The mural by Glasgow-based street artist Smug is in the Cavern Quarter
Street art is becoming a big part of Liverpool's landscape and the latest addition to this giant canvas is a piece by Sam Bates, aka Smug or Smug One. The Glasgow based artist has created a large-scale mural inspired by Carl Jung’s famous description of Liverpool’s "Pool of Life", and the inspiration of this on one of the oldest and most creative neighbourhoods that surrounds it, the Cavern Quarter.
The area was such a melting pot of music/fashion and counterculture that it is fitting the mural will be located there.
The mural on Harrington Street has been co-commissioned by Culture Liverpool and Liverpool BID Company on behalf of the Beatles Legacy Group to explore the extraordinary history of this area, from the global music explosion it defined in the 60s to it becoming the centre of Liverpool’s ground-breaking and culturally defining counterculture of the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Known for his photo realism graffiti work, Smug is an Australian contemporary street artist of great skill, based in Glasgow. He was also behind one of New Brighton's most famous murals - "Unsung Heroes" - a portrait of local RNLI member Mike Jones to mark his 40-year service volunteering at the New Brighton Lifeboat station.
Smug's latest street art in Liverpool was created using nothing but spray cans. The mural hints at the area’s layered history drawing on names like Erics and The Cavern which draw tourists from across the world, but also adds greater depth in exposing the layers of history, architecture, commerce and trade which made up Carl Jung’s "Pool of Life".
The 1927 essay by Jung was judged to be describing a place “into which many streets converged” as Mathew Street and Rainford Square in the Cavern Quarter do. Poet and artist, Peter O’Halligan, who founded the Liverpool School of Language, Music, Dream and Pun on the site of the former Fruit Exchange warehouse on Victoria Street, popularised the use of the phrase in the 70s to describe the neighbourhood. In 2012, a plaque to mark Jung’s ‘Pool of Life’ was unveiled nearby in the Cavern Quarter.
Peter Hooton, lead singer of The Farm and chair of The Beatles Legacy Group, said he was pleased that Smug had chosen to interpret Carl Jung’s "Pool of Life’ dream.
Hooton said, "The area has had such a cultural impact on the world from the Cavern in the 60s to Eric’s/The Armadillo/Harrington Bar/Probe/Wade Smith in the 70s 80s and 90s.
"The area was such a melting pot of music/fashion and counterculture that it is fitting the mural will be located there and people will be able to guess at the references in the artwork.”
To see more of Smug's artwork visit their Instagram: @SmugOne
Read next: Paint the town: the best street art in Liverpool
Read again: The seaside town whose street art has united a community
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