a mural with a black and white rendering of a child pinning beige photos to a line with red clothespins

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Art

#murals
#public art
#street art

June 17, 2024

Grace Ebert

a mural with a black and white rendering of a child pinning beige photos to a line with red clothespins

Millo. Image © Clarke Joss Photography. All images courtesy of Nuart Aberdeen, shared with permission

As heritage passes from one generation to another, it transforms and reshapes itself to fit within a contemporary milieu. For Nuart Aberdeen 2024, organizers embraced the dynamic nature of culture and traditions and invited 11 artists to reflect on the concept.

“Living Heritage” was the theme of this year’s street art festival, which “incorporates the parts of our shared past that live in the present—everyday rituals and practices, cultural expressions, celebrations, festivals, stories, songs, and craft that help to define who we are,” says director and curator Martyn Reed. “These don’t have to be as old as time. This is heritage that lives in the present.”

Included were artists like Millo, who painted his signature black-and-white scene punctuated by brown photographs evoking his own experiences and the city’s history. Hera similarly references local culture as she places a unicorn, Scotland’s national animal, in the arms of a doe-eyed figure.

Joined by the local community, Bahia Shehab created a bold and timely mural with a stanza from a poem by Palestinian writer Mahmoud Darwish. The text reads, “You are forgotten, as if you never existed,” against a backdrop evoking a watermelon, a Palestinian symbol of resistance.

Find more from the 2024 festival on Instagram.

 

a green and white graphic depiction of a Palestinian poem

Bahia Shehab. Image © Brian Tallman

a black and white line drawing of a man holding a child on his shoulders who reaches into the air

Mahn Kloix. Image © Brian Tallman

a mythological figure with a bull head in one hand and a spear in another on a light blue wall

KMG. Image © Brian Tallman

a large-eyed girl in a blue hoodie cradles a unicorn with a tree in front of them

Hera. Image © Clarke Joss Photography

a trompe leoil mural that appears like a craggy face although it doubles as a craggy mountainous landscape

Cbloxx. Image © Brian Tallman

a portrait of a locan artist with his hand cradling his face near a nighttime street

Case Maclaim. Image © Brian Tallman

#murals
#public art
#street art

 

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