All Things Phlegm (Sheffield, UK) inc The Forest

this project of his is awesome and i can't wait to see the little book of etchings he's been working on!

I must say I'm really enjoying all of this. He has done some tremendous pieces as part of this project.

New work just gone up in Miami.
Not found a decent pic yet..

Dreadphone

http://instagram.com/p/-zJ4XeL1qL

A street artist with a sickly name is livening up a lacklustre building with a 10-metre high mural in Wellington's CBD.

Phlegm, who hails from the UK, has come to Wellington for the first time as part of the inaugural Vivid Wellington street art festival which runs from February 15-21.

By Sunday, he hopes to have finished the fantastical artwork on the back wall of Walrus Gallery on Jessie St. The work will serve as a nod to the building's history and the early cinema industry.

"The building is owned by Trevor Bettany, it's been in the family since the 1930s I think, and during the 1930s they were importing cinema projectors and servicing and maintaining them," Phlegm's Wellington host and Vivid team member, Bruce Mahalski said.

"Then during the war they reverse-engineered some of the tech from these early projectors and started making them locally.

"One of these hybrids is in the Roxy and a lot of the imagery of this is taken from that Roxy hybrid projector.

Phlegm, whose real name is unknown, doesn't speak to media.

His pseudonym is derived from one of the four temperaments in ancient Greek medicine – blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm.

Phlegm was believed to bring an apathetic and unemotional temperament.

To the humble painter it's a huge piece, but in actual fact it's one of Phlegm's more humble projects.

As well as artworks on planes and boat, Phlegm spent part of 2015 creating a giant mural on 36-metre high silos in Western Australia for creative organisation Form.

He also spent a month working in an English forest, creating 3D art installations each day – most of which were taken within 24 hours, Mahalski said.

"He knew that would happen, that's inevitable."

Street art often suffers from connotations of illegal graffiti, so Vivid's ethos is about mentoring young street artists and showing them their practice, if done legally, can lead to a successful career in the arts.

Mahalski hopes the work of Phlegm will be motivation for graffiti artists to act legally and respectfully, but it's a constant battle.

"There's a bit of a taggers going over street art murals recently," Mahalski said.

"It's a matter of trying to engage with the taggers one at a time and saying ... we would rather talk to you and help you try and do something a bit better."

Many other sites around the city are being transformed as part of Vivid festival. One bollard on Cuba St and Able Smith St is being painted daily by artists Toothfish and Bent.

To see an interactive map of street art happening as part of Vivid go to vivid.org.nz


i.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/77048994/Street-artist-Phlegm-spruces-up-Wellington-wall-for-Vivid-festival

You can see all the etchings from that series here: phlegmcomicnews.blogspot.ca/2014/09/royal-opera-house-etchings.html

I was lucky enough to get one as well:

https://instagram.com/p/-7U-LzvaO1

Thats gonna look fantastic when the scaff is removed.

Hope that van belongs to a plumber...

Just heading there now...