East End artist to celebrate Barking's 'Lost Heritage' in East Street
Jake Attewell (also known as Itaewon) will be designing and installing a ‘Street Art’ style mural representing ‘Barking’s Lost Heritage’ on the wall of McDonald’s Restaurant, East Street, in 2021! Substantial funding has been received from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to commission this Heritage Wall as part of the Barking Town Heritage Project.
You may recall that the Heritage Wall Brief was launched in Oct 2020. We received 14 submissions which were carefully considered by a short-listing panel (of ten), including Council and Be First staff, Barking Heritage Volunteers, and members of the local community. Six candidates were then interviewed by the project’s panel, and we are now pleased to introduce the successful candidate…
Jake is a gifted and industrious young artist, who grew up in South Korea, graduated from Arts University College Bournemouth, and is based in Stratford. He is a visual artist, who paints street murals and studio-based works, which suggest, ‘a layered accumulation of architectural references, combined with aspects of graffiti’ - he has exhibited and curated two solo exhibitions of his artwork. One of his most recent mural commissions was his Clara Grant mural in Bow, designed and installed for the London Mural Festival, last autumn.
On receiving the Barking commission Jake said,
“I am extremely honoured to have been chosen to complete The Barking Heritage Mural Project. It is extremely important that we take interest in history, whether it be local, foreign, or natural, as it provides us the key to understanding how the world around us has come to be. There are so many beautiful elements to Barking's history that I wish to include… I'm very much looking forward to getting started as it is such a great location and I believe I can create something that Barking residents can be really proud of. “
The local community will also get the opportunity to choose the final design to be painted on the Heritage Wall, by taking part in a vote organised by the artist, and there will be opportunities for local people and students to engage with him throughout this process…
Tamara Fround, a popular mosaic artist, who has installed several works around the borough in recent years, has also been awarded a commission to create a mosaic heritage trail - linking historic Barking (Town Quay, Abbey Green & Curfew Tower) with the Heritage Wall mural in Short Blue Place. This community inspired trail will also be largely funded by the Heritage Fund as part of their Barking Townscape Heritage Project!
You may have noticed that our project page's main photograph depicts John King's display of Barking's Heritage in 1931, commissioned to celebrate the Barking Charter and royal visit that year. His store listed as 35 East Street, was probably situated next to Fawley House (before it was divided into 33 & 35) in the gap which is now Short Blue Place. It is fitting then that Barking's latest celebration of its heritage will be painted on the facing wall in Short Blue Place, ninety years later!
These new art works will not only celebrate Barking’s past heritage, but also represent a bright future for Barking - as somewhere which celebrates art and culture and works with the local community to create a better place to be…
https://www.barkinganddagenhampost.co.uk/news/barking-heritage-mural-design-winner-announced-7327440
