The L5 Mural Project
Maybe not then...?
So, when I started this project in April 2012 and said to
myself, ‘I know, a mural! It fits.’ Never in a million and one years did I
think painting something on a wall could possibly be so insanely complicated. The
historical use of murals for storytelling and activism seemed a perfect way of making
a statement for a house in an area desperate for some attention and under
threat of demolition.
This entire project has been the most multi-layered, loaded,
obstacle FILLED piece of work that I could ever imagined. Tears have figured
often.
Unfortunately this is one of those times.
Feeling incredibly frustrated, actually multiply that by a
million and it still wont come close.
In some ways it is almost perfect, perfectly frustrating.
Echoing the Housing Market Renewal scheme that started this entire project off
in the first place. Being an autobiographical artist with an instinctive
alertness towards politics who’s family got tangled up in a demolition zone, it’s
not rocket science that the work I’ve made over the past 5 years has become so
wrapped up, or completely bound up in all the ‘goings on’ locally for so long.
A brief project timeline...
Spring 2012
- · idea for the mural
- · contact made with local Everton councillor, all is well
- · contacts made within another community based project, 2up 2down, now Homebaked (or to us, the bakery) lots of encouragement and support on all levels, feels good to be involved. Doors are opening up everywhere
- · the two projects entwine and cross over and both sides gain stuff from the other – it’s a learning curve and sometimes hard to navigate but it’s good, two projects more layered than an onion in their ‘reason for being’
- · funding applications - grrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Summer 2012
- · property sorted on Lothair Rd (no easy task I can tell you – courtesy of LFC)
- · Young people to collaborate with pretty much sorted
- · On site team sorted
- · Queries, quandaries, worries, concerns sorted (well, you know, within reason!)
- · Material sourced, insurance sorted, we’re good to go
- · Arts Council didn’t fund it
- · Gutted
Autumn/Winter 2012
- · Other stuff takes over
- · The mural is put on the shelf – at that point I have no intentions of ever taking it off again
- · Some time out on another project in Slovakia repairs frayed and dented confidence and nerves
- · Time to reflect
- · A realisation over what’s been achieved by trying to make the mural happen. The people I’ve met particularly. From all walks of life, from all types of backgrounds, people have now heard about the mural and why I wanted to do it.
Time’s a funny thing. I wouldn’t have touched that project
with a barge pole whilst out in Slovakia – but home is home and the desire to
do something strong and good soon creeps back in.
Spring/early summer
2013
- · Mural take two – The L5 Mural Project
- · Application to arts council submitted – this time accompanied by a visit to their office in Manchester, to speak one to one with a visual arts officer, I felt like the passion for the project was impossible to get across on paper, it need facial expression and arm waving.
- · A new property search, the original now ‘plastic wrapped’ I’ll let you all imagine what that means. I had to ask, new lingo.
- · The bakery was suggested (Homebaked/Mitchell’s) as a possible location for the mural
- · On so many levels this felt right, but there was a nag
- · As time went on, I felt like the mural could almost be like a gift to the bakery but it was trying to keep the two projects separate that was a concern, as much as the projects crossed and bonded I still wanted the work to stand on its own right
- · I cast aside doubts and began to feel good that this could be a piece that not only highlighted issues in the area and City generally but that it could maybe have a positive effect on the ‘saving of the bakery’??
- · Decision made and it’s positive – I’ll run with the idea of using the bakery, see where it leads...
- · Receive Arts Council Funding, happy days
- · Now to recruit!
- · Who knew that recruiting a group of young people during the summer holidays would be so hard? Lesson learned.
- · Thank fully, the grapevine supplied a school and a phone call from an enthusiastic, passionate head of art, Kelly from Arch Bishop Beck
- · We agree to move the project to September and make it part of their curriculum, we’ll arrange workshops when they have their timetables at the start of term
- · I know, lets add another project into the mix – a film project – a documentary! Get two great filmmakers on board. Brilliant.
- · The backdrop to the story now starts changing dramatically – ‘still and tin’ is replaced with ‘dust and demolition’, it’s everywhere, buildings disappearing fast, including our house and our street, it’s surreal
- · In the meantime, the students from Arch Bishop Beck visit my studio. Their teacher tells me afterwards how inspiring they thought it was. I was made up. We arrange workshops for the following week (again, no easy task)
- · My friend and fellow artist Nicky agrees to come up to Liverpool from Cardiff for the workshops on short notice, she’s my ‘scaling up’ expert
- · The threat of demolition creeps and crawls around the bakery. We’d always managed to put it to the back of our minds but now whispers and talk create worries and concerns that start rising to the surface
- · Workshop two at the school, amazed by how much they’ve listened and taken in from the visit to the studio, their ideas are clever, funny and sad
- · The political and activist association with murals was suddenly becoming an issue in the current climate of the life of the bakery - could they still work together?
After an intense meeting it was
with great regret decided not, there's just too much riding on the buildings
survival at the moment and the work could harm the projects chances in the
future on lots of levels and the work could also be swallowed up into the
bakery fight. It was always concerned with the bakery but fundamentally the
mural was to represent the area, the City and the people of many communities
that had lost their homes. I can only say this now – a week after the meeting.
I was so devastated at the time as the project was so far along, start date 30th
September, and I also knew I had to go into the school and try to describe something
indescribable, that things out of all of our control had suddenly shifted. The
workshops were brilliant and we will work together if the school is still willing.
The location of the mural maybe under question but it will be resolved. This
project isn’t coming this far to stop now.
A group project such as this and
the bakery are by nature problematic because they’re born from something complicated
already. However, they’re also inspiring because of this. They inspire because
of the momentum they gain, the friends made along the way, the sense of
achievement when someone ‘gets it’ and wants in or offers to help, when someone wants to be part of 'your crew' it's one hell of a feeling, just hard to swallow when you have to let them all down.
The L5 Mural Project is on
hold...
