14/07/15
Spray Painting Philosophy
In downtown Shoreditch, French-Tunisian street artist eL Seed is transforming a dull grey wall into a colourful mural. He has already translated a quote from the English philosopher John Locke into Arabic, sprayed it in the shape of a circle, and is filling the spaces between the letters with pinks, yellows and blues. Locke's quote reads: "It is one thing to show a man that he is in an error, and another to put him in possession of the truth." eL Seed says the quote addresses "collective and social responsibility and responsible ways to change minds", which resonates with recent events in Tunisia. The swirling Arabic script is the signature part of his work so it's hard to believe eL Seed only learnt how to read and write classical Arabic around ten years ago: "I had the desire to get back to my roots," he told me over Skype several weeks ago. [ read more ]