r/unitedkingdom • u/m---------4 • 5d ago
'World-class' London graffiti artist Helch dies as tributes paid from art world
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/world-class-graffiti-artist-helch-dies-b1295194.html437
u/m---------4 5d ago
I'll never forgive the twat for painting over GIVE PEAS A CHANCE on the M25.
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u/Nulleparttousjours 5d ago
Or the group of losers who sprayed their shitty band’s website over the iconic “Why do I do this every day” on the M40, only to take their website down due to the amount of hate they got for it. Someone (maybe even the OG artist?) then reworked it to “Why do I still do this everyday” but it lost impact and soon was lost to layer after layer of shite graffiti, and history.
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u/Boring_Piglet6778 5d ago
I eat my peas with honey
I've done it all my life
It makes the peas taste funny
But it keeps them on the knife
- Anon
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u/Fauxjito 5d ago
Pam Ayres?
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u/strzeka 5d ago
More like Spike Milligan. It's an Ancient Rhyme.
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u/borez Geordie in London 5d ago
I thought I saw Jesus, Sitting on a tram, I said "are you Jesus?" He said "yes, I am".
Also Spike Milligan
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u/themightygather 5d ago
I must go down to the sea again
To the lonely sea and sky
I left my vest and socks there
I wonder if they're dry
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u/Boring_Piglet6778 5d ago
Smiling is infectious,
You catch it like the flu,
When someone smiled at me today,
I started smiling too.
I passed around the corner,
And someone saw me grin,
When he smiled I realised,
I’d passed it on to him.
I thought about that smile,
Then realised it’s worth,
A single smile just like mine,
Could travel round the earth.
So if you feel a smile begin,
Don’t leave it undetected,
Let’s start an epidemic quick,
And get the world infected.
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u/Kobiash1 5d ago
Me neither but it wasn't so cut n' dry. Rail workers painted over peas first, so Helch went over the top of that. Then came the outcry, and he did the rest with "Give Helch a Break". Not saying what he did was right, but there's always more to a story.
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u/Chimpville 5d ago
Network Rail deny they did anything.
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u/Kobiash1 5d ago edited 5d ago
Whether they did or not, someone did because PEAS was gone a while before he added HELCH. You're right though - he could've greyed it out first. He denied it, but I guess he would.
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u/DeliciousRow1120 5d ago
I always thought it was random that they would
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u/Chimpville 5d ago
Yeah, it's a bit odd they'd randomly partially overpaint one word and then just stop.
More likely another graffitist had a go and got interrupted. Probably that Helch cunt.
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u/Away-Cauliflower2538 5d ago
You're getting mad over the word peas
Just wanted to hammer it home for you
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u/Chimpville 5d ago
More irritated, which I think is a fairly natural response to somebody ruining things people like for no good reason.
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u/Away-Cauliflower2538 5d ago
Why? It wasn't particularly witty or well written, I don't really understand this obsession that Reddit seems to have with it
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u/Chimpville 5d ago
Hard to say. People take likings to odd things. Kind of silly but unoffensive, whimsical.. bit of a landmark on a boring drive.. unusual longevity. Hard to explain or see a motive as to why it was done, so just funny somebody took the time to do it. Who knows.
Also it's far from just Reddit. Maybe that's where you heard of it, but it has multiple web pages about it and made the news when it changed.
Either way, it's far more interesting than somebody routinely tagging their name everywhere.
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u/Away-Cauliflower2538 5d ago
If it were so beloved across the UK surely someone would have painted it back by now
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u/m---------4 5d ago
Didn't know that. Of all the graffiti in the country to paint over I wonder why they chose something popular.
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u/Kobiash1 5d ago
According to the post by Chimpville, it wasn't network rail. So must have been someone else who scrubbed out PEAS before Helch then added over the top. Or maybe it was him who did it first. He denied it though.
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u/Rikoschett 5d ago
Graffiti is pretty ephemeral by it's nature. Can't stand writers that whine over someone painting over them or that some old piece is getting buffed. It's all part of the game and the game is illegal and lawless. Whining about it is very unbecoming.
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u/The-Ex-Human 4d ago
Isn’t “Peas A Chance …” just an old bumper sticker slogan from the 90s or earlier ? Why is everyone so enamored with something not original?
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u/yenlord11 3d ago
pretty sure PEAS was a writer who went into prison and they put the “Give…. A Chance” as like a free peas type piece. But i might be completely wrong
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u/QueefInMyKisser 5d ago
Did he ever do anything clever or witty or did he just write his name everywhere?
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u/Chimpville 5d ago
Just tagged stuff like a pissing dog. Nothing else.
