Before I forget and drivel on - the artist of that draft submission works round the corner and has visited the wall in person so should have anhalf decent idea of what his idea would look like in reality!
There appears a slight cyclical discussion on some of these points which have been brought up previously. I agree with everyone that those two locations would be prime for doing something with, although on almost every count there will be some arguments against I’m sure. E.g: visibility of the railside wall is poor compared to other locations - can’t see it from any streets, and even within the station it can only be seen by one platform could be one “argument” etc.
These do not fit in with this project for a number of reasons (in large part ease/pragmatically getting something up and done and cost).
To summarise those walls and to also offer potential thoughts for those walls in the future:
Railside:
For a start I would encourage the Sydenham society to reaccess this potential as they told me they had permission and funding (!) to do something with that wall last year/year before but no real reason was given for why nothing happened.
It would have to align with far more health and safety bumpf
It would have to be timed with an artist to do the work while the trains weren’t running - meaning the work would have to be done within 2 days (I assume prob most downtime at Syd) - if the artwork picked would take longer than that or there is very poor weather those days then the project becomes even more difficult to complete
No proof/evidence that it won’t just get graffitied over (as unfortunately a few commissioned works around stations have been) even though generally speaking it appears people do leave high quality and/or crowfunded work alone
If it was to get graffitied over it is highly inaccessible for a touch up/to cover
*These are just some issues off the top of my head but would fully like to see the wall adorned with something (as previously posted I have managed to hopefully get it cleaned in the upcoming weeks/months courtesy of NR)
Again, I would encourage SydSoc to revisit this, especially if they had/have funding and have got the knowledge/contacts/permission for sorting this out.
Big wall next to property world:
Would be amazing to have a large piece of art here. That’s all
There will be additional costs (one person in the know suggested approx 50% more) for cherry picker etc.
It would require some digging for who owns the wall as well as any provate properties you would have to access to get to the wall and get permission granted across all I assume
Some access issues again for prepping the wall and any touch ups/cover up perhaps.
But yep, great wall/location and if anyone wants to get on it and find info etc go for it!
I don’t foresee the mural project being successful by a handful of people giving a load of money so when it boils down to it it will be “would you donate towards this piece, this piece or neither” and then if enough people prefer the selected piece to the current wall and donate then it’ll go up. It doesn’t have to be if this artwork goes up here we won’t get one at this location kind of thing. The hope is this would be the first. Then other permissioned walls (currently I’ve only looked into NR as it was easiest and has some of the more visible locations but anyone wanting to give permission or finds permission for other walls can add to the stockpile!!) would be filled by non-commissioned artists showing their wears perhaps and maybe another commissioned piece next year etc.
I’ve never done anything like this before and am not in the industry of art, social media or events and am just trying to use spare time to achieve something nice/wanted by locals up in the neighbourhood
Granted it won’t all be perfect or be to everyone’s exact preference (art/location) but hopefully a lot of people will prefer it to a blank wall and I don’t think it’s going too bad so far and things are going along at a decent pace towards an achievable short term goal rather than lots of discussion and not much action
Cheers,
Jon
Chris Best is aware of this project and has followed/liked a few things on Facebook and twitter so would have hoped she or the Sydenham society with their knowledge of things like this would’ve raised something by now if it was going to be an issue. Therefore my annoying positive head says hopefully it won’t be a problem.