Original artwork description:

Mala Sen, equality activist and housing campaigner, is one of the people featured in the Whitechapel Stories Heritage Mural, that I painted in April 2025. I was asked if I would like to apply for the doing the mural, I am known for doing a number of murals in East London UK, 20 artists applied and then 3 shortlisted, I did a presentation in front of 11 people who were the mural panel. The local residents and tenants association of Johns Place, a local estate, had the vision for doing a mural back in 2020 when Covid Lockdowns changed people's lives. The residents were faced with an unpleasant large wall half covered in grafitti and tagging, everytime they left the estate. Joining together with a local historian they wrote a successful bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund. Once they had the funding they went out to find a suitable artist, I had worked in a community context for 30 years as a community and public artist and I was used to managing creative projects with local groups.
By Mid March I had made 6-8 versions of the design adding new elements each time and trying out different composition ideas. The scaffolding went up on 14th March and in three weeks we had painted the mural, my wife Margy was my assistant. When the mural was finished, I made a small series of works reflecting on the experience of painting the mural, in these works the mural image is partially featured, and some of the characters from the mural and activites from community life are depicted.

Materials used:

oil paint

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