GRAFITTI, street art, vandalism... or the theatre of the urban streets?
However you prefer to viewl it, the form has never been celebrated with its own festival. Not in Liverpool anyway and certainly not as part of a DTi-led International Festival For Business.
MARKIT is all these things and more and it launches this Friday (June 27) onto the streets, walls and industrial buildings of the Baltic Triangle, promising to a) brighten it up b) enthuse and enthrall.
Describing itself as "a carnival of the built environment, of the history written in every brick and every hole, this festival celebrates the hidden creativity of the agitprop and the argybargy in art", it says here.
Part of the IFB culture strand and with additional support from Baltic Creative CIC, continues over the weekend of 28-29 June with intense activity and will run throughout July with a range of events and surprises.
The Rusty Alexander
Embracing the dynamic between arts and industry - several of the projects are in partnership with local businesses - MARKIT encourages artists to engage and converse with the public through art.
It is a must for anyone itching to get their hands on a few tins of spray paint and learn from the masters or just observe some of the top players in what, for many, must be the most unusual setting yet - the cold light of day.
Oranisers Tristan and Delia Brady Jacobs will be on hand to create magic out of the mundane.
"Liverpool is famous for its alternative views, its opposition, and its support for the optimist. Street art provides a platform for this mix of sharp humour and creative wit," they say.
Yarn bombing and painting up a storm: the MARKIT events programme
Irony Broadway
Irony One of the country's top street artists, Irony is a famliar figure on the walls of London and across the globe. He will be using the Cains Brewery stables as an open air canvas for a brand new piece.
MAGPIE Debrea Wilson was inspired by the large amount of paste jewellery she was left by her mother. Debrea is repairing the cracks and holes of the Baltic area with jewels embedded in sparkling resin that mimics the look of precious jewels in crystal clear water as well as decorating the trees with jewellery birds nests.
Tomo and Will Johnston Award winning local artists Tomo and Will are taking on a large paint piece on the wall of the Liverpool Cabins site on Jamaica Street - another patron of the Festival - who are also providing a complaints-shed and the end of their site for a giant pasteup from the Critter Shed.
Pasteups As well as the members of the Critter Shed - (a group of local designers and illustrators) and HOBO there will be pasteups sprouting across the area. Festival patron Cains Brewery has provided a major wall of their site for a huge octopus by Alex Wynne. HOBO has created a floating baby installation on Park Lane and found photographs from Liverpool studios of the 1920s will appear here there and everywhere. Members of critter shed will also be installing large and beautiful black and white illustrated boards.
Speed Dazzle Celebrated local artist Pamela Sullivan is installing the remarkable 'Dazzle' motorboat - a tribute to the larger version in Liverpool Biennial - outside the Baltic Creative - bedded with flowers and recycled decorations.
Yarn Bombing Curated by the twisted stichers and an army of knitters, this group are taking on all of the trees on Park Lane/Jamaica Street area leading down to Liverpool One, turning them into a colourful parade of wool and tremendous skill.
Sharon Birch-Old Sharon’s unique take on lost-and-found features an abandoned bicycle morphing into a knitted relic 15 feet up!
SSOSVA The political art collective Secret Society of Super Villain Artists takes over the old Pilkington glass factory with wit and energy.
Tree Sprites by the dozen will pop up in a copse of trees - charming and sweet these will be fleeting visitors to the Dock Road at the edge of the Baltic Triangle.
HOBO Tiny versions of a street artist will be sprayed across a secret location. Edging along walls, peering round corners, stretching up for the lift button and flitting round lights, these 8 inch high figures are designed to provoke curiosity and conversation in the residents of an entire apartment block, prior to an art intervention and a community engagement later in the Festival.
Rally Bikes Peloton Poverty' Made by local street artist Winston Ludd, this swarm of bicycles with concrete wheels will be installed outside Unit51 and the Baltic Creative. Visually exciting and politically engaged - in Winston’s words "It depicts a bicycle ride in protest of the rising poverty crisis in the UK as a result of current government policies."
LEMON COLLECTIVE The effervescent arts group will be bringing back their lemon submarine as well as a new theatre caravan for live performance and art on the streets of the area.
Portraits Curated by NAME, a large number of publically submitted portraits will be hung in an open air gallery on Flint Street.
LOVEARTUK A new sculpture from the irrepressible purveyor of LOVE and art
RUSTY ALEXANDER a visit from this wonderful recycled art bus
SHED installation A combination of lights and Perspex in the shape of sheds will be installed in the Liverpool Cabins site.
INKBEAT live life drawing on the opening parade with the city's newest art event
URBAN CANVAS Liverpool’s own chalk artistes will be working on the pavements of Jamaica Street on Saturday and Sunday
LA BOMBA Music from the Liverpool all female drum group
DRAW THE LINE hosting live art on tables in and outside Unit51