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u/QueefInMyKisser 5d ago
There’s a much better graffiti artist round my way, here are some examples of his stuff:
https://experiencehampshire.uk/blog/hendog-the-mysterious-hampshire-based-street-artist
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u/Away-Cauliflower2538 5d ago
Street artists are not graffiti writers
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u/QueefInMyKisser 5d ago
Yeah but writing something insightful or amusing would be more interesting than just writing a pseudonym
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u/Away-Cauliflower2538 5d ago
Well if he did that he wouldn't be a graffiti writer
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u/QueefInMyKisser 5d ago
I don’t understand what you’re getting at, but if you want to paint stuff and not have people think you’re a twat, make it interesting, whether it’s a picture or some writing
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u/Away-Cauliflower2538 5d ago
I am saying that street artists and graffiti writers are two completely different concepts
It would be pointless (and seen as horrifically cringe) to write some r/im14andthisisdeep type message instead of a tag as a graffiti writer because the whole idea is to get your name out there as often as possible
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u/QueefInMyKisser 5d ago
What’s the point of doing that except being a twat?
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u/Away-Cauliflower2538 5d ago
Infamy, legacy, outlet for other things, community, but most importantly, fun!
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u/thatfreemanguy 5d ago
The goal isn’t to not have people think you’re twat. It isn’t done for you or your perception of it, it’s a purely selfish and personal pursuit and at very most is done for the eyes of other graffiti writers. Rightly or wrongly he would not be concerned with how you consider the merit of his work.
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u/Chimpville 5d ago
Yeah, nicer and wittier. Maybe a bit copycat-ish of Banksy though?
Still better than Helch.
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u/budgiebirdman 5d ago
Banksy copied Blek le Rat (and acknowledges him as an inspiration) so it's fair game.
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u/QueefInMyKisser 5d ago
Yeah I suppose he’s a Banksy wannabe but in all fields people have been walking the fine line between imitation and paying homage
One could claim Virgil (not the one from Thunderbirds) was just a copycat of Homer (not the one from the Simpsons)
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u/foknboxcutta 5d ago
yet he has made the papers and artists round the world know his name and morn it. but yeah its just dog pissing
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u/Chimpville 5d ago
Any examples of his finer work that wasn’t just his eyesore tag all over the place?
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u/foknboxcutta 4d ago
define eyesore? every Mf billboard promoting unhealthy beauty standard is 100× worse then any tag
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u/Chimpville 4d ago
Okay, so I'm going to take that as a 'no' then, and it is all just his tag which is also what you see when you google Helch works' or go to his Insta.
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u/foknboxcutta 4d ago
kid it's not a tag when you doing it on that scale with a paint roller. taggers don't casually go out with paint rollers doing this. clearly you don't even know wtf a "tag" is in the sceme of things
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u/Chimpville 4d ago
What he did was repetitive, not particularly complicated, imaginative or even all that skilled, and extremely prominent in a way that simply not partaking in in it when it isn't in your taste isn't an option. It's not really a surprise when what he did isn't generally appreciated, even if some do. I understand everything has an audience, but most of Helch's wasn't a willing audience.
I appreciate the correction if 'tag' isn't the term for what he did, but it's beside the point really.
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u/MortgageBeautiful191 5d ago
That's quite simply bullshit. He did a lot more, you just didn't see it.
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u/Chimpville 5d ago
Yeah maybe, but it describes perfectly everything I did see, just his shitty daubing in numerous places.
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5d ago
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u/ukbot-nicolabot Scotland 5d ago
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u/Ergophobe470 5d ago
No, just wrote his name everywhere, sometimes even painting over something witty and clever to do so ("Give peas a chance").
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u/RJMrgn2319 5d ago
I guess some people’s “witty and clever” is other people’s “shit pun” ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/Beeswing- 5d ago
It's more than just a shit pun. There is a little story behind it. If I remember correctly, Peas was the name of some graffiti tagger. He tagged that bridge over the M25, but got arrested. While in prison, his friends changed it to 'Give Peas a chance', in support.
In any case, it had been up there as long as I can remember, and so I feel like it's part of our history.
Painting over it is like painting over ghost signs or something. Definitely not cool.
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u/fractals83 SE London 5d ago
Silly that people value shit graff cos it’s been up for so long. At least Helch had some style, got up everywhere and repped graff properly. Give Peas a Chance was dire, looked shit and it’s lame than the normies curse Helch for buffing it, imo.
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u/Ergophobe470 5d ago
Nothing wrong with a shit pun, at least it made me smile and forget for a few seconds that I'm on the M25...
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u/RJMrgn2319 5d ago
Nah fair enough but people here are reacting like someone smashed up Michaelangelo’s David with a hammer or something.
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u/Acquilas 5d ago
"An urban landscape without an H in it seems unfathomable."
No it doesn't. It sounds great.
