In the 13th arrond. of Paris, on rue de Croulebarbe, there is one segment of wall covered with street art.
below: Unfortunately Chloe’s name has been added on top of this mural by Titomulk, a pair of French artists. It hides some of the intricate black and white details, as well as some of the text, of the “Insania Cultura” mural. A singer with her microphone, a portrait of Van Gogh, a book with the title “Knowledge is Power”, a Spiderman mask, and a very naked man. “Si vous trouvez [illegible] culture, coute cher, essayez l’ignorance” translates to ‘If you find culture too expensive, try ignorance.’
below: Painted to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of “The Kid”, a silent movie starring Charlie Chaplin, by Sweb and Sonia O.
below: A Mr. Myl creation – text and a toothy purple guy with a white nose ring, greenery, and barbed wire
below: Five black and white portraits of women with red text, “Hey Heroes, I will be your Queen”.
Painted in 2008, this mural depicts life in the early days of the fishing communities of Newfoundland. It is found on a retaining wall on Battery Road, one of the narrow hilly roads in the Outer Battery neighbourhood.
In an alley near Dovercourt and Queen West in Toronto are two garage door murals unlike any others.
below: ‘Elephancy’ by Zirco Fish – It’s an elephant but it’s not. Tusks like an elephant and the ears seem to be big a floppy. But the mouth is like a beak and the eyes are certainly not those of an elephant. A crazy fantastical creature, the product of someone’s imagination.
There is a large mural on the the side of a school beside a small park (Ernst Lichtblau Park) and playground near the intersection of Einsiedlergasse and Siebenbrunnengasse. Because of the size of the mural as well as all the trees, playground equipment, and caged soccer field in front it, a proper picture of the whole mural was impossible. Instead, I have a series of photos taken from the musician playing the electric guitar depicted on the right to the different instruments on the left.
The mural was painted by El Jerrino, a Vienna based artist.
Written in circles around the woman on the left are lines of poetry by Mahogany L. Browne
“you black girl magic you black girl flyy you black girl brilliance you black girl wonder you black girl shine you black girl bloom And you turning into a beautiful black woman right before they eyes”
The screen on the phone shows the portrait of another Black Woman, Sojourner Truth. The words written around her head are from a speech that she gave at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio in 1851. Over one hundred and fifty years ago. Sojourner Truth was calling on Black women, and all women, to fight for the right to vote. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave women that right but that didn’t come into being until 1920.
In a lot of ways, Sojourner Truth’s words ring true today. Has there ever been a time when women weren’t fighting for their rights in one way or another? The text:
“that man over there said women need to be helped into carriages and carried over ditches. nobody ever helped me over a ditch or lifted me into a carriage AND AIN’T I A WOMAN? look at me! look at my arm! I have ploughed, harvested and sowed and planted and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! AND AIN’T I A WOMAN? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear trash as well. AND AIN’T I A WOMAN? I have born thirteen children, seen most all off to slavery and when I cried in my mothers grief no one but jesus heard me! AND AIN’T I A WOMAN? the first woman god ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn back and get right back up again!”
below: Looking across al. Jana Pawlla II in central Warsaw.
It was twelve years ago, 2010, that Italian artist Blu painted this large mural.
There are lots of soldiers going through the motions of war and combat but they are all being controlled by strings. Their green helmets have holes in the top to make room for the string.
The picture below clearly shows the puppet strings controlling the actions of the larger than life sized men. Strings on the tops of their heads as well as around the hands and feet.
Another piece of the puzzle fits into place – the symbol on the helmet is that of the euro. Money. What wars are fought over. Capitalism. What pits one group of people against another. Agree? or disagree?
Trying to hide some trees on blvd Vincent Auriol is a large mural by Bom-K. A girl, wearing bright pink gloves seems to be trying to spray something orange – an aspiring graffiti artist?, or is she picking up garbage?
Are her eyes closed? Is she in distress? Or crying?
This mural, a large photograph, has not weathered all that well. It’s title is “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” and the artist is Bifido. On her website, Bifido says this about the artwork: “This work should have been called “selfportrait”, as it express how I’m feeling in this moment in the sight of the world. Working, talking, scoping, breathing Tirana atmosphere, I really realized, for the very first time, how it feels to be a woman caught in the grips of this male chauvinist society, to be a woman physically and mentally oppressed by men. As the work progressed, the sense of it changed revealing, maybe, the real reason that. I come back home, to Italy, more aware of something that makes me feel heartbroken, hoping one day something will change.” Please take a look at her website, especially if you want to see the photo in its original form.
By now you may have guessed that the word older in the title of this post has nothing to do with the age of the woman in the mural but in the condition of the mural itself. The Bifido work above is from either 2018 or 2019. Of the same vintage, is a mural by HazardUK
It’s title is “Motra Tone Revisited” which refers to a famous painting, “Motra Tone” also known as ”The Albanian Monalisa”, that was painted by Kole Idromeno (1860-1939).
below: This is a picture of that famous painting (found online, credit: public domain, wikipedia). She hangs in the National Art Gallery in Tirana.
As I walked around Tirana I saw several examples of murals by Albanian artist Eljan Tanini. This blog post features three – a whole building covered by his shapes and colours, a tall vertical mural, and last, a wall with four panels.
below: All sides of the building are covered with whimsical playful shapes in Blloku.
below: Street scene on Rruga Myslym Shyri with the bottom part of Tanini mural showing. This mural was painted as part of MurAL Fest 2018.
below: Four panels in a concrete wall have abstract paintings by Tanini (one on the left, with a blue background, is not shown).
Eyes on the Streets 