HICKS

'The great day of his wrath' my version after the original 1850's work by British artist of the sublime, John Martin. See the original in slide 2. I painted this on the first 2 days of Roskilde festival. but, Why paint someone else's work? Well, they're an old friend. This painting is in Tate Britain near Pimlico, London and I go and see them every month or so. I say hello, we hang out, and at the end I say good bye and show my thanks. You see... There are some paintings that are alive. Not that SEEM alive, or that feel alive, but are actually alive. They are a ... not a person, but something close. More, less, i cant tell. This one... is alive. I have spent a lot of time with them (them, not IT. ) The Problem is that they are hung quite high and because my eyes are not amazing, it has been years since I've been close up. Theres been no way to really get into it. So.... I decided to make my own version. about 3 times as big. Did my version gain a soul? Whatever that means? Im not sure. there was a great presence, I tried to collaborate with the past, not just copy or borrow from it. I think that kind of worked? but maybe not. It might be that it was just well done and thats that. Also, It might not be for me to say. Anyway. One day soon I will make more like this. My own. They will have a story and a rift and you will be forced to live inside them. Soon. And I am looking forward to that. Alright. Big love to all those who worked and painted and helped and over saw all the stuff at Roskilde. X -------- The Great Day of His Wrath, is an 1851–1853 oil painting on canvas by the English painter John Martin. Leopold Martin, John Martin's son, said that his father found the inspiration for this painting on a night journey through the Black Country. This has led some scholars to hold that the rapid industrialisation of England in the early nineteenth century influenced Martin. (from wikipedia obvs, but interesting that the smelting iron works and coal powered machinery at night could be the seed that this image of the end of days comes from. Quite fitting actually.) ----- 1st photo by @malthefrijs Some others by @larscopenhagen

New piece on Mare Street in Hackney. called : CRUCIBLE. •⁠ ⁠a vessel that is heated white hot to change its contents state. •⁠ ⁠an ordeal or test •⁠ ⁠a time of change I wanted something quite primal. An energy from below . It's a modified image by @ingib.thor from the recent Iceland lava flows. (He does excellent work that I share all the time. Go see ! ) Iceland is country who's surface is being altered by natural forces. If we zoom out even further, across the world, Things are really changing right now geopolitically. Not much that isnt on fire. The image is taken just where the violence and heat dies down and a new topology is made. When permanent rock is still soft and pliable. Change IS taking place and it only happens at places and times like this. Anyway, this was assisted and PAINTED BY THE EXCELLENT @ellespaint who very kindly got involved

A song I wrote recently. I took all the lines in the song 26 (?) and made text canvases of them and left them around Shoreditch. Plus a few more actually. Anyway. In 2003 I used to leave paintings out in the street almost every day in Southampton. It was nice to get back into this act of service. Maybe people pulled the works down and threw them away. Maybe people just tagged them up. Who knows. I'd like to think that folks took them home but thats not up to me. I was very nervous about singing as I haven't for a long time. It used to be my main thing, touring the country and being a solo performer. My voice as fallen apart since then. But thats ok. Anyway. I hope you like. Its a very simple song about resilience. This was partially to warm up for @nuartaberdeen festival and also a response to Connor Habib talking to J.F Martel. Who are both thinkers I utterly adore. @againsteveryonewithconnerhabib Go and listen to his podcast; AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNOR HABIB episode 315 very very good. anyway. much love e

Ep. 33 Semiotics etc. 3rd crit this week, im out the country now for a few days gonna try keep off this damn site. its a terrible place. But anyway, hope you get something from this its a bit all over the place and the conclusions arent really conclusions just trying to work it all out

Ep. 32 m0re critiques of urban art. Theres a reason you feel so stuck, that you have to do it a certain way and it feels unnatural. SOme point Im going to go back to talking about my own work. But not yet. Tomorrow I will release a 3rd one this week. Quite long. anyway, hope you like

EP. 31 GENRE TOWN Moving out of where you grew up cant believe theres been this many videos already.

Nuart Plus. Friday 24 April. Join us tonight for our traditional kick-out party F*ck Art; Let's Dance at Exodis across from the Aberdeen Art Gallery. #NuartAberdeen #NuartFestival #AberdeenInspired

ANIMA MUNDI a landscape with text. So each element within the natural world is thinking it's own thoughts. The title refers to the 'world soul' and is part of hylazoism, the idea that everything is part of the divine. Yet the actual piece is closer to pan-psychism. Where all matter is said to have awareness That experience is a nessesary part of matter at every level. So here come the words. Aleatoric, fragmented and nonlinear . Incomprehensible really, but still there. And thus requiring a relationship a lot more equal than the utilitarian and exploitative. Something closer to the kind of Deism that you see in Shinto Buddhism. This is my first of two murals I'm painting for @nuartaberdeen

Nuart Plus: Speaker Profile HICKS The Trash Stratum HICKS is a London mural artist working through the tradition of the sublime landscape in British Romanticism. Over the last 20 years his work has covered divination, masks, Jung, folk saints, and eventually ending up exploring the line between apocalypse and transcendence, dawn and dusk. To place the immortal classic alongside graffiti, into the ephemeral public domain is to deterritorialise art history. Evoking narratives that explore radical theology, cataclysm and thus, responsibility. His current mural and studio practice comes from, yet stands in opposition to the pop, market led sensibilities of street art and modern muralism. #NuartAberdeen #NuartPlus #AberdeenInspired

Meeting your heros. The opening of the 6th seal by Francis Danby. Here in Dublin Ireland. A painting I have loved for a long time. Good to meet it in the flesh. We got on well. Photos by the excellent @artofasbestos

OH YEAH, painting at @yardworksglasgow You know the score, its a fine institution and a chance to go visit the truly excellent city of Glasgow. Very honoured to be invited to their 10th anniversary show. gaddamnit ill see you there.

Nuart Aberdeen 2026. April 22nd - 26th “Poetry Is In The Streets” “I’d love to think that this year's Nuart went some way towards giving “Street Art” back to the people, in the sense that it encourages more people to have a go themselves, young and old alike, this year hopefully shows that you don’t need the skills of an old master, a Mexican muralist or have the privilege of an art degree, you just need to know your ABC’s, and maybe, just maybe, it inspires some young lad or lass who otherwise wouldn’t have thought of becoming an artist, that spark of possibility. This is how we keep this culture alive and we nurture the idea that Poetry is in the Streets.” - Martyn Reed, Nuart Founder and Curator @nuartaberdeen @aberdeeninspired @streetartaberdeen #streetart #graffiti #art #urbanart #streetphotography #graffitiart #street #streetarteverywhere #mural #wallart #streetartphotography #streetstyle #streetartist #painting #graff #contemporaryart #urban #photooftheday #spraypaint #muralart #sprayart #arte #urbanphotography #nuartfestival #muralism #situationist #aberdeen #streetartaberdeen #nuartfestival #nuartaberdeen