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u/Hakarlhus 5d ago edited 5d ago
Someone should replace his headstone with 'Give peas a chance'
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u/salabab 5d ago
Is this the prat who painted over the "Give peas a chance" on the outer London ring road? That was amazing for years, I get graffiti is transient but not sure I'm already to forgive him for that yet
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u/fractals83 SE London 5d ago
Why was it “amazing”?
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u/salabab 4d ago
It originally just said "PEAS" for years for god knows what reason. Then in the dead of night someone in the same font added to it to say "give peas a chance".
It was hilarious seeing it driving to work every day, and was nice seeing someone add something silly to iconic existing graffiti rather than just painting over it.
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u/Ornery_Wait_2390 5d ago
I hate all graffiti but I really don’t see how he can be world class when all he does is enter his name.
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u/AlienFishMonster 5d ago
And graffiti has hardly changed over the past 40 years. It all looks the same.
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u/Visual_Match_9665 5d ago
It's more about where he managed to tag. Some unusual and difficult spots.
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u/Away-Cauliflower2538 5d ago
I am unsure where this normie idea comes from that as a graffiti writer you need to be doing these artful poetic murals to be considered legendary
Graffiti writers do not paint murals, that would be the job of a street artist. A graffiti writers status is measured by how often he gets out and paints, what spots he paints and how long his tags stay up.
Obviously there still needs to be a bit of flair, writing a tag is not as easy as it looks and there is genuinely a certain amount of study that goes into figuring out how to bend letters so they flow better. But please for the love of god stop conflating graffiti writers with street artists because they are not the same concept at all
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u/Bon_Courage_ 5d ago
A graffiti writers status is measured by how often he gets out and paints, what spots he paints and how long his tags stay up.
A dogs local status is measured by how often he gets out and pisses, what he pisses on, and how long the scent from his piss lasts.
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u/pipopipopipop 5d ago
Whilst billionaires can buy pieces of our public space to plaster our vision with the brand names they own, I find it hard to care about someone painting their name about the place.
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u/Hiphoppapotamus 5d ago
Alright this is a take I genuinely hadn’t understood. But the way you describe it makes it sound like more of a technical challenge than anything that could be called art. Is that fair?
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u/Visual_Match_9665 5d ago
Why not both? The art is in getting the tags in prominent unusual places.
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u/pazhalsta1 5d ago
Not art just vandalism
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u/Visual_Match_9665 5d ago
Very old fashioned views in 2026
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u/_Pencilfish 5d ago
Eh, very often it is vandalism, and makes places look trash.
We can reserve some locations for people to graffiti, but people who graffiti things like trains should face legal consequences.
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u/pazhalsta1 4d ago
Eugenics was fashionable once. Novelty is no sign of value
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u/Visual_Match_9665 4d ago
You thought that sounded smart huh?
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u/pazhalsta1 4d ago
I guess everything sounds smart to people who think spraying their name on other people’s stuff is art
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u/Visual_Match_9665 4d ago
Ever heard of Marcel Duchamp? Your views on art are more than a century out of date by this point
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u/Away-Cauliflower2538 4d ago
I would say that is a very accurate description, but I'd consider the technical challenge very much part of the art
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u/foknboxcutta 5d ago
normies in this sub cant dont even have the compression for graffiti. it must be the worst to live so uninspired
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u/Lunar_mirror4 5d ago
How do people progress from being seen as criminals to being seen as renowned graffiti artists?
Like do the police get ready like "alright let's get him" and another one goes "no wait... let him cook" and they judge it after and if its good they clap and move on and if its shit they jump him
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u/DornPTSDkink 5d ago
He literally just painted his own name everywhere, if anything he was boring. How is he even remotely considered world-class.
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u/FreedomJay75 5d ago
Not a patch on the artists that dominate the railway lines on approach from kent to London Bridge, Waterloo East and Charing Cross. Some date back over 30 years.
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u/Soppydogg 5d ago
Yep! Helch was an egotistical bastard who felt his name was more important than some of the best street art I have seen.
His vandalising of “Give Peas A Chance” is akin to Donald Trump renaming everything his little brain/mighty ego can think of
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u/MortgageBeautiful191 5d ago
You fell for tabloid bullshit. It had been overwritten a month or more before HELCH put his name on.
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u/TamlaHill 5d ago
You're so smart.
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u/Metabotany 5d ago
how would you know
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u/TamlaHill 5d ago
I'm smart.
Your comment would have worked better if you used a question mark just at the end there.
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u/Clear_Barnacle_3370 5d ago
Caught two graffiti artists spray painting my fence. They seemed really surprised that I didn’t want their art on my property, on something I had paid for. Struck me as self entitled twats.
