Deptford X leaves new mural in Douglas Square

Douglas sqaure mural pic: carolineld.blogspot.com

As the 7th annual Deptford X Festival closes up, the contemporary visual arts festival once again celebrated East London’s emerging talents by leaving Deptford’s community with vibrant new murals.

The Deptford X team submitted a proposal for a new mural in Douglas Square in July, months before this year’s festival opened, giving a 6k pounds budget for its development. The completed mural will be commissioned until August 2013, in order to last through the 2012 Olympic games. The same organizers also announced that several festival events will still run over the course of the next 10 months until the games have finished.

The Douglas Square mural was proposed to reflect the community’ s movement and ethnic variation, creating a sense of community and gathering in the market area.

“The mural will give a sense of continuation to the square on the theme of what it’s most well known for”, says the project webpage.

In addition to the annual event, Douglas Square was also home to the Talking Walls street-narrative project, founded by Goldsmiths design student Tessa Lawer. This mural was applied to the side of the Albany during the same period of the festival.

The second Talking Walls mural is in the Deptford Project yard, another major community-inspired initiative.

The murals in New Cross and Deptford initiated a “Mural Walk” in August by the London Mural Preservation Society, and a petition by a Lewisham youth centre to save a Henry Cooper memorial mural last month.

Deptford’s eagerness on promoting and preserving its community feel depicts the urban scrawl through the resident’s creativity, colouring the streets of south east London, and filling them with hidden treasures.

by Olivia Cassano

Leave a Reply