Garston Menagerie

A while ago I started to notice that Garston was becoming home to a collection of animals on walls and other bits of street furniture.  It intrigued me, so I started to shoot it.  Over a few weeks in May and June I collected about 20 shots of the animals.  It was a fun project to do, but I wanted to know a bit more about what was going on.  I wanted some context to the shots and I was keen to find out who was making these pieces.  I asked around on few forums, but it didn't get me anywhere.  Then, out of the blue I got a message from the guy who made all this work.  He'd seen one of my shots printed in the Echo.  So after a couple of emails, I asked him to talk about the reasons why he was making this art.  Its not a conversation as such - he needs to stay anonymous, for obvious reasons.  But I thought this was interesting enough to post up here.  What follows are his words. 

Just to contextualize further, I've been making street art for a little while.  So far only in Garston.  It pleases me to walk around looking at how the stencils have evolved and got better.  Probably the first stencil is the badger, but it might be the small frog.  The most recent is the larger frog that is in the paper.  My mum thanks you for that.  I think there are around twenty different stencils, but I’m not sure.  Even I keep finding more.

I started doing street art because my nasturtiums were ravaged by black fly.  Let me explain.  I had some nasturtiums in my back yard.  Not long after they started flowering, black fly swarmed all over them.  It occurred to me that there are probably the same number of black fly in Garston as there are anywhere else, just less flowers for them to feed on.  And, so I decided I should probably do some big painted flowers.  I bought a can of paint form b & q, went out with a brush at 4am, and started painting flowers on an abandoned shop.  It was hard.  I didn't really know what I was doing, I'd painted canvasses before, but this was totally different.  I realized that it would take ages to get just one flower done, so I left them as big green lines.  Then over the next few weeks, I repeated my nocturnal activities, and gradually grew the flowers that are now opposite the co-op.  It made me happy to see them, so I thought they were a success.  

After I’d finished with them, I decided that I could go further, and make some animals. Stencils came very naturally, because most of the creative process is done in privately and in safety, and you can get some good results, and I started looking at some stencil makers like Mobstr, and C215

I think there are about twenty different animals now.  Some have been painted over, but I always try and pick surfaces that are abandoned or unloved.  I don’t want to make anything that offends or troubles anyone.  I just want to improve where I live I guess. 

One of the joys of making street art for me is that I answer to no one.  It’s just me.  I don’t have to justify it to anyone, put a price on it, or go to any gallery with it, talk to idiots about it whilst supping bad wine.  My gallery is wherever I choose to paint.  It’s free.  There is no deadline, I can pick it up and put it down whenever I please.

And I do get a bit of feedback.  Let me tell you what happened to the wasp:

I was very proud of my wasp.  But then the graffiti man (he who wields a can of gray paint) came and cut it in half with a big gray rectangle.  He beheaded my lovely wasp.  I was saddened.  I learned though, that the gray rectangle was not there because of my piece, but because of, some racist bullshit that someone had put next to it.  Crucially, the graffiti man had left most of my wasp, when it would have been simple for him to obliterate it with one extra swipe of his roller.  I was encouraged. I decided that I’d like to talk to the shop, and get their take on what had happened, so I contrived of a motoring related problem, and struck up conversation with them, then casually asked about the gray square.  The shop said they were gutted that “their wasp” had been decapitated!  I was chuffed to bits, and I repaired their wasp.  The graffiti man has not touched it since.  I now feel stronger than ever, that I shouldn’t put a name or symbol on the animals.  That way ownership can be shared by anyone.  And they belong more to the place, than any individual.

I think that pretty much answers your questions.  

It does, indeed.  And I thank you for your time to do so.

Comments

[connie]

What a heartening tale you tell. I enjoyed reading every word-thank you.