“They’re nice images but they are now covering so many properties without permission it needs to be talked about”
Left – Birmingham ‘sticker street artist’ Sgt Wilko. Right, some of the aftermath of his blitz on East Street, Bedminster(Image: Bristol Post)
They’ve been turning heads and causing quite a reaction across the city centre and in Bedminster – a new kind of particularly niche form of street art has sparked controversy in Bristol – a city which was last week named among the top places in the world to visit, mainly because of its street art.
Last weekend, mystery Birmingham artist Sgt Wilko arrived and spent the weekend pasting his unique artwork on shop fronts, phone boxes, walls and signs down East Street and North Street in Bedminster, along with various locations around the city centre.
The artworks are effectively large stickers, but are handmade relief or screen prints that are then pasted up on walls as a rapid way to display art. Sgt Wilko – who goes by ‘Wilko Official’ on Instagram – is contributing one half to a pop-up exhibition, alongside fellow artist Boxi, at That Art Gallery, at the top of the Christmas Steps in Colston Street next month.
“You may have seen these prolific Birmingham based artists’ work pasted up on the streets?” That Art Gallery posted on Instagram. “But you probably don’t realise that these artworks aren’t produced with the press of a button ~ they’re hand made relief/screen prints which That Art Gallery are now proud to present in a one off pop up exhibition in the former Lone Rambler store at the top of Christmas Steps in Bristol.”
Printed stickers from Birmingham-based street artist Sgt Wilko have filled East Street in Bedminster.(Image: Bristol Post)
The exhibition opens on November 18 and runs until November 23 with a late-night event on Thursday, November 20.
But to publicise this exhibition, Sgt Wilko came to Bristol last weekend, and pasted scores of examples of his artwork all over Bristol – and that has sparked a bit of controversy.
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Some Bristol residents, including street artist Gemma Compton, commented on Instagram that they loved the new additions to the Bedminster street art scene.
But one resident of East Street said the street was already full of the work of graffiti taggers and didn’t need stickers to add to it.
Printed stickers from Birmingham-based street artist Sgt Wilko have filled East Street in Bedminster.(Image: Bristol Post)
“This has become a weird new scourge in the Bedminster area – East street businesses, town centre businesses have been covered In these repetitive large pasted graffiti pieces,” said the resident, who declined to be named.
“They’re nice images but they are now covering so many properties without permission it needs to be talked about – unlike normal taggers tagging shutters he’s covering businesses actual signs,” he said.
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“Businesses have complained about it. He’s also flyering it over phone boxes and so on, on North Street,” he added.
“Street art is important to Bristol, but it’s a fine balance when it starts to affect already struggling local businesses who then have the extra expense of clearing them. It’s disrespectful covering business’ shop signage in my opinion,” he added.
One of the shopkeepers in East Street said he didn’t want to be named in case it attracted more stickers and tagging to his shop front. “Graffiti is a part of life in Bedminster, everyone knows that,” he said.
Printed stickers from Birmingham-based street artist Sgt Wilko have filled East Street in Bedminster.(Image: Bristol Post)
“But generally, most of the time, if you have your shutters painted properly they leave it alone. This is worrying though. My neighbour’s shop has been covered with these stickers, and it’s on the signs too.
“We’ve had to remove a few of these things, and it’s out of order – he’s coming down from Birmingham and it looks like he’s at least tried to target empty shops, like the old HSBC bank building at the end of East Street, but some of them weren’t. We’ve got a kind of unspoken agreement with graffiti artists – they sort of know the line people will tolerate, and this is over that line,” he added.
Bristol Live has contacted Sgt Wilko, and a response is awaited.