Street art comprising: graffiti wall, and ‘woolly wall’ in mixed media
facebook.com/FreefallClimateGraffiti/
Freefall Climate Graffiti was a collaboration with Cleo Heard of Miss*C’s Graffiti Academy, working with the Freefall Youth Group at the Exeter Phoenix arts centre.
Together, with aimed to:
- educate and inspire the young people: learning about climate change and the natural world, exploring environmental issues through creativity, and learning new skills
- create a great artwork, which improves the look of the area
- through the mural, also educate the public about how climate change will affect UK weather in the future
- work in partnership, bringing together young people, local artists, Met Office scientists, knitting groups
I created a series of maps, using UK Climate Projections data, as the starting point for refreshing the Phoenix graffiti wall. In three workshops, Freefall learned from Met Office scientists about climate research and from Cleo about street art and planning public art, designed the artwork, and cut out the stencils. On 14th May, during Art Week Exeter, we all painted the wall.
Cleo and I also introduced Freefall to Free Art Friday, which places artwork on the street for people to discover, enjoy and take home. The Met Office Crochet And Knitting Etc group shared their woolly skills, making small leaves, flowers, and butterflies to decorate the fencing by the graffiti wall.
Accompanying Booklet
You are welcome to download the booklet about the work (pdf), or browse it here.
Installation
Workshops
- “Freefall Climate Graffiti”: Spraying the Wall
- “Freefall Climate Graffiti” Workshop 3: Making the Stencils and Skills Sharing
- “Freefall Climate Graffiti” Workshop 2: Preparing the Wall
- “Freefall Climate Graffiti” Workshop 1: Climate Science and Street Art
News
- “Little colouring books” and “Freefall Climate Graffiti” featured in Green Christian magazine
- “Freefall Climate Graffiti” in Reconnect magazine
- “Freefall Climate Graffiti” in Exeter Life
- “Freefall Climate Graffiti” in The Exeter Daily
- “Freefall Climate Graffiti” in the Express and Echo
- Press Release – “Freefall Youth Group to graffiti Phoenix with climate message during Art Week Exeter”
- What if the “Little colouring books” were really big?
Data sources
UK Climate Projections 2009 (UKCP09)
http://ukclimateprojections.metoffice.gov.uk/
UKCP09 Data licence
Acknowledgements
We’re extremely grateful to Exeter City Council for supporting the project with a City Grant; to Pete Yeo and Caroline Harlow for their generosity early on; to the Met Office and Wilko for in-kind support; to local knitting groups and other enthusiastic friends; to Exeter Phoenix and the Freefall Youth Group, of course; and to Art Week Exeter 2016 for providing the metaphorical umbrella.
