Graffiti Gallery (6)
Soon after the SMEAR Jam Bark Walk estate was fenced-off ready for demolition. So Romany City (Labour Club) got a re-paint courtesy of Arise, Elk, Kelz, Shun & Sed. With Epping Walk facing the bulldozers, the last of the Crescents already turned to dust, it began to seem to those locals left behind (a certain siege-mentality setting in) as if they were facing a millennial madness from the Last Days...
Over the next few weeks pieces began to appear further up Bonsall Street, across garage doors & along walkways. Kelz & Shun painted ground floor flats beside Malarkeys shop on Royce Road, right out in the open, one afternoon in May. Karl-123 preferred stairwells in the heat of summer. Arise hit the walkways. He then produced a hugely impressive red & gold dub the length of a whole block!
Elk, Shun & Kelz painted the lock-ups on Darneth Close. Shun & Kelz painted a transit van & a caravan parked up on Dodworth Close. A smackhead had emerged from inside and said "It would be great to have it painted up, thanks". Almost finished an hour later, the actual owner turned up and was none to happy about the re-decorated version! Kelzo did another 'whole-car' piece (requested, this time) on a caravan in Otterburn Close (see Be42) where local character & aluminium collector Penfold had pitched himself
At that years' Punks Picnic Egs, Karl & Kelz painted again in the open behind Ribchester Walk while bands played. Barking Beer Monsters (anarchic drunken off-shoot of more-often Arts Council funded Dogs of Heaven) unveiled their monstrous creation, 3 months in the making! A transit van had its skin removed so that only a barest skeleton of axel, engine, wheels & steering column remained. To this was slowly added new layers of old skin, reclaimed wood from the soon-to-be-demolished flats. Many unemployed afternoons: It was supposed to resemble a Victorian Jules Verne submarine and was promptly (& most aptly) named the Naughty-Bus
All day long at the Punx Picnic (& for many days afterwards) you could see the Naughty-Bus driving around the estate with a horde of local kids hanging off the back! This is what the spirit of Hulme was all about. Don't ask or wait for permission. They'll only say 'NO' or try to stop you. Do it anyway. Do it until someone comes along & tells you otherwise. Why not? Here in Hulme everyone knew that they were forgotten. Waiting to be re-housed, regenerated, regurgitated. Given Compulsory Purchase promises
The key was to live your life regardless. There was a new sense of nihilism creeping in amongst all the new-build optimism being talked. As summer stumbled into autumn Kelzo unveiled his 3-D masterpiece Inner City Artists painted over 12 garage doors (!!) behind Bonsall Street on Stonyhurst Close, in an ever-bolder claim to fresh territory
Over the next few weeks pieces began to appear further up Bonsall Street, across garage doors & along walkways. Kelz & Shun painted ground floor flats beside Malarkeys shop on Royce Road, right out in the open, one afternoon in May. Karl-123 preferred stairwells in the heat of summer. Arise hit the walkways. He then produced a hugely impressive red & gold dub the length of a whole block!
Elk, Shun & Kelz painted the lock-ups on Darneth Close. Shun & Kelz painted a transit van & a caravan parked up on Dodworth Close. A smackhead had emerged from inside and said "It would be great to have it painted up, thanks". Almost finished an hour later, the actual owner turned up and was none to happy about the re-decorated version! Kelzo did another 'whole-car' piece (requested, this time) on a caravan in Otterburn Close (see Be42) where local character & aluminium collector Penfold had pitched himself
At that years' Punks Picnic Egs, Karl & Kelz painted again in the open behind Ribchester Walk while bands played. Barking Beer Monsters (anarchic drunken off-shoot of more-often Arts Council funded Dogs of Heaven) unveiled their monstrous creation, 3 months in the making! A transit van had its skin removed so that only a barest skeleton of axel, engine, wheels & steering column remained. To this was slowly added new layers of old skin, reclaimed wood from the soon-to-be-demolished flats. Many unemployed afternoons: It was supposed to resemble a Victorian Jules Verne submarine and was promptly (& most aptly) named the Naughty-Bus
All day long at the Punx Picnic (& for many days afterwards) you could see the Naughty-Bus driving around the estate with a horde of local kids hanging off the back! This is what the spirit of Hulme was all about. Don't ask or wait for permission. They'll only say 'NO' or try to stop you. Do it anyway. Do it until someone comes along & tells you otherwise. Why not? Here in Hulme everyone knew that they were forgotten. Waiting to be re-housed, regenerated, regurgitated. Given Compulsory Purchase promises
The key was to live your life regardless. There was a new sense of nihilism creeping in amongst all the new-build optimism being talked. As summer stumbled into autumn Kelzo unveiled his 3-D masterpiece Inner City Artists painted over 12 garage doors (!!) behind Bonsall Street on Stonyhurst Close, in an ever-bolder claim to fresh territory
Return to: Gallery 3: From The Archive: Writing's On The Wall or Gallery
Return to: Gallery 3: From The Archive: Writing's On The Wall or Gallery