Streetpainting.tv is always interested in hearing how the art form of street painting is perceived around the world. Following is an interview with UrbanCanvas, the team of contemporary artists Philip Battle & Catherine McMahon, who talk about their new event and the history of street painting in Liverpool, England.
1st Prize - The James William Carling Award: Artist Terence Kane, Irish Emigrants Entering Liverpool. Original art by David Jacques.
Let’s discuss the Pavement Art Competition, how did everything go for your artists?
The event, The James Carling Pavement Art Competition was a fantastic success, beyond our expectations really. The weather was looking dodgy with light rain forecast. Fortunately we only had a couple of showers towards the end of the event, although this did dampen the spirits somewhat and some artists did get a tad disheartened, the overall feeling was good and I think everybody really enjoyed taking part. For many of the artists this was a new experience and as we very well know there is a world of difference between doing work in the studio and doing work on the street!
When did your festival begin?
It was a one day event taking place on Saturday 18th October 2008. This is the first ever Street Painting competition for Liverpool. Although we have had street art festivals and we’ve even organized events concentrating on a variety of cross art forms such as street sculptures, performance and conceptual arts this is the first time we’ve had anything that is 100% screeving and Italian Street Painting.
How did the two of you learn of street painting?
I took part in a street festival in Liverpool in 1995. It was a cross art form type of event engaging lots of different types of visual artists. The remit from what I can remember was to do chalking art, but we were not allowed to do it directly onto the pavement, we had to do it on paper, the council where pretty anal about doing stuff directly onto the streets, they are still a bit like that and we had to get special permission for this event!
Anyhow, it always seemed a bit odd to me that they where asking us to do pavement art on paper, just didn’t make sense, it was only after researching what other festivals were doing that I realized that it was just total nonsense. Years ago the council use to threaten us with a bill to clean up the streets (no kidding!) they even accused us of “littering the Streets” Thank god things have changed today and this event had the 100% backing of Liverpool City Council as part of our European Capital of Culture celebrations 2008.
How large is your festival and who attends, (local, regional, national)?
This being the first one we decided to concentrate on local artists, mainly because local artists are largely overlooked by event organizers who sometimes feel that the grass is greener on the other side and also because it was supported by ‘Open Culture’ an initiative set up by Culture guru Phil Redmond to involve local artists and people in cultural events during Capital of Culture Year. The truth is that there is enough talent on your own doorstep if you care to look for it. We only had 5 weeks to put this thing together so we made it an open competition for amateur and professional artists, we only had around 20 pitches available and we filled all them although we did have a number of drop outs on the day. We put a lot of energy into promoting the competition on Local Radio and newspapers and this attracted a very receptive crowd. The square (Ropewalk Square) is normally an empty, drab cut through from one street to another, even on a Saturday but we attracted hundreds of visitors and art lovers from all over the city which gave the event a special buzz, it was like a little Montmartre, if anybody has been to Paris you will know exactly what I’m talking about.
Let’s discuss the pavement work of Clifford Sayer, pictured on your site. Is he a popular artist in Liverpool?
We’ve known Clifford for many years, he’s well known around the Liverpoolart scene and he told us recently that he was screeving on the streets of Liverpool since the age of 4. Apparently he use to go out with his parents who where also street artists. He’s a prolific painter.
1st Prize - The Adrian Henri Street Art Awards: Artist Clifford Sayer, And God Created Football or Is God a Red or a Blue?
We at Blog Now on Streetpainting.tv would like to ask about the street painting or ‘screeving’ community in Liverpool. Please share with us what is current and popular in your group of artists.
Before you develop a community you have to have precedence and Liverpool has little or no tradition of street painting other than the odd itinerant artist or art student. Up to now the council has always frowned upon working on the streets. Although there have always been artists who have gone out and screeved, it’s never been encouraged. The inspiration to do so has never been there. It says something that this is the first year we’ve worked in Liverpool for over 5 years AND WE LIVE HERE!!
