Anyone walking along the canal towpath from the Victorian model village of Saltaire to the neighbouring town of Shipley will soon come across an unusual sight.
Under a gloomy tunnel at Fox Corner, with pigeons nesting in the eaves, mellifluously cooing to each other, there is a colourful mural full of fantasy motifs - a jester, a dragon, a fairy-tale castle, courtly ladies, a knight, a tree-woman.
It looks for all the world like the album cover for a 1970s progressive rock LP, or the design for a Pan Ballantine Adult Fantasy paperback. We wondered when we first saw it if it indeed dated from those heady times.
There isn't all that much about it online but one of the five participating artists, Dave Cogan, has posted a couple of comments (scroll down the link to see this one) which explain the background. He recalls that it was a project in February 1993 led by mural artist Tom Cousins.
The latter's website explains that he once lived and worked in Bradford (the nearest city to Shipley) and did other murals there, but is now based in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, still creating murals.
Tom had got permission from the waterways board, and a local firm provided the paints, but even so there was some opposition from councillors and the press. Despite that, the mural is now one of the sights of the canal walk and, as Dave Cogan says, certainly brightens up a rather grim, dingy tunnel.
It is just the sort of eccentric, fanciful, delightful, bizarre and cheering public art that ought to be cherished and preserved.
(Mark Valentine: Photographs: Jo Valentine)
This is fantastic. I remember seeing a similar set of murals (at least the project was similar, though the art was very different) in some highway underpasses in Indianapolis. I talked with some of the artists who were working on it, and they were thrilled with the public works opportunity.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly the sort of delightful surprise one always hopes to come across when venturing out into the concrete wilderness. For anyone interested: Stéphanie Kilgast is a French artist who, amongst quite a few other things, paints wonderful, slightly hallucinatory murals. She also produces whimsical book art - just not quite what you'd imagine reading this sentence. In addition to her website, she has a YouTube channel with, amongst other things, a time lapse video of her lovely mural painting in Vannes, Bretagne.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, many thanks for the post and the pictures; they put a big smile on my face.
My goodness me, she is looking a little bit battered these days. I am one of the mural artists. The dragon , the trees and the ivy tree lady and the castle and many parts are my design and painted by me and Wills did the rest brought together by Tom. We painted it in the sleet. Done in March, 1993. Had to climb across the road bridge and drop the ladders and all the paint onto the path. All the time we painted never being able to see what we were painting. Had to cross back over the bridge to see the effects we created. What fun Wills, Tom and I, Pam, had doing it all the time the police were called because the local community thought we were graffiti artists. After that, we generated a crowd. Took two weeks to complete.
ReplyDeleteHi there my name is Pam Ackroyd and I designed and painted half of this mural. I still have the original drawings and sketches in my sketch book. Wills did the other half and Tom co-ordinated the project with assistance from Dave Cogan, who helped us for one day. We took 2 weeks to complete the project. Done at the back end of March 1993. The mural is looking a little worse for ware nowadays, but you get the picture. Still there just. Undergraduate stuff for me, after that, I attended Uni and got a BA Fine Art degree, and embarked on a teaching career at Art College. At the time the mural made the papers, it can be found in the T& A even the Guardian apparently.My goodness me, she is looking a little bit battered these days. The dragon , the trees and the ivy tree lady and the castle and many parts are my design and painted by me and Wills did the rest and Tom brought the project together. We painted it in the sleet. Done in March, 1993. Had to climb across the road bridge and drop the ladders and all the paint onto the path. All the time we painted never were able to see what we were creating. Had to cross back over the bridge to see the effects. What fun Wills, Tom I doing the mural, all the time the police were called because the local community thought we were graffiti artists. After that, we generated a crowd. Took two weeks to complete.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much, Pam, for sharing these memories. Yes, the mural is looking a bit battered, but still the vivid imagination of the artists shines through! I'm sure it brings joy and a certain mystery to passers-by.
DeleteWe were young. Not fully aware of the consequences of our actions. It made the news. Even made it to the Guardian Newspaper not that I saw that. At the time is was 'deemed offensive' because some said it resembled the Last Supper. Not that it does. But this justified , Headline News . Sure the press came down and took photos and noticed it , but the last thing I expect was to be on the Front page of The T&A. with the headline 'Offensive' Mural... I have a cuttings still if you want to see? And some original photos taken of the project. As it happens, I am posting photos on my FB on my wall. I am still friends with Wills and, was in contact with Tom Cousins about a decade ago. We worked together on a project for Sir Thomas Ingilbly at Ripley Castle. For the Tour de France, we joined forces to create art installations and an art event , the proposal was to be funded by the art council. Alas , despite all our efforts we were out bid.
DeleteThank You for appreciating our mural. Been there for more than a lifetime now and people have grown up with it. I can imagine that after all this time people have grown to love it.
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