With a move from Rosemount to Marischal College, Kekun Studio have revamped their indoor wall into an outdoor street art oasis!
Ok that's maybe a bit conflated and its weird to write about Kekun in the third person as Kekun Studio is myself and Mary Louise Butterworth along with a host of creative friends who help us run projects and exhibitions. But having our own street art wall has been a dream which we never quite managed to achieve at the old studio due to a lack of outdoor space and problems with a neighbour which eventually led to our move. But Arkade has welcomed us with open arms and given us a renewed sense of purpose when it comes to making projects happen and looking at where both Arkade & Kekun can cross over. It's been really important to have space and the freedoms that Jim has afforded us and its led to some great new initiatives that will have an impact on various communities in Aberdeen beyond the creative network.
Arkade Gallery & Studios is housed in The Anatomy Rooms, also home to City Moves Dance Agency with the studios providing a home to 20 odd artists and organisations like Open Road and now Kekun Studio. It's a big set up with individual studios, a dedicated gallery, tool & workshop space and a project space. Externally there's really interesting pockets of green space and liminal spaces which always get my imagination going. One such space that instantly caught my attention was the back gate which we transformed last year with a few extra posters from Nuart's 'Stuck Up' project.
Recent high winds saw the old back gate blown down which led to a new wall being built in its place. Local graffito Mush duly painted a portrait on the outside part which I'd already ear marked for some artworks but people kept stopping to admire the piece, everyday people who were just going about their business. But seeing the possibilities for such a wall I took it upon myself to firm up the slightly rickety facade with some sturdier framing which also provided space to create a new wall on the internal side. Our old gallery boards we're sitting in the corridor so I repurposed them, changing their use from an indoor gallery space to an outdoor wall. And with that the Revolve Wall Project was born!
The concept behind the project is simple, to provide space to artists who want to work on walls. Along with a space to paint we're also hoping to cover materials and to push those who are interested in painting bigger. We're also collaborating with Throwup Gallery around the curation of the project as there's always more scope to include outliers when we collaborate. Each artists piece will last roughly 4 weeks before the next artist takes on the wall so its a constantly evolving space and project. This is similar to what already happens on the cities legal graffiti walls but the downside with them is a piece can be painted on Monday and gets covered up by Friday so our artists will have a bit longer for their work to be admired.
So far we've seen work from established mural painter Craig Fisher and were graced by the presence of Airhead. I also painted the first piece which I thought would be a simple translation of a sketch onto the wall but it ended up taking a lot longer than I'd expected to finish. But I also learned some new techniques and was pushed out of my comfort zone which was a good learning curve. The piece was also buffed by accident along with the Mush painting which is a shame although these kind of works aren't meant to last forever and its an important part of street art culture as artworks and walls change and evolve over time.
We've had some great projects kick off in 2022 with more to come but I'd be lying if I said this year had been easy with a lot of family health related stresses. It's been tough and you might have noticed my output dropped off at the tail end of 2021, 2022 provided even bigger challenges and ill likely be taking a break from things again this festive season. But projects like this and the Art Club have given me little moments of joy and respite and helped to focus back on what I'm interested in, connecting with people, supporting artists in Aberdeen and building new platforms to uplift those who need it!
Perhaps the next project is an alternative and radical art school based in Arkade Studios? Watch this space 👀
