To Him We Shall Return
A couple of days ago I was hired to shoot Mohammad Ali (Aerosol Arabic), a South Asian Graffiti artist from London. Mohammad was spraying a mural for the Magassa children, that passed away in a fire in the Bronx. The mural is about 20 feet wide and is a fusion of arabic and english. In arabic it say Inalillahe which translates to "From him we came." In english it reads "to him we shall return"
It was like a mini block party, people from all over the community stopped by to show their support. Local restaurants were sending us food. By the second day kids were cutting school just to see this go down. At one point Mrs. Magassa, the mother of the children, stopped by with food for everyone who was there. Coincidently that was the moment when Mohammad was throwing up the names of the children. Not being to control her emotions, the mother started crying and as a reaction to her other people there started crying and some teary eyed, even the artist. I have never seen so much emotion surrounding a piece of art. It was as if everyone there felt a fraction of her pain for that moment.
He did something that I thought was really smart. He gave every kid on that block a can of paint and asked them to contribute. This way the kids have a sense of ownership of that piece and will make sure that no one messes it up or takes it down.
If you would like to view the Mural take the 4 train to Mt Eden and goto the corner of Mt Eden and Townsend. Its a block from the train and is worth checking out.
I thought I would share some of the flicks from those days...
It was like a mini block party, people from all over the community stopped by to show their support. Local restaurants were sending us food. By the second day kids were cutting school just to see this go down. At one point Mrs. Magassa, the mother of the children, stopped by with food for everyone who was there. Coincidently that was the moment when Mohammad was throwing up the names of the children. Not being to control her emotions, the mother started crying and as a reaction to her other people there started crying and some teary eyed, even the artist. I have never seen so much emotion surrounding a piece of art. It was as if everyone there felt a fraction of her pain for that moment.
He did something that I thought was really smart. He gave every kid on that block a can of paint and asked them to contribute. This way the kids have a sense of ownership of that piece and will make sure that no one messes it up or takes it down.
If you would like to view the Mural take the 4 train to Mt Eden and goto the corner of Mt Eden and Townsend. Its a block from the train and is worth checking out.
I thought I would share some of the flicks from those days...
1 Comments:
Thank you Atif for your hard work. I'm sure the project became more than just being "hired" to create something artistic and the whole thing became something personal to us all. I certainly gained a lot from this and I hgpe we all did. Just to see the emotion around a "piece of art" was truly something to remember.
Post a Comment
<< Home