Perhaps things will change now, we’d like to see a street painting community develop but this has to be an organic thing. All I can say is that this competition has created a real buzz amongst artists and we have started to hear them talking about street art in a positive manner. Let’s hope it has a knock on effect.
It seems from your website, that the ‘screevers’ or ‘Gockers’ have a completely different slang and self reference to the art form then we have seen or heard of. Is the lifestyle of these artists similar to say the itinerant street painters from Italy, and/or the street painters who create their art outside the festival system in the United States? What are the similarities and/or the differences?
I would say Yes, a Screever or Gocker would be an itinerant street artist, during the 1930’s slump and just after the second world war hundreds of artists where forced to go out onto the streets to make a living or just to eat . We have some interesting British Pathe News footage from around 1948 which illustrates this point perfectly. Don’t know much about itinerant artists in the US or Italy but I would imagine they are one and the same.
Please tell us the unique history of these terms ‘screever’ and ‘gocker’. Blog Now heard the term ‘screever’ from pavement artist Marc Barnes of New Zealand recently, but don’t know the history behind it.
We know the term Screever dates back to the 1700's and is recorded in records held by The Houses of Parliament although we don’t know where the term originates; the term was used in Disney’s 1964 film Mary Poppins by Bert played by Dick van Dyke (the scene where they jump into the street paintings!). We first came across the term Gocker or Gocking in a book called ‘Liverpool’s Irish Connections’ written in 2006 by Liverpool writer Mike Kelly. Mike researched the story of James Carling and found a piece written by James himself in which he describes himself as a ‘Gocking’ or pavement artists. We had never heard of the term before and we suspect the term is local slang. James was the offspring of Irish immigrants escaping the potato famine; the term may even have origins in Ireland.
James Carling as a boy, with his chalks in hand. Photo courtesy of UrbanCanvas.
Please share with us some information about the Liverpool artist James Carling for our readers. As Carling lived until 1887, are there any historical photographs of any of his pavement work?
James Carling was born of Irish immigrants into abject poverty in 1857, he first went onto the street as a beggar at the age of 5, he showed a talent for art and by the age of 8 he became known as ‘The Little Chalker’ and was well known. At the time Liverpool was full of street urchins begging for coppers just to eat and avoid starvation. James was often beaten up by the police or thrown into prison, pavement artists where regarded as beggars and was against the law. James eventually followed his older brother Henry for a new life in America which took him to Philadelphia and eventually New York where he appeared as a popular chalk, talk performer which took him all over America.
It was in Chicago, at the age of 23 that James entered a competition in Harpers Magazine for illustrations of a special edition of The Raven poem by Edgar Allen Poe. Although James didn’t win the competition his illustrations can still be seen to this day at The Poe Shrine in Richmond, Virginia. James returned to Liverpool and died penniless at the age of 30 in 1857. Ron Formby from The Scottie community Press and Writer Mike Kelly have both tirelessly campaigned to gain greater recognition for James and to this end we now have a gallery set up in Liverpool (The Carling Gallery). The Pavement Art Competition has also gone a long way to establishing the name of James Carling locally.
You can find out more about James Carling on this link.
1st Prize - The Peoples Prize: Artist Stacey Kelly, The Real Liverbird of Liverpool.
Recently, we found a blog post about a Chinese itinerant street painter who is respected by the local viewers in China but still was referred to as a ‘beggar’? Do you feel that the itinerant street painter should have such a title cast upon them when they bring beauty to the city pavements they work upon? Blog Now Note: In some places in Italy street painters can apply and secure a permit for a square that they may street paint upon as they wish in exchange for the tips from passers-by.