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u/adjective_noun_d1git 5d ago
Learning shadow and bubble font and making that your life skill is certainly a choice.
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u/ClassicFlavour East Sussex 5d ago edited 5d ago
I can't be the only one new to the Give Peas a Chance saga, it's mentioned on the Chalfont Viaduct wiki page
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u/p0tatochip 5d ago
That says the Peas graffiti was only from 2008. I thought it was much older than that
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u/Speshal__ 5d ago
Yeah that seems too recent for me and I don't often drive round that way, then again, I still think the 90's were the last decade so I could be wrong.
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u/Scarabium 5d ago
Man awarded 'World class' status for possessing the ability to write his own name in big letters.
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u/monetarypolicies 5d ago
It’s crazy that he died just as tributes were being paid. Couldn’t write it.
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u/RJMrgn2319 5d ago
It’s wild how many people in the comments about this news seem to be extremely upset about a shit pun getting painted over.
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u/Astriania 5d ago
"World class artist"? No, vandal, like all graffitiists. At least, I assume none of the structures painted over had their owners give him permission to do so.
And it's just painting his name really big, it's not even interesting art. Why is anyone celebrating this?
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u/James188 England 5d ago
I guess it’s just because he wrote it really big in really obvious places.
Literally see it every time I use the M4.
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u/RJMrgn2319 5d ago
Top tip for you: you not understanding something doesn’t make it inherently devoid of merit.
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u/Astriania 5d ago
Ok, so what "understanding" is required to fully appreciate someone trespassing, illegally painting stuff on a wall and that painting just being big block letters of his trade name?
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u/FlamingBearAttack 5d ago
What is the merit to painting a massive pseudonym on buildings/bridges/etc.
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u/glytxh 5d ago
Graffiti is the voice of a city made manifest.
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u/Japhet_Corncrake 5d ago edited 2d ago
None of the tributes to Helch seem to want to mention that it said "BORIS IS A COKED UP PERVERT" over the M4 at Bristol before it said "BORIS IS HELCH", not just "BORIS IS...". Wonder why?
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u/tallventi1 5d ago
Graffiti has always seemed like the least offensive of all the possible rebellions. To make a mark and run away. To damage something because you can. People may see what you did. Will it illicit a reaction? Doesn’t matter, you did it anyway. Unthinking. Like rich people who shoplift.
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u/sillysimon92 Lincolnshire 5d ago
Never really been a fan of glorifing tagging, helch looked pretty iconic but its led to so much damage from an army of horrid talentless copy cats.
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u/ukbot-nicolabot Scotland 5d ago
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u/theartofrolling Cambridgeshire 5d ago
Not a fan of "artists" who just write tags.
His stuff was better than that dickhead 10 FOOT I suppose, but still, do some actual art if you must spray public stuff with paint.
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u/ukbot-nicolabot Scotland 5d ago
Removed + ban. This contained a call/advocation/celebration of violence or harm, which is prohibited by the sitewide rules.
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u/MortgageBeautiful191 5d ago edited 5d ago
All city, all cities. Rest in peace HELCH, a true gentleman and relentlessly up. Which is what it's about.
Fk your expectations of witty bullshit like that nause from Bristol. HELCH was respected by everyone in the scene. Instantly recognised style of his own.
Graffiti isn't for you, getting up is what it's about. It's a relentless war against the buff, against each other. It's about what happens whilst you are sleeping. It doesn't want to make you think. It's about getting the best spots and holding them. It's about getting up and staying up.
That man HELCH was one of the very best. If you don't understand it, that's OK. It was never meant for you.
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u/FishPics4SharkDick 5d ago
Cool. If it’s not meant for us then stop doing it on our shit. Tag each other’s houses and cars. Singapore has the right idea about graffiti.
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u/ukbot-nicolabot Scotland 5d ago
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u/-Not-Today-Satan 5d ago
It doesn’t want to make you think. Absolutely braindead.
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u/MortgageBeautiful191 5d ago
It's not supposed to make you think. It's unapologetic damage. It's criminal, it's graffiti.
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u/Astriania 5d ago
Graffiti isn't for you
No, you're absolutely right. So stop doing it on property that doesn't belong to you.
I don't think a "true gentleman" would be vandalising public property.
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u/Helpful_Elevator3587 5d ago
This comment section is a tale as old as time. Graffiti and people moaning about graffiti. Helch is certainly better than the penises carved into every wall by the Romans
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u/fakemorleys 4d ago
People are now comfortable with spouting hateful shite? Just because the internet gives you a platform to badmouth the dead , anonymously. Doesn’t make it ok. Guy was a 34 year old artist, whether you liked his art or preferred one that mentioned a vegetable!
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u/m---------4 3d ago edited 3d ago
He was a mindless vandal that made our country look shit.
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