watermelon | Eyes on the Streets

In Jaunary 2018 a large section of the old historic part of Cuenca was a construction site. The plywood hoardings around the site were painted with street art murals. I have credited the artist whenever possible but unfortunately most of the work was unsigned.

below: A Chicho rat

street art of a rat holding a yellow object, by Chicho

street art on hoardings around a construction site

below: Hambre translates to hunger.

mural on hoardings with historic church in the background, word hambre with 4 objects, a clown head, armchair, watermelon piece, and a red balloon on a string

below: Fourteen candles

mural with 14 lit candles in a row, with their reflection across the bottom. Candles are purple on the bottom, yellow in the middle and white on top.

below: White clothes; red heads

below: Wide eyed face with many teeth and an angular nose

mural on hoardings, a large rectangular horizontal black face with white features,

below: Cuenca street scene

a man walking down a street in Cuenca Ecuador with hoardings surrounding a construction site on one side of the street, the hoardings have murals painted on them

below: San Pancho re-arranged

blue background mural with crowd of white faces

hoardings, a mural that has been re-arranged incorrectly, hoarding panels are in wrong order

below: passing the peacock feather from top to bottom

mural on hoardings, peacock feather being passed from top half of person to bottom half of person
a young man in a hoodie is walking past murals on hoardings, picture on mural is of a person wearing purple shoes, Cuenca Ecuador

below: Shopping with diegumberrto aka Diego Molina,

detailed mural in mostly yellow of objects on shelves, a man appears to be shopping, has word extra on front of his baseball cap

below: She’s kneeling in the garden wearing mis-matched earrings and a pink sun hat; she is surrounded by a book, dolls, watermelon, lots of flowers and even a skull.

mural of a young girl in a pink hat and with mis matched ear rings, kneeling outside with dolls, plants, and other small objects like a piece of watermelon, a small white skull with an arrow through it,

below: Pieces of clothing flying everywhere

below: Honeybee and gummi bears

below:Flores en el camino, signed Anuska?

below: ideas, thoughts, and dreams

below: At the corner

below: More hoardings

below: Rearranged where workmen are busy.

The city of Amman is built on a series of hills, ridges, and valleys. Many of the streets in the central part of the city run parallel to each other with few streets connecting them because of the hills. The result is quite a few sets of stairs, often long and steep! One set of stairs, Al-Kalha Stairs (top part) and Jadal Stairs (bottom part), has some small shops and cafes. They connect downtown Amman with Jabal Al Weibdeh neighbourhhod. The walls on the side of the stairs have also been decorated with street art.

At the top of the stairs

below: A gold coloured face looks to the sky, by Batool Edais. 2018. It’s difficult to tell now, but on the right one boy is standing on the back of another boy.

below: Laila Hajri has painted someone reaching for a section of watermelon.

below: Mural by Wafa Asmar. The eyes, nose, and mouth on the girl were added after as were the black letters in blue swirl near the bottom (I rebel therefore I exist).

van gogh inspired blue swirls painted in a mural with an orange square in the center. in that square is a heart. To the right of the swirls is a pink vertical bar with a black picture silhouette of a girl holding a bunch of balloons

For my part I know nothing with any certainty but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

multi coloured face with words below that say Don't let the noise of other people's opinions drown out your own.

“Don’t let the noise of others opinions drown out your own”

below: Lots of people have added their names along with a note or two.

below: By the book seller’s table

below: Portraits by Miramar Mohammad (Miramar Al Nayyar) 2016. Marcel Khalife, a Lebanese singer, composer, and oud player, is depicted on the left. The other portrait is of Mahmoud Darwish, a Palestinian author and poet.