Giant new artwork latest addition (#24) to Scotland's Black Lives Matter Mural Trail

Giant new artwork – Justice for Sheku Bayoh – at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall joins the rapidly expanding Mural Trail

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE


NEWS PROVIDED BY
Scary Biscuits Promotions

Scotland’s Black Lives Matter Mural Trail is expanding rapidly. The addition this week of 5 new artworks at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall takes the total to 24 (across Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness) with over a dozen more planned in the coming weeks, in Stirling and Dundee, as well as Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The latest additions are by Kirkcaldy artist Abigail Mills aka Abz including an impressive 5.5 meter x 6.5 meter print on the Usher Hall’s Glass Wing, and a further 4 images next to Lothian Road. Striking, colourful and thought provoking, Abz’s work reflects her regular job as a tattoo artist, but goes far beyond that, reflecting her Scottish/Jamaican heritage and self identifcation as a “queer artist”.

The Glass Wing artwork – Justice for Sheku Bayoh - is inspired by the death in 2015, in police custody in Kirkcaldy, of Sheku Bayoh (now the subject of a recently announced public enquiry).

Aamer Anwar, lawyer for the Bayoh family: “The family of Sheku Bayoh & his partner Collette are deeply grateful to the artist for this mural which encapsulates for them their long struggle for justice & truth. It’s time that those who fly the banner of #BlackLivesMatter realised that there are also many George Floyds in the UK and their families need your support”

Abz’s work joins The Neon Requiem’s 3 portraits of female inspirations in his life – The Healer, The Nurturer and the Teacher, on display at the Lyceum Theatre, text contributions by Annie George at The Traverse Theatre, and a further 6 posters featuring words by some of Scotland’s leading BAME musicians including Emili Sande, Young Fathers and Findlay Quaye, making a remarkable cluster of creative activity by BAME artists/writers, at Edinburgh’s “theatre hub”.

Additions include the trail extending all the way down the Royal Mile, at The Writer’s Museum, The Museum of Childhood and The Museum of Edinburgh, and another at The Playhouse.

Responding to the recent international outpouring of support for Black Lives Matter, following the killing of George Floyd in USA, the Mural Trail provides a platform for Scotland’s many diverse BAME artists, working in their chosen media, including including paintings, digital, video, prints, photography and text, with the installations as varied as the artists themselves. Art is powerful and at a time when all Scotland’s venues are closed for the foreseeable future, they can still have a voice by offering their walls and doors to be used for this dramatic, vital statement of support for Black Lives Matter.

Producer Wezi Mhura: “We hope this Mural Trail will help to start the conversations that need to be happening now. It’s been amazing to connect in with so many talented artists (with roots in so many different places) who have been so enthusiastic about getting behind this project”.

About

The Scottish Black Lives Matter Mural Trail is the brainchild of Edinburgh based creative producer Wezi Mhura (Iron Oxide, Struileag (Commonwealth Games 2014), AfriFest, Edinburgh International Festival) a specialist in large scale events. The Trail is supported by Scotland’s leading venues and arts organisations including Edinburgh International Festival, Dance Base, Queen’s Hall Edinburgh, Eden Court, Glasgow’s King’s Theatre and Theatre Royal, and many more

July 15, 2020 9:13pm ET by Scary Biscuits Promotions  

, , , , , ,

  Shortlink to this content: https://bit.ly/2Ovl2pO

SHARE THIS

Latest Press Releases

We may earn a commission from products purchased via links featured on our pages