interested in the graffiti in the area than the fountain.
More AMAZING Street Art. The artist leave a bowl by the drawing on the floor, and I guess, its free for anyone who wanted to donate. Alternative way to earn $ in Paris indeed.
Fontaine des Innocents
I love how people just sit around the fountain, chilling, listening to baskets along the streets, and people watching. Interesting how these people spend their saturdays relaxing and being all hipster-ish haha!
Ile de la Cite from one side (Im assuming, I really cannot remember)
Golden Angel Victoria
Since that day happened to be the first day for Paris Plage - an event where they import sand and awkward palm trees and line them along the river, mimicking a "beach". Its supposedly for people who don't have the luxury of travelling out of Paris to the coastal cities during the holiday month of august. So they create this fake beach for people to suntan, with games and activities for them to have a feel of being at beach on a vacation.
Minature red eiffel tower. Spot the real Eiffel tower!
When I was walking along the "beach" I had a really weird encounter with some guy. Its really hard to tell when people are just being friendly, and when they are not. I mistook his advances and thought he was being friendly - because compared to asians, parisians are really really friendly - but he was unfortunately one of those guys Caucasian guys that enjoy chatting up asians, and I don't mean it in a nice way :(
So I excused myself and said I had a dinner appointment with a friend. Normally don't tell lies like that, but there's a first for everything! Hahah! So here was my dinner with(out) my friend.
Japanese food in France isn't too expensive. I was pleasantly surprised by the meal I had, because I went to a restaurant with like nobody, and they didnt seem famous or anything. The food was not amazing or anything, but certainly comparable to sushi chains in Singapore.
On a side note, I FREAKING MISS the food in Singapore. The variety that we have is incomparable. multiple options from western to asian food all within 200m in the same place, is something I most definitely miss.
City Beach
12 August 2014 The Centre Pompidou, Place Georges-Pompidou, 75004 Paris, France
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