RUN Is Latest Artist-In-Resident In Grow's Eco-Pod
Grow are pleased to welcome Giacomo Bufarini aka RUN as Grow’s latest Artist-In-Residence at the Grow Eco Pod in Hackney Wick. The pod was designed by local environmental architecture practice, Studio Bark and has been offered by Grow for local artists to develop their practice and respond to the environment in a free residency since 2017.
ABOUT RUN
RUN's career spans over twenty years - from his beginnings painting on walls and trucks in his homeland of Italy to the international reputation he has now that has seen him working on projects across the world from China to Senegal and become one of the most popular graffiti and mural artists in his adopted home of east London. There can't be many residents of Hackney and Shoreditch who haven't marveled at his signature crowds of heads or iconic running figures, reminiscent of Italian Futurism and the classic Mexican Muralists but reimagined for the fast pace of city life in the twenty first century.
ABOUT THE RESIDENCY
RUN has been working in the Grow Eco Pod on drawings, paintings and prints and on a three metre wall adjoining Grow Studios. The project has seen him paint and document three murals and we are gearing up to a live stream of a brand new painting, with artists Q & A on Wednesday 26 August as one of twelve forthcoming 'GROW AT HOME' series of broadcasts (this event is one of the online events supported by the Arts Council Emergency Funding to help Grow reimagine and upskill to deliver online events).
RUN SAYS:
My name is Giacomo Bufarini but for the last twenty years I have added another name to my baptised name: RUN. I did this because I am a street artist or a muralist or a public artist or however people want to call it.
I started my residency at Grow one week before the lockdown and therefore in a pretty chaotic time. We were all quite scared in the first few weeks before any of us could get our heads head around the situation. Obviously it still isnt all fine, I have been up and down, but yes everything has changed and I feel we are, or I am in a pilot episode were everything can change, stop or be postponed.
My initial idea for my residence it was to create a street parade in Hackney Wick. The start would have been near the overground station, and the end at Grow in front of my studio. I have lived in London for about 13 years but in the last 3 years I have also been in Italy for work and family.
In Italy I have witness lots of processions, street parties and parade. I love flags, not necessarily national flags, but I love the object - like banners in demonstrations, they make me think of comix books where person’s voice is heard by a speech balloon or white cloud coming out of the heads, with words and thoughts. The parade could have been also a way to voice the change that is happening in this place, Hackney wick.
I have been here for long time, making murals (or street art) along with fellow graffiti artists and punks, writing stuff on walls or pasting posters. I think that was the last place in London where things happened out of the norm, still underground and not clean and slick. Of course now that is changed, and soon (hopefully later) myself and the artists that I know will have no more chance to be here and represent this area, which is either narrowing down to zero, or at the least, moving elsewhere. So the parade, was to say farewell but also ironically to say ‘welcome’ to the new inhabitants, in these new box homes - fancy, expensive, cheaply made homes.
It’s fine, I say to myself - we live in a fast world and everything is changing.
One of the most true graffiti statements that I remember was on a bridge down the River Lee saying exactly this ‘The only certainty is change’ -or something similar.
Well after saying that, about the parade, of music on the street, the costumes, banners and flags, the Corona virus completely washed away my idea. I had to be in the studio, which, by the way, was the perfect place to self-isolate. All the building construction stopped and it was surreal. The fear passed and the place was incredibly silent and I remember the beautiful sensation of hearing seagulls and ducks calling, and nothing much else. And yes, on the Thursday the clapping and sometime the music from my neighbours windows. It was relaxing and beautiful.
I was lucky from the beginning to have this amazing opportunity - maybe good karma – anyway, lucky to meet people from long ago that now run Grow, plus new friends, artists and creatives that are still populating this corner of the city. Anyway, I kept on working, drawing everyday, printing from time to time and painting on some walls.
Then, about a month in, I noticed a wall that was, let’s say, abandoned, on the side of Grow Studios. That particular wall inspired an idea. To paint it, not just once, but many times. The size of it suggested that it was something that I could manage. It is A4 scale but 200 times bigger, probably 5m tall x 3 and-a-half metres wide. A size I can paint in a day, with some fresh and quick techniques and a good concept, and keep changing it.
Because at the moment all events are live streaming, after discussing with Grow’s directors and artists we thought that if I paint it and document the process that could be a nice thing to show to people at home. Showing that the art in this place is still alive, showing that we are still keeping on making art and this amazing place is still throwing out creativity.
I have already painted the wall twice and I am planning to make much more, documenting it and filming it. Then in August we will broadcast a live streaming of me painting it, so people can see how is done and can ask questions and talk with me and between them about it.
I think that murals, street art and graffiti are a strong heritage of the Wick that should be kept alive. At the moment it is alive and pumping good vibrations.
That is it. Come and visit with the social distance that we need to maintain, but come and see, come and share and be curious.
Viva
RUN
ABOUT THE ECO POD
The design principles of this low-impact 'U-Build' pod came out of Studio Bark's desire to make construction truly affordable and self-built, opening up the prospect of self-led construction to a greater proportion of the general public. The structure incorporates a long pop-up hatch window (powered by reclaimed car-boot pistons), a modular (locally sourced) Douglas Fir skin, and modular green roof.