Street art: Outdoor murals competition concludes

Over 75 institutions from within city along with teams each from four other cities, participate.

LAHORE:

“A local record was set by painting a 976-feet wall in Dharampura on March 6,” said Mudassir Zia, one of the organisers of the Street Art Competition, a campaign against ugly wall chalking, organised by the Message Welfare Trust and Master Paints. It ended this week.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Zia said that the painters had wanted to go for a world record, but that was not possible this year. He hoped to attempt that next year.

Zia said that it was the second year the painting competition had been organised. Last year, he said, students from Punjab University won the first prize.

“We have had more students this year, showing the competition has gained popularity among students,” he said.

Since March 6, around 1,220 participants in the campaign have been coming together every Sunday to paint 250 walls around the city.

Three weeks on, these walls have images of our cultural and architectural heritage and peace messages.

Over 75 institutions from within the city along with four teams each from Gujrat, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Islamabad participated in the competition.

The painters were given themes such as culture, monuments, education, peace, gates of Lahore and truck art.

Muhammad Nazim, another organiser, said that the campaign had two equally important motives, improving the city’s looks and involving students in constructive activity.

“Wall chalking give a negative impression about the city. We wanted to do away with nasty inscriptions on the walls that make the city look grimy,” he said.

The prize distribution ceremony is scheduled for April 10, where the best painter will be awarded Rs25,000.

Aslam Chaudhry, one of the spectators, said that watching the students paint the walls had been fun for a number of people like him. Though it involved hard work, he said, the paintings failed to convey a message and looked messy from a distance. For commuters to be able to appreciate them, the paintings should be larger, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 28^th, 2011.