From the streets to your space…
Study for a Head 7 (2016) Kennardphillipps
2016
Financial Crimes (2026) Kennardphillipps
2026
“It will never work, not unless you’re selling porn!” So said one eminent photographer before the 23rd June 2016 launch. But here we are, it’s been ten years now that artists and visual activist posters have been appearing on the streets of UK cities and often further afield.
The project kicked off on the day of the EU Brexit referendum with a kennardphillipps work titled Study for a Head 7. A portrait resembling soon to be doomed David Cameron – his famously smooth visage featureless apart from FT market data – ripped to reveal corporate skyscrapers. It’s an artwork that uncannily foretold the PM’s downfall as well as his lucrative post premiership multi-million-pound lobbying for the extremely dodgy firm Greensill Capital.
Fast forward to 2026 and once more we asked the art/activist duo Peter Kennard and Cat Phillipps to come up with an image, they didn’t disappoint. Again, rendered on the pale bisque pages of the FT, our 10th anniversary street poster dubbed Financial Crimes aptly targets a character key to the origins of Brexit and the fiasco of its ongoing fall out. Notorious for fomenting hate, evading scrutiny and laughing all the way to the bank: Nigel Farage’s tiny, decapitated head sits atop a fat neck of gold coinage.
A bit of a whirlwind…
The flyingleaps project has opened so many doors, generated so many opportunities. It’s led to: meeting remarkable people from across the world; making contributions to and learning from exceptional events; participating in art fairs and gallery exhibitions big and small; running workshops; giving interviews; interviewing others; writing texts for national publication; presenting illustrated talks and more. Dialling down on all that, what follows is a more focussed glance back at a few of the posters that made the past decade a bit special.
Since the EU Brexit referendum flyingleaps posters have variously reflected broad socio-political concerns: Robert Montgomery’s poetic riposte to anti-immigration sentiment; Marcus Harvey’s haunting image of a self-sabotaging and desolate isle; Jeremy Deller’s stinging critiques of hypocrisy and mealymouthed, cloth eared government.
Unsurprisingly climate emergency has also been a reoccurring theme: Dolores de Sade’s arcadian visual paean to the power of nature; Frank Riot’s scathing wordsmithery assailing fossil fuel billionaires; Mustafa Hulusi’s mesmeric photography affording both a celebration of life-sustaining flora and warning of countless threats to the biosphere.
Other posters addressed a more personal psychological affect: Mark Titchner’s sumptuously patterned and text based clarion calls for a better, fairer, kinder world; Magda Archer repeatedly hit the spot with her archly sharp commentaries on coping with political cant and contemporary pressures on mental health; Artist Taxi Driver (aka Mark McGowan) fêted a spirit of hope and pooh-poohed scurrilous Daily Mail populism.
Along with the justifiably fierce critiques there’s been plenty of smiles too. Among Dr. D’s (aka Subvertiser) contributions, his image of a 1980s floppy disk paired with the phrase ‘I Remember the Future’ causes a comedic eyeroll at the vanities of ‘future-proof’ tech; Tim Fishlock’s ‘Slogans’ poster elicits wry amusement along with its rhetorical wallop; Hayden Kays’ Tesco logo détournement titled ‘Tories’ proved to be prophetic, the two-faced bunglers were indeed ‘very little help’.
From Peter John Fish’s 2016 ‘Biston Betularia Novus’, a Coca-Cola branded moth made from Hama beads that offered a ludic critique of material culture and mass consumerism all the way to Paul Davis’ withering ‘Cartoon Allegory’, lampooning the cynical corruption of US culture, which appeared early on in 2026… In short, flyingleaps has fared well in achieving its declared intention. Namely, to bring some street poster sweetness and light as well as grit and provocation to a wall near you. And, since 2020, we’ve given over 20K to good causes.
It’s a thankless task picking favourites, there’s all the above plus many, many more: Matthew Collings, Carrie Reichardt, Martin Rowson, Sarah Maple, Michael Peel (RIP), Merny Wernz, Modern Toss, DONT FRET (RIP), Derek Mawudoku, etc., etc. So, not going to name everyone whose posters may have caused passersby to stop, look, wince, ponder, wonder and/or guffaw. Only to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped over the years.
Obviously, it’s not just participant contributors that have been essential but also all the other support ranging from design, print, distribution, archive storage, street fly-posters… And, of course, none of the above would have been even remotely possible without the creative and technical assistance to conceive, maintain and constantly update the flyingleaps website. Finally, long-suffering family and friends have been both a practical help and ever-patient source of caring encouragement. Again, thank you.
