The Cans Festival

The other weekend there was a big hullaballoo across the street from our new apartment. Turns out that crummy Leake Street - an underpass running through Waterloo Station - was being turned into a showcase for graffiti art of the stencil variety, as part of The Cans Festival.

Brainchild of famed graffiti artist Banksy, it was pretty much an open invitation to anyone with a can of spraypaint. I took the video camera over and shot some footage, and went back with a stills camera the next weekend. Initial queues were HUGE, with a wait of up to a couple hours to get in...

Britney and Madonna kissing (from their notorious MTV performance):

This one is a Banksy:

Brilliant two-tone work, where one of the shades is achieved by physically cutting away the brick wall:

My personal favourite. "All your chip are belong to us."

Banksy said: "Graffiti doesn't always spoil buildings, in fact it's the only way to improve a lot of them. In the space of a few hours with a couple of hundred cans of paint I'm hoping we can transform a dark forgotten filth pit into an oasis of beautiful art."