Slug writes graffiti 'cry for help'

Graffiti artist/reckless vandal Slug wrote a message on this monorail pylon in central Sydney. He's been quiet lately - haven't seen him 'kick 2012's ass' yet.

Is he a little sad? Being the craziest graffiti writer in the city must be heavy.

After making so many elaborate murals maybe Slug's got nothing left to give. Last month he revealed his new foot tattoo to Acid Midget. It seemed like he was re-branding as a 'gay Shepard Fairey' or something:

How you holding up Slug?You in jail/gaol/Bali yet?

You know I stood in the rain for you, right?

All we can do is send hashtag love to this artistic Robin Hood. Tweet #getwellslug to all your peeps. Power to the Tweeple!

You might like:

1. Slug gets a tattoo
2. Street art of 2011
3. Exploding dog graffiti
4. Killer Slug mural
5. Slug graffiti dog (short fiction)

BREAKING: Slug Gets a Tattoo

Sydney graffiti artist Slug sent me this photo of someone with a tattoo of his famous psychedelic dog/shark/elf.

Acid Midget has requested comment confirming the owner of this foot.

I speculate that tattoos could be bought as part of a bundle with Slug's new fanzine Sugar Shark.

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Slug Graffiti

Street Art of 2011

It's that time of year where we look back on what's behind us and decide what sucked and what was bloggable.

Aside from posting a bunch of street art this year, I interviewed Beastman and Philjames. I also spent a month in Europe seeing incredible art and posting it on Facebook.

I think 2011 was the year street art began to plateau; I'm looking forward to seeing if that's the case in 2012.

(Found in Athens)

The European Debt Crisis has been a staple news item for the past few months. And the sentiment this massive mural conveyed - "we're f-cked" - was quite effective.

(Via Unurth)

Banksy made this stencil after British graffiti writer Tox was sent to prison for more than two years for tagging. The sentence generated a strong reaction from the graffiti community.

And in case you forgot, Invader was also arrested in LA for vandalism in April. Comes with the territory.

(Made by Fukt)

This Iwo Jima parody is my favourite Sydney stencil of the year. Not only is it eye catching; it's poignant, ironic and hilarious.

(Submitted by Bag)

This was the year of Slug. The prolific artist left this spastic dog on so many Sydney walls that he is now one of only a few artists working illegally on a regular basis.

He is also selling a zine called Sugar Shark.

The infamous (and highly irritating) hipster posters that popped up this year are still plaguing the streets. I tried to contact the number on one of the posters. There was no response.

However, the response to my post was good. Thanks to everyone who wrote in.

Monsieur Andre also guest blogged on Acid Midget in 2011. He wrote about being in love with girlfriend Annabelle Dexter-Jones, having a rad time tagging...and feuking a lot.

Andre also brought quite a bit of traffic to the blog this year. Don't ask me why.

By far the biggest street art event in Australia this year was the Outpost Project. It only finished a couple of weeks ago, but fortunately some of the works will be kept there this summer.

Tens of thousands of people visited Cockatoo Island to see a showcase of the most important urban and lowbrow artists in the world.

In my opinion, it was a watershed event.

Another turning point in street art's transition from underground to mainstream was the release of Banksy's mockumentary Exit Through The Gift Shop.

He was nominated for an Oscar and then banned from attending the ceremony. He didn't win. But the film was successful at least.

I also wrote the Acid Midget Manifesto in June. It began as a Facebook status, then grew and grew. This blog was never intended to be anything more than an exploration of Sydney and its streets - tinged with conceptual ruminations - but it has become more than expected.

Have a happy New Year - see you in 2012!

Exploding dog graffiti, Newtown

(Buckland Lane, Newtown, Sydney)

Acid Midget reader bag has sent us another Slug piece he found, this one in Newtown.

It is similar to the one we posted the other week. Seems Slug is finding more squalid, deserted locations for his pieces and spends more time on them.

Do you think he works so fast with such varied imagery that sometimes his subconscious does the work?

Can a writer prepare for a piece like this, or does their mind 'vomit' it out?

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Killer Slug Dog Mural (Chippendale)

CHIPPENDALE: Killer Slug dog mural

(Kensington St, Chippendale, Sydney)

These photos were submitted by bag, an Acid Midget reader who found this incredible Slug piece near a squat hole.

He also said it was destroyed with grey paint :( :( :( :( :( :(

There are three dogs in this piece. They are losing their shit to a soundtrack of maggots and meth.

Slug keeps getting better, doesn't he? He's so good that, apparently, he started working on his own 'mockumentary' called Exit Through the Crab Shop.

YOU PROBABLY WON'T LIKE:

Slug Graffiti Dog

SHORT FICTION: Slug graffiti dog

(Graffiti by Slug at Oxford St, Bondi Junction, Sydney)

Today I asked a police officer for information. He said "I'm new here, I'm not the best person to speak to."

I asked if there was someone else that would help. "Not really, I'm not sure who would be able to".

He said it'd be better to send something to him in writing. He'd help me that way, he said. "Here, send it to this fax number."

I wrote the fax number down and asked if there was also an email I could reach him on. "Use that for now," he said.

I said thanks and hung up.

I called a neighbouring police station and spoke to an officer at the switchboard. I explained my story to her, what I was after, and that the other officer had asked me to send a fax.

She laughed. I laughed with her, enjoying the irony like it was a sugared almond.