Look out for Financial Crimes (2026) Kennardphillips on the street – or buy a limited edition signed copy – HERE
All 86 flyingleaps posters from 2016 – 2026. Signed copies of most still available in the SHOP
Cartoon Allegory (2026), Paul Davis
New flyingleaps poster by artist PAUL DAVIS. What’s his work like? Well, for example…
Pictured in serried silhouette, the three Magi cameleers, presumably after they’d gate-crashed the baby Jesus’ birth and one of them declaims, “I think that went quite well.”
Or there’s Nostradamus calling out Sir Issac Newton for miscalculating the end of the world.
In another work we see the back of some glabrous geezer seated on the 243 bus, he’s staring out the window, TOTAL SILENCE FOR THIRTY MINUTES AND THEN: (baldy’s straight razor shaped speech bubbles cut the silence…) “HAH-HA” and “CUNT”.
Welcome to the stark, witty, obsessive, occasionally scabrous, always intriguingly observed world of artist Paul Davis. His art practice ranges from reportage: drawings of strangers and incidents that happen to occur in his presence. To beautifully simple, conceptually satisfying ideas such as when Davis pairs two drawing implements, a pen and a brush say. But then the pen is rendered by the brush and the brush by the pen: a brevity bordering on poetic.
Or, having drawn a mullet headed, dog collared ‘Rev.’ Simon Cowell riding a jet ski branded with the St. George’s Cross, here’s the artist’s account of what’s going on: “I started making a satirical drawing of Simon Cowell because of his egomaniacal and ultimately pointless show on Netflix. I managed less than five minutes viewing. It’s so bad. The drawing somehow turned out like this and I’m not sure why. Maybe he’s some sort of low priest of boy bands, a vapid vicar of monied cliché.”
The latest flyingleaps poster to hit the streets is Davis’ drawing titled Cartoon Allegory (2026). Trump would call it a calumny, evoking the current state of the US (not to mention the rest of the world) through a degradation of an iconic mouse and dog. For sure there’s a long tradition of artists critically, sardonically appropriating ‘much loved’ cartoon icons. Banksy’s ‘Napalm’ (2003) manages to skewer Disney, MacDonalds, capitalism and the arms industry in one dismal image.
The feeling aroused seeing Davis’ new flyingleaps poster is less horror, more profound disquiet. Okay, Woodstock lies mortally wounded which is grim but Mickey and Snoopy’s drug fuelled malaise elicits more sorrow than dread, even a degree of pity. As with the most effective critical images, we are not ‘told’ exactly what to think but can’t escape wondering what and who is responsible for the terrible state of things, what prompted this image of innocence lost. We have an inkling, of course. Cartoon Allegory is provocative but also a strangely moving work of critical satire. Equally spiffing seen on the streets or a domestic, workplace or studio wall near you.
Cartoon Allegory is now available HERE
All the Things We Didn’t Do (2025), Magda Archer
Magda Archer’s new poster All The Things We Didn’t Do (2025) strikes a suitably ambivalent tone for a year that’s been by turns both wondrous and, erm, damp-squibish.
Losing our original (and ‘organic’!) 5K Insta. followers – now back up and running as flyingleaps_2016 – plus ‘leaps curator splitting his patella clean in half the same week was self-inflicted shithousery.
Mind you a streetside show for frankriot’s Profit Driven Pricks (2025) poster was a fillip, hurrah for frank and so many others’ brave activism standing against UK Government’s complicity in genocide.
Writing for Candidate Q. exhibition featuring the alarmingly potent and prescient ‘degenerate pop’ collages by artist Ben Turnbull in March/Apr. of this year was a treat.
Likewise continuing to raise funds for good causes throughout 2025 via the ongoing sale of Jeremy Deller’s Thank God For Immigrants (2024) poster has been a privilege.
However, what took most time and energy – away from flyingleaps and pretty much everything else – was researching and helping stage the first iteration of THE ART OF FLYING!
TAOF is a work-in-progress: part oral histories, part filmic elucidation, part informed explication regarding the gamut of urban culture and altogether a celebration of labour and lives that would otherwise go unremarked.
Which brings us back to Magda Archer’s All The Things We Didn’t Do, a melancholic text and sentiment set against a flitter, phut and whirr of graphic mark-making.
