Nuart Lock Down, Paste Up 2020!

April 2020 should have seen the 4th edition of Nuart Aberdeen hit the city with a plethora of international artists, writers, academics and of course graffiti photo royalty Martha Cooper. Now almost 10 months later with a vaccine being rolled out across the UK it seems like life might get back to some semblance of normal and we can start to look forward to 2021. It'll be interesting to see how the events of 2020 effect festivals and events in the coming year and beyond and to see if they're better or worse. Certainly my 2020 has been spent trying to avoid much of the online content being streamed across social media. Although its been good to see friends branching out and adapting to the new normal for me I just felt a bit overwhelmed and at times underwhelmed by it all. 

I think 2020 has changed my relationship with social media and it's something I want to use less of. Counter productive when trying to share blog posts and promote local artists but marketing has never been my strong point. Also fuck the algorithm. Thankfully 2020 also provided lots of time for self reflection and to reassess what's important. People, connection, meaningful interactions and support are a few words that spring to mind. That said I've spent the majority of my time hunkered down at home with Mary and our cat Coco and it's been great! I'm lucky to be past the age of partying in dank techno dungeons and instead prefer the comfort of my own home. Of course when the chance to get out and help put up some secret artworks in place of what should have been large scale murals seemed like a good way to break that early lock down funk. The following was written at the time after another street art mission with V2K which you can read about here. 

We made plans to meet at Kekun before heading out to put up some of the paste ups. The first spot would be the roof spot at Denburn. I’d often thought of doing something on the outcropped stairwell next to the main entrance, a site already touched by the hands of many graffiti artists. As an active medical center, the facade covered in graff (with some dating from 2007) doesn’t bode well, the external walls of the centre more like something out of an urbex site than an active medical facility. We opted to put up a piece by Paul Harfleet aka The Pansy Project. Having worked with Paul in Stavanger, I knew his work would be a perfect fit for the location with its overgrown roof garden and tagged up walls. I initially had the urge to put up one of the graff related paste ups but adding something with a message of hope, to a site which is beautiful in its own way seemed like a better fit. And after struggling up a ladder for what felt like an hour we finally got the piece up on the wall. The local BMXers looked on bemused as I struggled to get the corners in place while Vlad tried to stop the piece coming down completely, Shepard Fairey makes it look so easy!

The bikers liked the finished piece and were happy to do some tricks on the curved banks, a spot blessed by many a local skater along with a few famous names over the years. The bikers were a reminder, a small sign of life in a space often devoid of people and at a time when the streets we're empty. Instead of placing beauty in a space of dereliction, it felt like we’d added something hopeful to the space as it’s being reclaimed by the bikers and skaters, the outsiders. This theme of reclaiming the streets began to emerge as we headed down to ship row. In 2017 Nipper had placed numerous large and small scale art works on the streets of the city, many without permission and without any fanfare. With his piece on the old Dr Drakes almost gone, we decided it would be perfect for Biancoshocks CCTV roller piece. The white walls (a rare sight in Aberdeen) created a nice backdrop for the granite wall of his poster and the CCTV camera on the granite arch above the gate seemed like serendipity. I discovered a new admiration for Nipper getting over as the spikes on that gate proved rather sharp!

We finished the evening with a simple paste up on the old Richards Textile factory. Usually when scouting for locations for the festival I have a lot of rules and caveats around where we can and can’t work. With no rules we opted to place Jofre’s loading screen image onto the middle window of the building. The idea of the window ‘loading’ gave us all a kick. The building itself has been a mecca for local and visiting graffiti writers for years and its walls have played host to some amazing artworks over the years (check it out here). Also the buildings checkered history with a local millionaire buying the working textile factory before driving it into the ground with many workers losing pensions along with their jobs seems so unjust. Working class people being screwed over once again while the owner sits on the real estate for years before selling it on at a profit. Yet we vilianise the graffiti writers and skateboarders who found a use for the space once the gates were padlocked. Perhaps when the site is finally redeveloped society will be a bit more balanced with many calling for a reboot of the system for 2020, both politically and socially.

The next day I set off early with Willem to get the next art works up. I’d earmarked a central location for Sandra Chervier which would have seen her face popping out in the middle of a boarded up building, an open mouth in place of a doorway, enter at your own risk! But even with our rebellious nature we decided to go for a less obvious location. This brought us to the old fish lanes in Torry and an old loading bay. Despite the pigeon poo and smell of fish, we quickly installed the paste up with no real problems. The contrast of Sandras last project, a giant collaborative mural with Shepard Fairey and this paste up in Torry brought a smile to my face. Knowing her work would be a highlight for many in Aberdeen it felt right to have her work go out into the wider community and hopefully providing street art hunters a reason to explore this historically rich area which is also home to local street art project Victoriart Road. Again being able to link up with cultural sites and orgs in the city is always important and hopefully does create a legacy that goes a bit deeper than just pictures on walls.

From South of the Dee river to the west end, we set off armed with a cool piece by Portuguese artist Nuno Viegas. For months I’d been trying to work out something to put into the old derelict factory wedged between the old granite tenements and new build flats. The site is like a secret oasis, trapped between two worlds and suprisingly untouched by the local vandals. It’s interesting to think that in almost any other city such a site would have been bombed over and over with tags but in Aberdeen its white walls remain untouched. The perfect location for Nuno’s work, almost shocking as the hooded figure peers out from behind the overgrown bushes, just visible through the imposing door, a site the artists himself would surely have covered in his writing heyday and we might pay it a visit should he make it to Aberdeen in the future.

