A FRENCH street artist is busy crafting a colossal mural on the side of an abandoned cruise-liner, docked off the North Wales coastline. His expansive mural joins 3 other pieces from a variety of Street Artists, who have travelled from across Europe to leave their marks on the ship.
Street Artist, GOIN, is in the process of creating a giant mural of 3 monkeys sat on top of bags of money, on the side of the Duke of Lancaster ship. Entitled ‘Council of Monkeys’, GOIN’s characters are poised to represent ‘hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil’.
This piece is by far the boldest statement on the ship, not only because of its impressive 121m² expanse, but also with its provocative name and theme.
The ship owners’ on-going, 30 year battle with the council, has been the inspiration for the art to date and the project is being coordinated by an anarchist group, calling themselves Dudug. Their eventual aim is to create the UK’s largest open air art gallery.
Project coordinator, Maurice, commented: “We knew getting GOIN involved would be quite simple because he has been involved with a similar project in France – the Abode of Chaos near Lyon. Abode of Chaos is a Museum of Contemporary Art. Like the Duke of Lancaster, the museum has been the subject of an on-going law suit, but their battle is with the local mayor’s office, who claims the construction is unauthorised under town planning.”
The owners of the Duke of Lancaster had originally brought the cruise liner to Wales after it was decommissioned in 1979, with the Council of the day being in full agreement that they would be granted permission to transform it into tourist destination, the Funship. However, the Council changed their mind and have been embroiled in a series of court battles, all of which the ship owners have won.
GOIN is one of a series of artists who is set to leave his mark on the ship over the coming weeks. He was drawn to Pop Art in 1994 when he was a guitarist in a punk rock band. He comments about that time: “I started creating skateboards, t-shirts and stickers for my own skate line… I don’t do pop art, but even so, there’s no doubt that street art is heavily infused.”
The finished piece, although not inspired by Banksy’s piece, to an onlooker it will certainly conjure up images of the infamous street artist’s eminent ‘Parliament Chimps’ mural.
It joins works from Latvian Street Artist KIWIE; local Welsh boys, Cream Soda Crew and Bristolian, Bungle. All of the works have been photographed and documented along the way by annar_50, who is now the resident photographer for Black Duke Project.
The works are certainly catching the attention of the locals. Speaking to Maurice, local resident, Dawn Derby commented: “There’s an awful lot of people in Mostyn who are totally behind what you are doing. Love the project and are really, really pleased something is happening with the ship. Also you have a lot of local youngsters extremely interested in art.”
With the DuDug Crew determined to transform the derelict ship and create an inspiring piece of artwork, they are sure to be pleased with comments like these.
The project has already inspired other artists, such as Russian up-and-coming gallery artist, Lora Zombie, who has created “Rise Dear Child” in honour of the project. Maurice comments: “Our aim with the project was to inspire people – inspiring the artist was the easy part. We have some of the biggest names in the urban art world knocking at the door, keen to get involved. Now our next aim is to inspire the younger generation, and hopefully create a whole new wave of artists.”
Limited Edition, Handsigned GOIN prints coming soon.
FOLLOW AND SUPPORT THE BLACKDUKE PROJECT HERE: www.dudug.co.uk
