United Colours of Brixton
| Tuesday 1 November, 2006 |
Any discount with a Lambeth Leisure Card, love?
 Engaging with the ghetto... |
Well, at the back of Brixton Rec, anyway. Please now form an orderly queue with your grubby fivers along Station Road at the disused car park for cock action.
So easy to be cynical. The Piss Alley makeover is actually rather ace. The Youth Plus Urban Mural Project (to give it its full name) is the end result of a summer of painting and photography by South London Yoof. Local non-profit organisation Zoom Photography is behind the urban gallery, spending all of August training and encouraging kids to think more about their surroundings.
All the work was undertaken at the Max Roach Adventure Playground, the perfect partner to work with, seeing as the Rec has seen an increasing number of South London Yoof through the doors in recent months.
Whether it has the desired effect to clean up Piss Alley remains to be seen. The secluded back passage is frequently patrolled by the police and Rec staff, but it seems that a blind eye is often turned to the junkie lifestyle along Piss Alley.
The Love Me I'm a Liberal within also questions the need to clean up the streets of Brixton. Cleansing SW9 of the junkie problem probably means sending it up the Hill to SW2. Out of sight, out of mind and right on St Reatham's doorstep. A bit of bright paint may remove the junkies from Piss Alley but it won't remove the dealer scum from Coldharbour Lane, who are also given the freedom of a blind eye being turned by the Old Bill.
It's early days for the Mural project. The cock sucking count has been reduced in recent days, but it may just be that the junkies need a little time to acclimatise to the new interior (although the last thing I would want to wake up and see after a date with Harry H would be luminous murals depicting peace, love and understanding.) If the murals don't get you then the University of Dub will once a month.
It all sits nicely along the Brixton Tree of Life - the first mural that appeared along Piss Alley three years ago to herald the arrival of Brixton Expo, a local re-branding initiative dressed up as a bling exercise. The Tree has out-lived the Expo.
Meanwhile it's good to see that South London Yoof has been putting to good use this newly acquired artistic angle up Brixton Hill. A Tesco Local is about to open up on the Brixton / St Reatham badlands where the South Circular cuts up SW2. The corporate knobber marketing fools thought that it would be a good idea to put up some billboards spelling out in graffiti style the imminent arrival of an overpriced corporate chain.
'Engaging with the ghetto,' and all that.
Tossers.
But wait - what's this? South London Yoof has joined in with the graffiti guerrilla campaign and added their own local take on exactly what they think of the corporate knobber marketing fools.
A summer well spent, I'd say.
*update*
Lovers of contemporary urban art would have been left disappointed if they had turned up at Brixton Rec at 6:45 this morning.