With the deep connotations and political messages of Icy & Sot we brought their work down to the old fish processing factories also beside the Dee, now home to high rise office blocks and mega malls. The history of this particular area has been gradually erased with only a few fishing businesses holding on, many facing increasing challenges from property developers who hope to add more glass boxes to their real estate portfolios. Even the mega mall Union Square provided a death blow to Union Street and the city center, pulling people in with its promise of new shops and conveyor belt sushi. But as is often the case even though they now have the people, the center lacks soul. At least we can add a little piece through the imagery of Icy & Sot, escaping Union Square and the bland office blocks which now blight the area more than the workers or graffiti ever did.

Street art has incredible power to connect people and to give back to communities. Since its arrival in Aberdeen Nuart has had the support of many creatives in the city and friends at The Anatomy Rooms were quick to show their support. The piece from Vladimir Abikh gave Tazzy a chance to flex his muscles and created the ripped effect required to complete the piece, a commentary on the value of art and looking a bit closer than just the surface. Indeed if these paste ups do anything I hope they highlight the areas of value in our city, and not monetary value but the value of the communities we have, the people who have been trying to make positive changes and the value of our often overlooked public spaces from historic back lanes to brutalist wonders. We maybe should have been looking a bit harder ourselves as we put up the piece up side down but I think it forces the viewer to adopt an extreme position to see it, pushing it to the limit.   

And speaking of brutalist architecture, few sites stand out as much as the spiral car park on West North Street. Flanked by dual carriageway on one side and brutalist high rises on the other (the same high rises that inspired Evol upon his visit to the city) the West North Street car park has been a special place for many reasons and to many people. A former resident left his mark with a stencil declaring our ‘building is beautiful’ while my friend Charley Buchan was continually inspired by the views from his balcony on the 15th floor. It’s also a site where skateboarders and BMXers have flocked taking advantage of the steep banks, not quite South Bank in London but it's ours all the same. When I saw Jacoba Niepoorts stunning work it took a bit of thought before finally deciding on this location but as soon as we finished pasting it we knew it was right. The figure appears to be made up from light trails created using a long exposure technique. After some day time shots Willem diligently set up his tripod while I performed laps up and down the spiral column armed with two phone torches. Although we wanted to play into the theme of Jacobas work perhaps its best to let it do the talking unhindered. 

With one last paste up to install we discussed a few ideas around the locations for this signature piece titled ‘New Horizons’ also by Biancoshock. The idea of safety and uncertainty emanate from the piece and the theme of the festival threw up a lot of interesting angles. What does ‘freedom’ look like in Aberdeen in April 2020? Freedom I think comes down to people and how they express their own freedom but also where they find it. For some it comes from writing graffiti or extreme sports as we found at Denburn. For others it comes from shopping while others find it in art galleries. Some find it in nature while others look to religion for a more controlled freedom and a few of us look to our art studios and work shops, sacred spaces where we can make and create with reckless abandon.

With so many thoughts we decided that perhaps the poster itself deserved some freedom, after all what could be better than displaying the same poster not on a single wall but across the city! We set off in search of freedom in Aberdeen, the Granite city and home. We encountered lots of people, some with curious looks on their faces, others with looks of fear and some with just blank expressions. After leaving the beach one woman commented on how great our poster was. The poster pulled away at every turn as the wind tried to give it the ultimate freedom to fly off into the unknown, almost succeeding at the river side as the edge began to tear free in my hand. Eventually we decided on the perfect spot to leave the poster down by the riverside, a vision of freedom floating down the river as the goldfish continue their perilous journey to new horizons.

So what does it all mean when the world is facing the challenges of Coronavirus and all the problematic narratives and trends that have arisen? The world seems to be asking us to do some soul searching and to implement mass changes that will help those most in need. One of the most hard hitting things I’ve seen said “stop painting pictures and go volunteer in a soup kitchen” a meme from before the pandemic but still relevant in its sentiment. Seeing the efforts of those at C Fine and Aberdeen Street Friends who are on the front line helping those in need has put our own efforts into perspective. But art can be helpful in dealing with some of the problems our society faces and its certainly one of the tools that can be used to help raise people up. I try to remember how lucky I am to have what I have and will always give my time and skills to help others and to give them a boost up.

We towed a fine line between breaking the lock down protocol and sticking to the new rules as best we could for the project. We took every precaution with PPE and distancing measures implemented as far as possible. Also if street art has taught me anything it’s that sometimes you have to break the rules and be a rebel. That's not to say walking around supermarkets without a mask because of your own deranged sense of entitlement but where common sense over rules government policy like not meeting family unless its in a pub? There’s a great quote in Banksy ‘Wall & Piece’ attached to his flower thrower image that speaks about the small act of one rebel that eventually toppled a government. The current measures have surely saved lives despite being brought into effect way too late by the UK and Scottish government and even now people are streaming through airports without being checked. So unless someone is willing to go and lick those paste ups then the risks we're lesser than visiting ASDA.

Working with Vlad, Martin and Willem (below having fun at the beach) also provided some much needed social time. After a month of self isolation it felt good to be out doors and to be working with friends. Indeed if you were to ask what our rag tag group had in common then you'd struggle to find an answer. But its simple, Nuart. Nuart has helped forge a new street art community bringing together both artists and helpers from all corners of the city. With each festival the bonds and connections grow stronger, the expertise and understanding deepens and the value it adds to our daily lives continues. Nuart has given me so much in terms of skills, understanding of the culture but also in challenging my own biases and notions of community. And ill be honest, it feels good to be running around doing unsanctioned paste ups but knowing that people will see it, if only after the wind and rain have battered them to a pulp makes it worth it. Beauty is in the streets and will continue to be in the streets, even if the people are locked up at home, the art will be there, waiting for them like friends, some old and some new and hopefully it will give those who need it a little boost to know that freedom is out there waiting for them.