A street artist travelled from Palestine to Glasgow to unveil a brand new mural inspired by his 'precious' homeland over the weekend.
Taqi Spateen brought his artistic talent to the city and created a large-scale mural in the east end - with its exact location on Stevenson Street near to Barrowlands Gate.
He collaborated with Ciaran Glöbe, one of the artists behind the fake Banksy which appeared near Buchanan Street last June, to bring his vision to life and will work with other local artists across the UK.
The artist is liasing with fellow creatives about the plans, both logistical and artistic, for the murals being created.
Graffiti art is a major cultural force in Palestine. In August 2005, UK street artist Banksy and his team painted seven large murals on a section of the 440-miles-long West Bank Wall, also referred to as the Separation Wall. Since then, the wall has gone on to become a hotspot for the graffiti scene.
Taqi has created many murals on the wall including 'The Boy with the Goldfish Bowl' - showing a child with what is left after the destruction of his childhood home - a series of portraits of George Floyd, and his collaboration with the brand The North Face 'Walls Are Meant For Climbing'.
Now creating and exhibiting internationally, he draws inspiration from the Palestinian countryside, particularly the olive tree, one of the most famous of all Palestinian symbols. His more recent paintings also include depictions of mass urbanisation and colonial settlements on his precious homeland.
Taqi's talent is being showcased as part of the Bethlehem Cultural Festival - set up in 2020 to put the artists, arts and culture of Palestine and Bethlehem centre stage.
The Festival’s creative director, Melissa Scott, says: "We are excited to be able to facilitate collaborations between Taqi and UK-based street artists.
"We hope the resulting murals will be a lasting legacy demonstrating our hopes to eliminate the walls and borders that divide us as humans. We continue to be devastated by the violence inflicted on all our friends, artists and cultural practitioners in Palestine."
He will now head to Bristol to work with a team of artists as part of Upfest, Europe’s largest street art and graffiti festival. On Saturday (June 1) he goes to Stroud to work with Stroud Valleys Artspace (SVA) and the Picturedrome Theatre in Gloucester.
From June 6 to 15, he will be teaming up with Austrailian-born artist Jimmy C in London.
Taqi Spateen brought his artistic talent to the city and created a large-scale mural in the east end - with its exact location on Stevenson Street near to Barrowlands Gate.
He collaborated with Ciaran Glöbe, one of the artists behind the fake Banksy which appeared near Buchanan Street last June, to bring his vision to life and will work with other local artists across the UK.
The artist is liasing with fellow creatives about the plans, both logistical and artistic, for the murals being created.
Graffiti art is a major cultural force in Palestine. In August 2005, UK street artist Banksy and his team painted seven large murals on a section of the 440-miles-long West Bank Wall, also referred to as the Separation Wall. Since then, the wall has gone on to become a hotspot for the graffiti scene.
Taqi has created many murals on the wall including 'The Boy with the Goldfish Bowl' - showing a child with what is left after the destruction of his childhood home - a series of portraits of George Floyd, and his collaboration with the brand The North Face 'Walls Are Meant For Climbing'.
Now creating and exhibiting internationally, he draws inspiration from the Palestinian countryside, particularly the olive tree, one of the most famous of all Palestinian symbols. His more recent paintings also include depictions of mass urbanisation and colonial settlements on his precious homeland.
Taqi's talent is being showcased as part of the Bethlehem Cultural Festival - set up in 2020 to put the artists, arts and culture of Palestine and Bethlehem centre stage.
The Festival’s creative director, Melissa Scott, says: "We are excited to be able to facilitate collaborations between Taqi and UK-based street artists.
"We hope the resulting murals will be a lasting legacy demonstrating our hopes to eliminate the walls and borders that divide us as humans. We continue to be devastated by the violence inflicted on all our friends, artists and cultural practitioners in Palestine."
He will now head to Bristol to work with a team of artists as part of Upfest, Europe’s largest street art and graffiti festival. On Saturday (June 1) he goes to Stroud to work with Stroud Valleys Artspace (SVA) and the Picturedrome Theatre in Gloucester.
From June 6 to 15, he will be teaming up with Austrailian-born artist Jimmy C in London.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 My name is Takis Bateen.
00:09 I'm from Bethlehem, Palestine.
00:11 I came to Glasgow to be part of Bethlehem Cultural Festival
00:14 to paint some murals to exchange the cultural between Bethlehem
00:18 Palestinian vision and meeting some artists here from Glasgow.
00:24 How's the mural painting went?
00:27 Very smooth and unexpected.
00:29 Yeah, so much energetic coming from the hearts of people
00:33 here, especially in this place, Baras Marketplace.
00:37 It's really nice.
00:38 There's many concepts here.
00:40 It's like planting a new seed for a new generation,
00:43 a new community, building up the destroyed house.
00:48 It's talking about the vision coming from Gaza.
00:51 It's happening every day and every night, every morning.
00:55 People just kick out from their houses,
00:58 returning to their houses.
01:00 And unfortunately, it was demolishing.
01:03 And they're starting to restore their houses,
01:06 to find some furniture between the rubbles
01:10 to make a new restoration for staying at home.
01:14 Seeing through this wall, like other people,
01:17 how they are living in this place,
01:20 and even that you are having a very low quality of life,
01:25 just look at this mural, and you can figure out
01:28 how that you are lucky to be here with this safety
01:33 and with justice.
01:34 You said you get a warm welcome in Glasgow,
01:37 but you had to put up with some rain last night.
01:39 It was very raining last night, heavy rain.
01:43 But even that, we were working under the rain.
01:46 I didn't feel that.
01:48 I feel I'm in a mission, and this mission
01:51 should be done today.
01:53 It is speaking about behalf of my people.
01:57 So my people, when they're seeing this happening in Glasgow,
02:05 they will give me also appreciation,
02:07 and they will feel good with it.
02:10 Here in Glasgow, I did this because I
02:12 know Scottish people caring about Palestinian,
02:16 and to keep going for fighting for us, to support us,
02:20 to build the huge mountain of justice.
02:25 Really beautiful people in Glasgow.
02:28 That was unexpected things.
02:30 Many people told me you will be happy in Glasgow,
02:33 but it's more than be beautiful.
02:36 My name is Kieran Glabell, and I'm a sign writer and mural
02:39 painter from here in Glasgow.
02:41 Well, we're here today in front of Taki Spatine's mural.
02:46 Taki is an artist from Bethlehem in the occupied West
02:49 Bank of Palestine.
02:51 And he's been in Glasgow for a week now.
02:54 This is the second of his murals,
02:57 and we're here in the barracks.
03:00 And he's just finishing up right now.
03:02 My involvement in the project has
03:04 been a bit of project management, actually.
03:07 It was myself that sourced the walls for Taki.
03:10 I gathered up all the materials that he needed.
03:13 I had a dialogue with him about what his requirements were,
03:16 and basically getting him coffee and washing his brushes.
03:21 Within the mural scene in Glasgow,
03:23 there is quite a diversity in the themes of the street art
03:28 that's being created.
03:29 Some of it is politically driven.
03:32 Some of it is more decorative.
03:35 But I think Taki strikes a really nice balance
03:37 between the two.
03:39 He doesn't paint with overt political messaging.
03:43 But if you look hard enough within his work,
03:45 you will identify themes.
03:48 The themes that he--
03:50 coming from where he does, he paints a lot
03:53 with the themes around conflict and occupation,
03:55 things like that.
03:57 And it just seems to be a really good way of bridging
04:01 a gap between the images that we see every day on our TV screens
04:06 and phones, and actually presenting it
04:08 in a manner that's a wee bit more
04:11 conducive to understanding in a more meaningful way
04:15 when it's through the form of public art.
04:17 His work's been received really well so far,
04:20 especially in an area like the barracks that
04:22 has a real history to it.
04:26 The locals here, a lot of them you'll
04:28 find are born and raised in this area,
04:31 and they still stay here to this day.
04:33 So they have great pride in their area.
04:35 And so, so far, speaking to people,
04:38 they're really heartened by the fact
04:41 that someone would come all the way from Palestine
04:43 and paint a mural in their neighborhood.
04:45 Since we've been here, a lot of people have passed by.
04:48 I'd say half of them have understood straight away
04:51 that we could be looking at an image, for instance,
04:54 from Gaza, and perhaps the other half
04:56 need a little bit more time and guidance to find it.
04:58 But that's good.
04:59 That's what the balance is all about.
05:01 You shouldn't have to spoon feed it to the audience.
05:03 You should create the work and let
05:05 them interpret it in the way that they want.
05:07 Taki uses all types of paint.
05:09 And so for this particular mural,
05:11 he's been using exterior masonry paint
05:14 with a little bit of spray paint to add details here and there.
05:18 And in terms of the brushes that he uses,
05:21 Taki will use anything from a couple of centimeters
05:25 thick brush to a four-inch brush.
05:27 And also, I noticed he uses his finger sometimes as well.
05:31 And so anything around him he can use,
05:33 he'll utilize in order to make it look correct.
05:37 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:40 [MUSIC PLAYING]