"Ah-ha. Well. Their station also covers ours, so if he doesn't want to say anything, then I'd be pretty stupid to."

I said thanks and hung up.

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Slug Graffiti On Railway Track

Will Coles Phone Sculpture (gay-themed short fiction)

Slug graffiti on railway track

(Near Redfern Station, Sydney. Image editing by MK.)

Slug is an asshole. Of all the places he could bomb it had to be in the middle of the railway.

I see this dirty dog tag every morning as I write about the freaks who use CityRail.

But the biggest freak has to be that fucking dog.

Did you enjoy it, Slug, running across the tracks at around 3am, puffs of steam climbing from your mouth as you ducked under the fence? Was the steel cold on your skin? Was your heart pounding as an Ironlak can slipped in your sweaty palm?

I tried shooting this piece with an iPhone. I tried three days in a row, but the shutter was just too slow.

So I took an SLR and got this shot. Acid Midget is a street art blog 'usually' made with an iPhone.

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Slug does dirty dog graffiti

Slug does dirty dog graffiti

(Whites Lane, Darlinghurst, Sydney)

Do you call it art when a demon decapitates a dirty drug-doing dog?

Of course. Call it what you like.

Street artist/graffiti writer Slug has been pro-motherfucking-lific around Sydney the past six months. I often struggle finding time to publish his work.

If he even calls it that.

Would you vote Slug in the top tier of Sydney's graf scene?

An Acid Midget reader recently asked if we could put him in touch with Slug for a commission.

Can you guess how far he got with that?

Try fucking a ghost.

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Artist: Slug

Artist: Slug

 (Images: Newtown, Sydney)

Found so many Slug pieces recently but couldn't blog them. It's hard to shoot trackside graffiti from a moving train.

The condom-gouged eyes aesthetic is proving popular this year. Soon advertising firms will leap on this buzz trend and incorporate it on billboards and TV.

Want some jizz with your 6pm news?

I like you, Slug. Do you believe in Nihilism/Chaos Theory?

Your pieces shock, they dissociate pedestrians from the predictable reality they exist in.

But poor Gerald the Dog. Poor pup. His face has aged. All the LSD/meth has really fucked with him.

Maybe it's time to retire/shoot him, start with a new character?

See u soon, Slug.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

Gerald the Dog is back in Sydney

Gerald the Dog

Gerald the Dog is back in Sydney

(Esther Lane, Surry Hills)

Remember Gerald the Dog? That poor pup poured his life away after meeting some hipster dogs. Last we heard there weren't any new Gerald bombs popping up in Sydney.

Then I found this where the last one was, behind the Ray Hughes Gallery.

**UPDATE**

Colin left a comment saying these pieces were by Slug. Obviously if slug were to pick a name for this character, it would be Gerald the Dog.

Seems Gerald lost his shit even more than last time. Previously he was a drug addict, having gone stray after partying too hard.

Now he has used condoms poking through his eye sockets like ghosts of lovers past who are back to haunt him. Semen seeps down his face, his lashing tongue and gnashing jaw unable to hide the agony.

(Fitzroy St, Surry Hills)

Here he is again, in the same style on the Hopetoun Hotel. This is a fitting bomb for the Hoey - it has all of us feeling a bit blue.

Will the Hopetoun ever reopen? Is anyone friends with Justin Hemmes on Facebook?

This was also at the right of the frame:

It's the lips flower we've spotted around town. So many delicate pink petals, so snatch-like, so fragrant.

This image - don't ask me why - reminds me of the models featured in Robert Palmer's track Addicted to Love. I remember being very young and very confused about the overtly sexual imagery in the video clip. It drew me in and I didn't understand why.

Now it's happening all over again.

(Image source)

To jog your memory about the lips flower here's a piece from the previous post:

(Grafton Street, Chippendale, Sydney)

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

Gerald the Dog

gerald the dog

(Esther Ln, Surry Hills)

Gerald the Dog was always agreeable. He lived in Surry Hills with his owner and was known about town for his youthful optimism and yellow skin. He stayed close to his owner’s feet around the home and up and down Bourke and Crown Sts, to defend him from harm.

Gerald was tidy and well-mannered. He always took his dishes to the kitchen, occasionally loaded them in the Miele dishwasher or even did them manually, propped on a bar stool while scrubbing in yellow rubber gloves. He always scooped his own shit too. He placed it in sealed bags and remembered to drop those turd stones (they were yellow like his skin) in the bin every night, after drinking his hot milo.

Aside from productive days at dog training school - where Gerald learnt gymnastics, Latin and classical piano – he also had an active social life filled with weekly dinner functions, dogtail parties and $1000-a-head fundraisers.

(Crown Ln, Darlinghurst)

But Gerald’s life quickly fell to pieces.

On meeting a group of hipster-puppies from Newtown that "partied", Gerald’s fortunes began to unravel.

He began drinking heavily and experimented with drugs. One night he managed to rack a five-gram bag of meow meow before "going inter-spieces" in an orge with a pink poodle, LaPerm cat and a heavily tattooed goldfish.

After partying with these puppies for a few months Gerald was expelled from dog training school, became a stray and had several bitches up the duff. He was addicted to a concoction of drugs, most notably meth, and scavenged for money as a "ladydog" outside Campbell House, giving tug jobs between methadone hits.

You might say poor Gerald’s life went to the dogs.

Woof.