The idea of pavement artists being beggars is an historical one and has to be seen in that context. We can’t get away from the fact that pavement art originated out of necessity rather than choice. Artists where forced onto the streets to buy art materials or just to eat and many people lump everybody on the street as beggars. Although to me a beggar is somebody holding out a hand or a cup ‘begging’ for money. I have never seen any pavement artist doing such a thing, they are more busy creating art to be holding anything out and any payment made is usually what I would call ‘voluntary appreciations’. How this can be viewed as begging is beyond me. If you sell a newspaper on the street is that begging? If you create street art it’s exactly the same, you’re creating a product, an image that can be carried away in the mind. As ephemeral as a song or a butterfly on a summers day, a glimpse into another world, a child’s memory of jumping into street paintings, a chance that takes you away from the everyday mundane. Call it anything you want but its certainly not begging!
You have some interesting trivia about street painting, especially the item of Robert Redford’s interest as a pavement artist. We have never heard that in any interview, please tell us more.
I originally read about this in an in-flight magazine, I think we were taking part in the Singapore Arts Festival and I read an article on Robert Redford starting out as a pavement artist when he was 19 in Paris. I hadn’t thought about this until you asked the question but having just done an internet search I found this link from the Times Online which mentions this very fact. I think it would be interesting to write to Redford, not sure how approachable he is but in my experience all street artists are pretty much down to earth and a leopard never changes its spots!
Runner Up - The James Carling Pavement Art Award & The Peoples Prize Award: Artist Alan Murray.
Where do you think that the street painting art form is headed in the coming years?
I’m not sure about the states or other parts of the world but I’m certain from our own experience that street art is gaining a good following in the UK and I can see it eventually becoming part of the mainstream art activities and events, whether that’s a good or bad thing who can tell. As with all these things there are only a handful of people worldwide who are changing people’s perceptions about pavement painting; that’s all you need I suppose but at the moment its certainly the Cinderella of the art world and generally outside the ‘arts establishment’ and as an artist it’s a place I like to be!
About the current trend in 3-D illusionary or anamorphic street paintings...in the US, we hear about ‘that guy on the internet’ usually Julian Beever or Kurt Wenner, but not often by name. Do you see screevers that are doing 3-D style street paintings in Liverpool or the region?
Not a great fan of Anamorphic street art and speaking personally if we had a pound for every time somebody had asked us to do a piece of art like ‘Julian Beever’ we’d be rich. It may look great in photographs or on advertising hoardings but in my opinion it’s a gimmick and I think it does street artists a disservice. There’s more to pavement painting than anamorphic art (500 years worth of history and art for instance) the kind of art we do involves literarily 100’s of complete strangers screeving on the street to create ‘REAL ART’ now that’s what I call ‘magic’.
2nd Runner Up - The Adrian Henri Street Art Awards: Artist Chrisitne Edwards.
Is there a festival system in the U.K.in which there a group of featured or guest artists that travel around to create their work as comparable to the festivals in the USA, Italy, or Mexico?
Not as such, we do have a festival system in the UK but these are mostly performance based events, there are very few street painters on the UK festival circuit, in fact I think we’re the only ones who make a full time living solely from doing visual street art.
From what you hear, do the screevers who compete at your festival follow the activities of other street painters and/or festivals around the world? For example, do any of the screevers attend Grazie, the International Street Painting Competition held each August in Italy?
Many of the artists who have taken part have never done this before so this is a first; I think we are at the start of something good for Liverpool, the planting of seeds and watching them grow, the changing of perceptions and opening artists eyes to the possibilities of pavement painting. Artists have started to ask questions like, ‘do I need a permit to do this?’ or ‘do you know of any other events I can take part in?’. We hope to organize more events like this that will not only encourage a local community of pavement painters but that may even attract an international audience and reputation for international street painters.
Do you have any thoughts or insights about street painting art that we have not brought up in this interview to share with our readers?
Just to say many thanks for asking the ‘right’ questions and taking an interest in our event in Liverpool. We are great fans of streetpainting.tv and often find ourselves ‘dipping in’ to catch up on what’s happening in other parts of the world. It’s a great resource and its people like you that make it all worthwhile.
Best Wishes
Philip Battle & Catherine McMahon (UrbanCanvas)
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