chelsea wall of fame brief

Graffiti has evolved into a form of art since the original ddays of vandalism on trains and walls. Aims of graffiti range from 'getting up' (getting fame by writing your name wherever you can and as much as you can), being as creative as you can with letters/characters/backgrounds and simple vandalism(attack the system where it hurts, in its pockets).

For my FMP i want to concentrate on expressing graffiiti in its creative and progresive form. Chelsea being an art institutiuon provides support for many different forms of art and design. However there is no facility supporting graffiti. I want to start a Wall of Fame that people can show there creative approach to graffiti. A wall of fame is simply a legal wall where people can do this. In the last 5 years there has been a crackdown on legal walls so as the government try and attack graffiti, generalising the genre as a group of mindless vandals. By creatting a new wall at Chelsea I aim for it to show the public what graffiti has evolved to and that if you give some one the chance and the time they will produce something positive.

What i plan to do to get this project off the wall is first search for a wall that i can use on the site of the college. I then will try get in contact with as many graffiti writers as i can to invite them down and paint. I will document this by filming each session and collate this footage to present at the final show.
A possible round up for the project is for me to do a painting myself and get a few of the visiting writers to judge me on my work with regards to if I have progressed ont the skills I already have from observing the previous visitors. I am also interested in gathering a few students from my class who have an interest in graffiti and produce a peice expressing the 3rd year Des Com class.

THE 1ST SESSION!!!

SOOOOO the first session at the great wall of jeba. Mighty Monkey of the London Frontline and his firend Sewda came down. The session in all took around 3hrs. At first the whole idea of filming almost fell out the window!! herds of livestock aka students were crowding around the triangle space for their results for something. i atempted 2 further loactions and the 2nd worked wonders.
enjoy
Mighty Monkey&Sewda at the Chelsea wall of fame

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Q:How many people does it take to put up a wall?

Ahaaaaaaa!! the wall EXISTS!! it is in physical state!! it took a lot of sweat, and splinters and worrying but its up and thats important. Now its jus to get it filled..again..and again..and again.. with JUICY COLOURS!!!


(A:It took took 25 people to finally construct the wall!!)

AHAAAAA!! WE HAVE A WALL

So after another meeting with Geff I find out that I have been granted a wall!!
Itsnot the wall I wanted orginally, but it is just as good if not better, and thinking about it a lot of time could have been saved I'm sure if I had looked at this before.
The space I have been given is the fence raound the rubbish skip, which is next right to the wall i wanted.
It is just as high and it is slightly shorter, but it is still a good enough space.
Also I have been granted permission to actually paint on the night of the exhibition, which would be a great idea. This I will look into more.

The next steps from here is to:
1. measure the area
2. find a good way of securing the wood to the fence
3. order the wood
4. build the wall
5. get writers down

So here are the problems at this point...

Ok so after meeting with Geff I find out where i went wrong and what I am to do now with only a few weeks left.
After contacting the site coordinater Alan Graham last week, the response was that there may need to b a meetng for us to round this all up and look at the risks. Things seemed to come to a standstill at this point, which i could have avoided by communicating more and pushed faster.

It has arisen that one problem is to due with insurance. If anyone not apart of the university (student/tutor) is hurt doing work onsite, the university is liable to being sued.
It is still in the air about what we can do about this, one solution that I have already concidered is getting people to come and paint who are in the university. Yes there are writers all over the University don't you know!!

Thsi is all trying to be sorted out within the next couple of days.

Business Card

The original design for my business card I decided that as i didn't have any imagery of my project that would describe what i was doing i would have to design one from scratch. Originally the idea was to us arrows that are seen commonly in graffiti to express the area of the site i will b workin on. I didn't really want to use graffiti lettering as to not make the prjoect too obvious. But after revising this it was decided that just simply having the word 'Brighter' written would siut well enough.


final business card


original business card

Oh yeahh another one...

Zeight is also interested in coming down. Thses are only a few flicks from a night we had out, nothing serious but i appreciate his style. He prefers the european(Spanish definitely), irregular, but more simple lines to his letters. Its quite interesting for someone who lives in London..but we're still in Europe..right? I'll hopefullyy get a more in depth pic up soon.

