C215

C215 (aka Christian Guémy) is a world renowned Street artist. Signal Gallery have this rare oppurtunity to exhibit his works, and give the public the rare chance of seeing all his work in one place at one time!

"Graffiti is marking territory by catching attention to a name (then placing it at the wrong place) while street art aims at placing art in the right place, as if it should have been there forever." C215

This exhibition is about shoe-shiners. Here is what C215 has to say:

I have met many street shoe-shiners during my trips around the world. They represent the lower class of urban workers. Almost beggars, they construct their boxes from a light and cheap material, just one handmade box containing brushes and creams offering a job that less and less people need. When they get a customer, the working dynamic turns into a humiliating symbol - one bending before the other, polishing his shoes, while the superior one gets annoyed or bored, looking around. Shoe-shining, in French, gave birth to numerous ways of describing flattery: "polishing", "shining", "boots-licker"... The lost pride of real street shoe-shiners is easy to encompass with such words, but are we not all discretely licking arses everyday to promote ourselves?

Have a look at the preview here.

Check out his myspace here.

The exhibtion opens today with a private view at the Signal Gallery and continues until the 11th July.