Graffiti on building sites is often considered dangerous for the perpetrators and antisocial for the rest of us, but a new development on Holloway Road has bucked the trend by inviting graffiti artists to participate in its launch.
The £29m Highbury Gardens development invited graffiti collective Graffitikings to create an art installation that interacted with the surrounding community as part of a new take on the traditional ceremony.
Darren Cullen, who has been running the Graffitikings collective for the last ten years, said: “We painted caricatures of the kind of people who are going to be involved with the project, professionals, that kind of thing.
“Having us create a piece of art like that helps keep the site safe from tagging and other kinds of graffiti because of who we are. We all used to be street graffiti artists and our peers respect us, so I’d say 99 per cent of what we do stays up there and doesn’t get vandalised.”
Elliott Lipton, managing director of property developer First Base, who is running the Highbury Gardens development, said: “We wanted to make a bold statement about the progress of this important housing project and felt that graffiti would provide a powerful and artistic way to do this while also celebrating the rich diversity and urban environment of Holloway Road.”
Graffitikings initially became involved with the Highbury Gardens project in 2008, when First Base asked them to create a 40 metre mural along the site’s boundary on Holloway Road. The mural features scenes and people from the surrounding community.
“In a few weeks time, we’re going to be refreshing the original mural, to keep it up to date with what’s happening in the community,” Mr Cullen commented. “It’s about creating a vibrant, colourful piece of art that means something to the people that see it.”
Art has been used to transform buildings elsewhere in the borough, such as the Market Estate Project near Caledonian Road. The estate’s flats were transformed into original art installations depicting the lives of generations of former residents and will be demolished later this month.
Photo: First Base
