Daren, ‘The Wire Guy’, 48, makes intricate sculptures from discarded cables and wires.
His sculptures are bought by celebrities and have earned him a collaboration with Hackney’s biggest artist.
But you won’t find Daren in a gallery or studio — he works under a bridge in Shoreditch.
The homeless artist, weaves discarded wire into animals and colourful spider-web designs with his hands. He finds wire all over Shoreditch: recording studios, roadworks and wherever new fibre optic cables are being laid. His two dogs help him carry materials and strip the wire for his work (have a look at the video on his Instagram).
“Art has been what’s healed me”, Daren told Hackney Post, while working on a stick man sculpture as colourful as his wooly chullo hat. He grew up in South Africa and moved to the UK with his wife . When their marriage broke down he began, as he puts it, “self-sabotaging” and eventually became homeless. Now, though, he said “I’m flying. Getting myself out there and being a champion.”
Two months ago he began selling his sculptures under Shoreditch Bridge at Columbia Road Flower Market. The inspiration for his work comes from STIK, the world-famous Hackney street artist whose prints were stolen, then returned and distributed to local residents last month. “Since I’ve been on the streets I’ve known him,” Daren said. “He said to me ‘Can you make some stick people for me?’ And he let me do it. He advertises me on his website. Very nice guy.”
He also said he’s received attention from other famous faces: “Last night David Haye gave me money for a reindeer.”
Most of all, Daren is passionate about sharing the sense of self-worth his art has given him with fellow rough sleepers. “I have this whole programme that I want to do,” he explained: he pays them to help bend wires for him and provides them with the skills to make their own sculptures. “Once you feel a bit of self-worth, you want to help yourself more.”
