Whenever I walk through the Graffiti Tunnel
I get the feeling that the place is trying to communicate something to me about
my own creative process.
At first the tunnel delighted me. In 2008
the artist Banksy and several other graffiti artists created the Cans Festival
here and the space was filled with defiant, witty and thought provoking images.
They made the creative process look
deceptively easy. Anyone can do this, it proclaims.
No
they can’t the curmudgeon in me says. Sure, anyone can buy a spray can or a
laptop but there has to be something else, a creative spark, to make it rise
above the mundane.
The original art no longer exists. It has
been painted over by, what seems to me, earnest young boys fresh off the train
at Waterloo
Everyone
has to start somewhere the educationalist in me says. It is hard finding your
voice and honing your craft. Maybe it is not about art but a male outlet for
creativity?
There are a few women creating in this
place. Once I came upon a group of young
women making their own music video. Or this knitted rat.
There are now also find groups of homeless
men discarding their extra strong lager tins alongside the spray paint cans or
media folk with flashy photography equipment doing ‘shoots.’
The
world is changing. Difficult times call for different words.
As I walked through the Graffiti Tunnel
worrying over the structure and purpose of my latest story my thoughts were
tempered by the words
Words
and stories have the power to transform.
As I reached the light at the end of the
tunnel I spotted an object that I had never
noticed before. Its very name a poem. A Belisha Beacon.
5 comments:
Interesting photographs, Lynda. Where is the tunnel exactly, other than near Waterloo? A pity there's so many same style name tags but rather admire the knitted rat graffiti!
Funny how such odd environments make useful way of musing on one's work. Hope you find plenty of now-golden objects of your own.
This reminds me of a similar tunnel near where I live, in St Werburghs in Bristol. A while ago I took this charming picture there: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33877273@N00/3643986668/
Sorry about the quality, but I didn't want to disturb them by getting closer. It's a man and a boy of about seven, and the man is patiently, methodically, showing the kid exactly the best way to use a spray can. As I passed he was saying things like, "Hold the nozzle a few inches further back, that's it," etc. He'd even kitted the boy out with a heavy-duty mask to stop him breathing in the toxic fumes.
The family that sprays together, stays together.
Hi Penny the Graffiti Tunnel is located off Lower Marsh on Leake Street SE1 and I use it as a short cut on my way to the South Bank to do some writing so the 'tunnel walk' acts as creative warm up for my brain!
Thanks for the photo Cathy and the quote - would make a great bit of Graffiti Art.
I like that knitted rat with it's banner!
Can I also add a vote for Isaac Cordal and especially Slinkachu - I try to look where I tread so carefully these days hoping to see one of these tiny steet sculptures - maybe one will pop up in your tunnel one day?
Hi, wondered if you would kindly feature my ebook free promotion giveaway, two children's books on your blog? for the 6th to 9th and the 12th to the 13th July please? Don't worry if that is a problem. Kind regards, Carole.
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