GUERILLA GRAFFITI ARTIST 'PATRICE POCH' AT WORK @ FRENCH INSTITUTE RANDOLPHE CRESENT EDINBURGH
Renowned French street artist 'Patrice Poch' has left his mark on Edinburgh, pasting up a full-size painting of
local band 'The Square Peg' on the basement wall of the French Institute on Randolph Crescent. The Rennes-based artist was in the capital for the premiere of his exhibition ‘Rennes 1981’, a project mixing photographs, visual arts and music. It looks at the thriving punk rock scene in Rennes, Brittany, in the 1980s and involves people who were first hand witnesses of that time. The collection is being displayed at the French Institute until July 16th, but the artist has now returned to his home country. Poch said: “When I go to different cities, I like to illustrate the fact that I have visited by creating stencils that relate to it. I look for bands that are from the city and from the late 1970s, early 1980s. “I have the 45” vinyl of the Square Peg album ‘Echoes Of War’ and it was an anecdote. “It has to be something that was done quickly because I am only in Edinburgh for two days but I really wanted to leave a trace somehow on the underground Edinburgh punk rock scene.” The Square Peg formed in Edinburgh in 1983 with singer Lawrence (Larry) Nicol, ex-Exploited members Big John Duncan and Gary McCormack on guitar and bass and Robbie Bain on Drums. The band reformed in 2005 to record and tour. Poch created the stencil using a photo of the Square Peg taken in 1984. It depicts the band standing on steps while a young child looks on. He translated an enlarged version of the image to paper and cut out each individual member to transfer it onto the wall. Although he usually favours more industrial, urban and derelict settings for his work, the French Institute was settled upon after mulling over potential spots across Edinburgh. Conscious of time constraints, the artist swiftly set about pasting up his creation. He said: “I only paint the images for these kinds of things. While it looks like a stencil, it is actually a painting. “It’s in the same effect but created with brush and acrylic, because I want to do it only once. “It’s like you are meeting these guys and crossing their path only once, much like in real life. “It’s a one time thing and I am not using it again and again on other walls. It is a unique piece.”