Sandown artist, Tony Trowbridge tells us that the manager of the Ryde Youth Centre has said his artwork is inappropriate. What do you think? Tony tells us more, in his own words. Ed
With only 24 hours notice and even less time before Saturday evening’s benefit event, I took up the challenge to paint the backdrop of the stage of the Ryde Youth Centre with a bright and colourful composition.
Ryde Youth Centre is on the Isle of Wight council’s list of buildings earmarked for closure and I agreed to participate in this last-bid attempt to raise its profile to keep it open.
A perfect blank canvas
The paint was flaking off the walls and the back of the stage was a plain gun metal grey. A perfect blank canvas.
At 8.30am on Saturday 28th May, armed with hundreds of stencils and little idea of how the painting was going to take shape, I began painting. Shortly after midday I added the final touches to the super saturated piece of work to the delight of passers by and young onlookers.
Backdrop for Kangaroo Moon
The 18ft by 12ft piece of contemporary art was the backdrop for the bands and choir that performed that evening. The evening included a superb line up from Island band Godfrenzy to the melodious voices of the Medina High Community Choir.
The highlight of the evening was a fabulous performance from Kangaroo Moon, a folk band with strong Celtic and aboriginal influences who have toured extensively in Europe and Australia.
The band who played the Rhythm Tree festival last year and Glastonbury in 2008, praised the artwork behind them and said of it “quite stunning”.
“Inappropriate for a youth centre”
However, despite total support from the bands, choir, audience and general public for the backdrop I’d created; the manager of the Youth Centre condemned it as “inappropriate for a youth centre” and said it will need to be painted over before the Youth Centre opens tomorrow (Tuesday 31st May).
I offered to change some of the images he found offensive. He just kept saying, no it has to go before anyone sees it.
What do you think?
Click on images for larger versions
