St Johns Road,
The Pleasance, Edinburgh 1996

This project happened in a rather spontaneous fashion towards the end of October 1996 involving MSCreative and The world renowned Artist Mode 2 based in Paris at the time. Mode 2 was taking part in the Edinburgh Graffiti Art event "Keepers Of The Funk" organised by Chris Young the event had a host of names from through out Europe and the UK painting in Edinburgh for one long weekend. The main event took place at the New Street Car Park underneath the Old Bongo Club Site and another informal Jam took place at the Drylaw Tunnels involving European Artists, UK and and Local talent.

During the event MSCreative were approached by Hazel Wetherspoon from the Out Of The Blue Arts organisation about painting a large hoarding site on St Johns Road (near the Pleasance) for a new flat development by Morrison Construction. We felt it would be a great opportunity to create a piece of work involving the talents of visiting Artist Mode 2 and ourselves in an amazing visible Old Town location. We believed this would be a chance to show the public what is possible with aerosol paint and lift the image of Graffiti Art in the capital.

Mode worked up the designs over a two day period drawing inspiration from a variety of locations in the city ; The Shore, Leith, Granton, The High Street, Easter Road, Calton Hill and Arthurs Seat are all featured in this unique piece of Art alongside Mode's signature figurative work ; a jogger running uphill, revellers making there way home on the high street and a flying pregnant woman seemingly floating of the Crags at Arthurs Seat among a stream of autumn leaves (The Title for the mural).

The mural took around one week to complete the artists had to deal with torrential rain mostly everyday some parts were painted under street light in the late evening to ensure it was completed on time. The artwork should have included Mode 2's right hand painting partner Echo another Parisian Graffiti Writer who was in Edinburgh for the Event unfortunately due to time constraints and the rain Echo never got a chance to paint the site, Mode added Echo's name to left side of the mural.

The mural was a great success and was definitely a talking point for some years till the site was taken down, this is probably the first time the artwork has been documented fully. I think you will agree this is the sort of artwork Edinburgh could do with more of.

Check our site for other works in the capital by Mode2 at the Festival Theatre in 1999.

*More work from Mode 2 can be found at mode2.org

∗ Warning:
Some artworks contain material of an adult nature unsuitable for viewers under the age of 18.