Experimenting with a new form of canvas

Graffiti evolves: styles evelve, letter forms evolve, backgrouunds evolve and the canvas evolves. I had the oppertunity to try something different from a wall, and it was great fun i must say. It was..adapting the letters to a different form. Bloody marvelous.

Does the compomise hinder the project

Having to put up boards isn't really what i wanted to do..there's something about it that doesnt feel permanent. I've always considered that this could be the way to get around it all, considering the classifiaction and architecture of the whole site. Graffiti as we know it started on trains, it then was pushed onto the streets, onto walls, now boards are used in competitions, shows, and even walls around the UK, for example the walls in Southbank are actually boards.
After contacting the writers who have agrred to b involved (those who have so far replied) haven't got a problem with painting on boards which is quite a relief because i want them to feel like they're painting for a purpose and a cause. Not just for the sake of painting on any old wall.
My stand is that i want something permanent, i want future students to think that other avenues of art are being given the attention needed. So i suppose it comes down to the question of how long Chelsea are willing to kep the boards up for. All i can do now is to put as much into it as possible to give the impression that this is a worthy asset for the encouragement of art and design in different disciplines.

we found a wall..well a compromise

OK so this is what i was afraid of but i understand and it all makes sense. So the only ideal place for this wall was to be on that lovely white wall with the arches where the letters can harmoniously cuve around bends and so forth, HOWEVER it turns out that the particular building in question was a World War2 Hospital Chapel. For thse who didnt know this site we reside in here at Chelsea was a World War Hospital. So what we have devised is to put up boards along the wall infront as briefly discussed.

Some of the writers

here are some of the writers that are interested in coming down to paint.

SICK


ELUSE


TEK1


HESER


MIGHTY MONKEY(/LONDON FRONTLINE)


SHOK1


RT CREW


I am tryin to capture a vairety of styles that are included in graffiti, some writers such as tek1 and mighty monkey are exceptionally credited for their characters, however approach them differently. shok1 is also known for his characters, however has also has a huge repitation for his organic forms of lettering.
Each writer has explained to me they will probably bring a few more people down with them so other writers that will be there can't b confirmed until sketching starts.

in search of a wall

I walked around the Chelsea campus looking for an appropriate wall to turn into a wall of fame. What i am looking for from a wall is enough space to hold 3-4 writers at a time with anough height. I would also like it to be rather close to the Triangle Space where the Final Show will be and I would like it to also be in a good postion to be seen by the public..ther's no point in having a wall if no one can see it now is there?
I haven't actually found anywhere that is perfect, however there have been a couple possibilities.

This is the most obvious wall which leads to the workshops from the triangle space. It would be beautiful however the wall is too low, not much can be done.


These two walls are behind the triangle space. These walls fit a much more desired scale and there is enough space to record the paintings. however the problems with these are that a) they lead to and are within the garden(right now there is a No Entry sign up) so this maybe area that the college may not want to be trampled all over. And b) its position is hidden from the triangle space so can easily be missed.



NOW this particular wall(the white one alongside the wall behind the arches) made me dribble!! i close my eyes and saw scenes of beautiful letters curving and bendin around such smooth surfaces..caressing the architecture, letterforms gliding from behind the pillars to the huge open space like doves!! the only problem i have with this wall is that people may get in the way of the recording(the college may have other concerns).


These have been the only walls i've seen that would somehow fit the requirements needed for space. Im not too sure where to go from here... another solution would be to put boards up for the following 14 weeks. Places I have considered to be reaonable places have been along the recycling bins, along the wall infront of the beautiful bright white 'un, or the greatest,
most satisfying ppostion along the actual triangle space( dribble some more)!!


The only problem I have with resorting to boards it that it may make the project feel temporary. The whole idea of a wall of fame is that it is permanent and indelible, boards can be taken away.

Talking to a few writers about my project a few responses have been "IM THERE..", "OHHHH HELL YEAH", and "IM SALIVATING"