We’re partial to a bit of street art at Londonewcastle, and to tie in with Belgian artist ROA’s current London show, one external wall of our Huntingdon Estate site on Redchurch Street is now home to an unmissable oversized hedgehog. This feature installation is part of ROA’s solo show ‘Hypnagogia’, hosted by Stolen Space gallery, and spanning two galleries as well as various other architectural ‘canvases’ across East London.

ROA is known and loved globally for his distinctive large-scale portrayals of urban wildlife, which he hand-paints on derelict buildings, shutters and walls, waking up blank spaces around the world by forcing them to reflect the realities of the urban world in which they exist, and in particular the tense relationship between humans and animals cohabiting in and around those spaces.

The name of the show might seem cryptic, but actually refers to the transitional state between being asleep and awake. Through his depictions of animals in pure form, be they sleeping, alone, skeletal or in a state of dissection, but always in that ‘interstate’, he tackles the complex issues of human vs animal behaviour and nature vs culture.

It’s definitely a show worth seeing, with a body of original work on recycled objects found in the city, as well as the site-specific installations. Find out more on the Stolen Space website. The show closes on 6th May 2012.