Jonesy
Street Artist and Environmentalist
Jonesy, East London street artist and environmentalist
Jonesy is a street artist that brings his genre to a whole new level. His small bronze sculptures are placed high above our heads on top of street signs and poles or are fixed to walls. Unlike other street art, his pieces are initially unassuming and quiet. They blend in with their urban surroundings and are often not visible at first glance.
Once spotted though, the uniqueness of Jonesy’s work becomes immediately apparent. The cast bronze figures are beautifully intricate, interwoven and full of imagery. In addition to the bronzes, the master craftsman creates carved wood sculptures and original hand-drawn posters or lino prints, which he pastes up around the streets.
His work refers to environmental issues. He is a campaigner committed to drawing attention to the harm that is done to our planet. Oil extraction from tar sands, global warming, nuclear waste, are just a few of the issues he stands up for.
The Welshman, who came to London in the 1980s, works a day job in a foundry casting bronzes for other artists. The rest of his time he dedicates to street art. His studio under the roof of an industrial building in the Bow area is full of nooks and crannies and matches the romantic notion of an artist’s place. Inside, the conglomeration of finished bronzes, drawings, found objects, paints, wax models reveals Jonesy’s artistic variety.
Jonesy’s East London studio
While he picked up the bronze casting techniques over the years he’s worked at the foundry, his other skills are all self-taught. Jonesy came to street art almost by accident. One afternoon he went out and placed a few figures randomly around the streets. It made him realise that it’s the ideal platform for the environmental message.
“I feel the art world in this country is broken,” he says. “It should be a means of expression for the public. But it is so controlled by money through the gallery system. It stops galleries promoting artists that are critical of its sponsors.” That’s why it’s important for Jonesy to do stuff on the street. It is not commercial and it’s accessible to everybody.
He didn’t expect any response when he started installing his pieces, but to his own surprise, it didn’t take long for people to notice them. Today, Jonesy is a known name in the scene and a favorite of the street art tour guides who like the fact that his pieces are not easily noticeable.
At the moment, Jonesy has an illegal intervention going on at the Tate Modern. In broad daylight he glued a round bronze medal, with an environmental message, onto a wall at the museum’s new Switch House. It’s been up five weeks and Jonesy wonders if nobody has noticed it yet - or whether they have left it there on purpose. “I’m almost a bit disappointed that I didn’t get caught. I wanted to make a point of why I did it,” he says laughing.
Bronze medal glued to a wall at Tate Modern
Another of Jonesy’s passions is crafting musical instruments. On the wall, alongside the back of the studio, hangs a series of hand-made guitars. All of them are made from sustainable or recycled wood and are decorated with amazing details. Music is another means of getting across an environmental message. “Making guitars is like making weapons of freedom of speech,” he says.
Jonesy gives his musical instruments away to musicians that he thinks could voice his environmental concerns. With that, his message reaches people on the streets through yet another form of art.
Jonesy's hand-made guitars
Jonesy’s pieces can be found around the Brick Lane area (Fournier St, Hanbury St, Osborne St, Sclater St, Bacon St) on Columbia Road, along the canals and by Bow Lock.
Jonesy’s work table in his studio