It somehow appears – aptly perhaps given the gist of 2025 – that we’ve just missed the glorious final-fling firework, crowning pyrotechnic ‘chrysanthemum’ burst, exultant celebration of the year. All we’re left with are its fizzling remnants, fiddle-footed, tumbling forlornly through time and space…
All the Things We Didn’t Do is now available in the shop HERE
Profit-Driven Pricks (2025), Frank Riot
Artist and activist Frank Riot’s poster creations veer between subverting commercial ad.s; stained glass inspired works; Art Nouveau-esque creations; poetic, stark and withering text pieces; constructivist energies; bold graphic woodcut designs and more.
Whatever the style or medium deployed, Riot’s works pull a whip-smart and intense focus on subjects demanding scrutiny, attention and, most importantly, action. Human rights, climate crises, decriminalisation of sex workers, genocide, big tech broligarchy…
There’s zeal, righteous rage, diligently informed analysis but amazingly there’s also an energetic, seemingly unflagging persistence in presenting her arguments in the face of mis-informed, idiotic, even aggressive and ignorant opposition.
For example, on the occasion of being challenged during an Earth Day action by “someone who was not particularly a fan of climate protesters” Riot responded with her characteristic reason plus a degree of exemplary patience: “They’d perceived (falsely) from the press that activists might obstruct the [London] marathon and wanted to express concerns over climate activists being a violent public nuisance, telling me there was more important things to be worrying about – like homelessness (had some terrible news for them on the impacts of climate breakdown). Then [they] asked me what my carbon footprint was and how I’d like it if someone threw paint at my house?”
Riot further explains: “I did my best to talk cordially, despite my exasperation at people’s painful absorption of bad-faith media on the topic. It was tough because it drives me fucking nuts to witness the success of the fossil fuel industry’s long campaign, propped up by corporate media, to steer the onus away from an industry that has known for decades its product would eventually devastate life on earth.”
Along with the fervour, there’s a fierce intelligence attendant on Riot’s activism, visual and otherwise. But also, at root, a palpable care, concern and unselfish love for humankind. As corporate power is resurgent coupled with right-wing politics and prejudice appearing to move centre stage, Riot’s ongoing practice and her new iteration of the Profit-Driven Pricks (2025) poster seems tailor-made for our times.
Profit-driven Pricks is now available in the shop HERE
Jeremy Deller X flyingleaps 2024
Jeremy Deller’s ‘Thank God For Immigrants’ poster first appeared during an extended Covid lockdown in April 2020, reminding us of the stalwart efforts of immigrant key workers and through public sale of the signed artwork raising funds for Refugee Action and the Trussell Trust.
Now, in 2024, the artwork is back on the streets in various formats, appearing courtesy of creative outdoor communications bigshots BUILDHOLLYWOOD.
Understated in material terms, the life of street posters (and their sticker cousins) is usually short-lived, ephemeral, that’s partly the point. It’s a medium capable of responding to an issue, a matter of concern, quickly and directly. They don’t carry the freight of ‘fine art’ and they address diverse audiences because of this as well as their being displayed in the streets. Who can resist both the ethereal coloured ground and pithy plain-speaking of a poster that declares ‘Thank God for Immigrants’?
This signed, open edition artwork is available now to purchase in our shop. The size is 30×20 inches and it’s printed on 115gsm blue-backed billboard paper, priced at £50.00 (plus p&p).
All profits from the sale of this artwork will be split between two beneficiaries. First, for obvious reasons, we chose the Refugee Council. And from numerous smaller charities that need support we plumped for Revoke, a grassroots organisation advocating for the rights and care of displaced young people deprived of power or a voice. With Deller’s latest ‘Thank God For Immigrants’ re-release once again we can raise some much needed funds to support important causes.
Exampes of the Buildhollywood large format poster and digital national campaign
Both achingly apt metaphor and stomach-churning matter of fact, Jeremy Deller’s ‘We Have Been Swimming In Shit’ (2024) continues the artist’s rich vein of critical street poster interventions. As with his previous ‘Cronyism Is English For Corruption’ (2021) the first tranche of the open edition of Deller’s ‘Swimming’ poster was sold through the Art Car Boot Fair. It is now exclusively available as part of the continually growing archive of signed visual activist / artists’ poster prints for sale via flyingleaps.
As an artist Deller wants to rile people, get them thinking, to challenge how things stand and through a bringing together of disparate points of view and the people who hold them have a tangible social impact. The artists’ role in society is s/he’s “[A]lways a bit of a troublemaker. They fight with ideas and imagery […], of course, there’s artists who make beautiful things and that’s fine but that’s not where my focus is.’
