Friday mornings I often take my daughter to a local children’s center for a stay-and-play session. Walking back last Friday I was greeted by a delightful surprise.
A stunning new mural enjoining passersby to “shine your light”.
East London is one of the centers of street art globally and it’s one of the things I love about living in Bethnal Green. It means I’m used to seeing street art on the side of commercial buildings on main thoroughfares, like this mural of boxer Ramla Ali.
Photo credit: Hannah Judah. Follow her on Instagram for more street art inspiration.
But this new mural was on the side of a residential building in a pedestrian area. It felt surprisingly intimate.
The surprise element of it reminded me of the time when, back in 2015, the mayor of Tehran overnight transformed 1,500 billboards across the city into works of art. For 10 days people enjoyed art in the most unexpected places. A powerful move in a country where harsh censorship can stifle artistic expression and many Iranian artists live in exile.
The Son of Man by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte next to a painting by the Iranian artist Sohrab Sepehri. Photo credit: Hamed Khorshidi.
It turns out there's also an Iranian connection with my new neighbourhood mural.
The mural is credited to the organisation Paint the Change.
Paint the Change was founded by Maziar Bahari, an Iranian Canadian journalist and filmmaker, with the vision to bring social action and street art together. They have produced 50+ murals and workshops all over the world as part of Education is Not A Crime.
Maziar was initially inspired to raise awareness about the exclusion of the Baha’i community from higher education in Iran and made a documentary about his work with street artists “to fight brutality with art and creativity.”
They have worked with street artists around the world to create murals that affirm that everyone has a right to education.
Like this one in São Paulo:
Artist: Apolo Torres.
And this one in Cape Town:
Artist: Freddy Sam
There’s something about street art that is inherently liberating. As the Tate website notes, “There are no rules in street art, so anything goes.” It challenges our assumptions about where art belongs and what and who it is for.
And street art is inherently inclusive. All you need is a can of spray paint.
Back in 2019, as part of a gathering of creativity scholars we went on a tour of street art in East London and then we had the chance to give it a try ourselves.
Just another day in the life of a creativity scholar ;)
We took turns filling in the outline of the mural the artists had prepared for us.
At one point, I stepped off to the side and felt compelled to scrawl “creativity” in Arabic.
It felt like a declaration. I knew it wouldn’t be long before it was painted over. But that didn’t matter. It wasn’t about the permanence of the end product. What mattered was the act itself. It felt empowering.
Perhaps more than any other art form, I think street art is about shining a light in the darkness.
In 2018 my friend Sarah and I went to Bethlehem and saw the separation wall.
The wall as a structure is an abomination. And, the art that adorns the Palestinian side is inspiring and uplifting and confronting and invigorating. It is a declaration that the ugliness of the wall is not the end of the story.
The wall surrounding the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem, Palestine. Photo credit: “Looking forward to the Dome of the Rock.” By Michele Benericetti
I’m so grateful to Paint the Change and artist Matt Dufour for this new weekly reminder to “Shine Your Light”, an echo of that famous quote: “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”
Although, as Lucy reminds us, perhaps lighting a candle and cursing the darkness are not mutually exclusive. A classic creative move to reject a false dichotomy ;).
Peanuts comic by Charles M. Schulz, 1965