Kelburn Castle in Scotland started out as a stone building around 1200 AD. By 1581 AD a grander castle had been constructed by David Boyle, a time when the family was emerging from relative obscurity and beginning to wield some influence within the local community. Fast forward 426 years to the present owners of the castle, a Lord Glasgow and his two children, Alice and David. David had the idea of somehow getting Banksy to do a small piece on the side of the castle (most likely to attract visitors to the castle). A year later David received the book, Graffiti Brasil, featuring the work of Brazilian graffiti geniuses Os Gemeos and Nina Pandolfo and Nunca.
Circumstances ended up working favorably for David, and the outside of the castle needed to be re-harled, which means the outside protective pebbledash needed to be taken off and replaced. He contacted the biggest names in Brazil, and the Graffiti Project was born.
This is such an awesome idea. Transplanting 3 amazing South American artists and letting them go to town on a 500 year old castle in Scotland! I’m most excited for Os Gemeos, who’s large scale paintings of giant yellow faces are so rad. I can already imagine the castle turret being turned into a giant yellow man with wallpaper patterned pants with his shirt over his head (See above, duh).
The painting beginss on May 12th, and goes for 30 days.m I’m not really sure how long the pieces will stay up, but I would love to be able to check this out at some point. For a ton of info on the project, go to The Graffiti Project home page.