Meet the Muralist Alistair Leys
April 16th, 2021
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ShareBudding artists at the Lewisham School of Muralism have been transforming walls in their own home this quarter, while their home learning continues during lockdown.
The Lewisham School of Muralism was launched in 2020 with the goal to train the next generation of muralists. However, with the tough lockdown measures, the school had to adapt and ask the students to create a mural in their own home, whilst moving their learning to an online environment. In this article we get to hear from student Alistair Leys, who tells us all about his project, and how it came to life.
"The artwork is a lockdown self-portrait, playing on the idea of kitchen sink realism (a style of social realism which depicts the domestic situations of working-class Britons).
What you see when you look through my kitchen window is also on the ceiling in a shadow-like distortion. On the other wall I’ve played with inside and outside, painting a portrait of me from outside the flat on the interior kitchen wall.
The idea came about from our group sessions, and continual discussions with my partner, who also helped with the photographic work and projecting shadows onto the walls. My flatmate had a big input on the ceiling part of the painting, playing with camera obscuras and shadow projections.
I chose the kitchen as my canvas as it is kind of the heart of a home, but also a kind of prison through these lockdown periods. It plays on this idea of showing the mundane and everyday in a distorted way.
Working in such a small space was quite challenging, and working on the ceiling was strenuous! Because the kitchen was so often in use I had to really keep on top of the mess I was creating and work around people trying to cook. This actually made is more similar to working on the street, where there are many external factors at play.
The response to the mural has been really positive. The abstract nature of the artwork stops it from being too intense on an everyday basis, and it has warmed up my little pink kitchen and turned it into a space for reflection."
