Graffiti art mural sets to unite disparate communities

Internationally acclaimed graffiti artist Mohammed Ali has painted an art mural in London on Leyton High Road from 10am-5pm. The mural has brought local young people from the Leyton area together to create a thought-provoking piece of public art, minutes away from London’s Olympic stadium.

Leyton High Road has already been in the media spotlight for sprucing up its shop-fronts in time for the London 2012 Olympics. The East End has also been accused of wiping out its vibrant street art because of it being considered low brow.  Mohammed Ali’s art with its uplifting message seeks to challenge that perception, as he says “street art brings life to the concrete jungles that we live in”.

The British-born artist has produced murals in New York, Chicago, Melbourne and Dubai.  The South Bank Award winner has been featured on Al-Jazeera, BBC, New York Times and many others prestigious publications.  He says of the upcoming project:

 “The world might have come together for the Olympics but this time last year London was a place of riots and factions, this project is a perfect opportunity to transcend class, race, and faith to bring all peoples together through art. I didn’t want to paint just a nice pretty mural about the Olympics, but wanted to ask important questions and make people think.”

 “He is a graffiti artist who uses his work to intertwine the old and the new…his work has been dubbed ‘urban spiritual art’ was originally street based but now hangs in galleries all over the world…he is heralded as a bridge of understanding”  Freema Agyeman, South Bank Show Awards 2009.

The large scale project funded by Near Neighbours, involves  young people from youth organisation Adventure Quest, Leyton Scouts and arts organisation Soul City Arts.  The mural is located on the corner of Huxley Road and Leyton High Road, on the side of the Kebabish Original Restaurant.

A feature in the Waltham Forest Guardian newspaper: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/wfnews/9872020.LEYTON___Thought_provoking__Olympic_mural_completed/?ref=mmsp

A picture of the wall to be painted:

Pictures of the completed mural showing the process from beginning to end: