Friday 20 July 2012

Wembley's re-cycling graffiti wall ready for Olympics

Readers may be interested in this press release from Seneca, a subsidiary of Careys:

Waste management company Seneca has unveiled a 508-foot long recycling–inspired mural at its materials recycling facility (MRF) in Wembley, North West London, in a bid to tackle a graffiti problem at the site.

The company was approached by the Brent Graffiti Partnership, which includes Brent council, British Transport Police, Network Rail and the Brent Police, to address problems it had been having with vandals spray painting the side of its materials recycling facility (MRF), after it opened in May 2011.
A series of recycling-inspired images have been installed to tackle the graffiti problem at Seneca's Wembley MRF
A series of recycling-inspired images havebeen installed to tackle the graffiti problem at Seneca's Wembley MRF
The facility processes residual waste collected from the West London Waste Partnership, and produces refuse derived fuel that is exported to Europe.

Graffiti

On researching the issue Seneca discovered that graffiti artists consider it bad manners to tag or paint over someone else’s art, and so the idea of creating a street art mural was chosen as a suitable solution to the problem, with all the artwork created using spray paint and stencils.

Artists from across the globe as well as school children from from Harlesden Primary School, Barham Primary School, St. Robert Southwell Catholic Primary School, Roe Green Junior School, Gower House School and Vernon House School have contributed designs and artwork to the project, which includes a sculpture made entirely from material received at the MRF.

The mural overlooks the Jubilee and Metropolitan London underground lines running between Neasdon and Wembley Park and is created entirely from spray paint and recycled materials.

Unveiling the mural, Michael McLarnon, operations manager at the Seneca MRF, said: “The project was created after we had been approached by Brent council’s Graffiti Partnership. The MRF has been targeted by vandals and with the Wembley area highlighted because of the Olympics we thought it was appropriate to do something that engaged with the local community.

“We came up with the idea to create the mural and we are honoured to have artists come from all over the world to take part in this worthwhile project.”

Mural

The mural has taken over 6 months to create, and is thought to be one of the largest outdoor art installations in Europe.

Simon Egbor, Brent council community safety project officer and member of the Graffiti Partnership Board said: “Over three years ago graffiti crime was costing the council in excess of £400,000. This was a real problem and the formation of the Graffiti Partnership Board has managed to focus both council and external partners in not only cleaning graffiti but setting up operations to identify graffiti vandals and enforce action.

“We approached Seneca with this idea as the use of murals in graffiti hot spots has proven to be a successful deterrent. This is illustrated by past murals that we have commissioned including one on Harley Road, Harlesden.”

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