Street Art in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada

 

St. John is rich in street art, not only murals and graffiti, but also statues, but I'm more interested in graffiti and murals. The first picture, located on McBride's Hill, had been painted in memory of the Great Fire of 1892. It started at a bundle of hay and then devastated a major section of the town [1].

St. John's encourages art with „a public call to individual artists and commercial galleries for submissions of artwork to be considered for purchase by the City for inclusion in the Civic Art Collection“ [2] or even hiring artists to create murals as these reduce unwanted graffiti. I have touched this topic in a blogpost eight years ago: Buchforst and the Murals [Buchforst und die Wandmalerei], in which I wondered: „The murals in the underpass on the east side of Buchforst likely require regular maintenance“ [3]. I don't like if people put their tags across pieces of street art. I think it's very disrespectful. I could live well with graffiti on shabby grey concrete walls. 

I didn't see all of the murals but some picture I'd like to share. There are more to be found on the internet [4].

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/trip-ideas/travel-stories/public-art-in-newfoundland-and-labrador 
[2] https://www.stjohns.ca/en/recreation-culture/public-art.aspx  
[3] Buchforst und die Wandmalerei [Buchforst and the Murals]
https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2017/05/buchforst-und-die-wandmalerei.html  (Text in German)
[4] Murals
https://www.instagram.com/nlstreetart/?hl=de  
Graffiti
https://www.instagram.com/graffiti_stjohns/?hl=de  

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Murals or Street Art in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

 

I have a long interest to look at street or murals, even in my home town [1]. Such murals are hard to maintain as they are prone to be overpainted with tags; actually the nicer the mural the more it serves as aattractor to tags. I don't like tags. I like art and street art is art – sometimes you have to convince people. Two other locations for me had been Quito in Ecuador [2] and Tiblisi in Georgia [3].

Some of the pictures I show here have pendants on an internet arttour [4] as some picture are painted at "The Art Hub" at 1580 Grafton Street and have been part of the 2025 Halifax Mural Festival. I have missed quite a lot of paintings, but as city like Halifax is bigger than an art gallery this is to be expected [5].

Have fun walking through Halifax and keep looking for street art! 

Links and Annotations:
[1] Just for pictures as the texts are in German.
Buchforst und die Wandmalerei
http://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2017/05/buchforst-und-die-wandmalerei.html   
Wandmalereien in Buchforst
https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2017/08/wandmalereien-in-buchforst.html 
[2] Ecuador – Street Art in Quito
https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2025/01/ecuador-street-art-in-quito.html 
[3] Street Art in Tiblisi, Georgia 
https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2024/11/street-art-in-tiblisi-georgia.html 
[4] https://downtownhalifax.ca/arttour 
[5] You might also look here:
https://www.halifaxmuralfestival.ca/murals 
https://www.instagram.com/halifaxmuralfestival/?hl=de  
https://quinpoolroad.ca/business-on-quinpool/quinpool-mural-walk/ 

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Ecuador – Street Art in Quito

 

Unfortunately, I only stayed in Quito for a short time on both visits, so I don't have many photos of street art from there. I'm sure I'll find some from other places, but first I want to share the ones I found.

I have two politically motivated pictures.
One was created by a muralist. The text translates as: "Rights are demanded on your feet, never on your knees." That's a saying I completely agree with. Such large murals are usually commissioned. A few months ago I heard an interesting podcast on Estacion Sur in Spanish called "Muralistas en Alemania" [1]. I previously reported on the murals in the suburb of Cologne where I grew up (Köln-Buchforst) [2].
The second wall is covered with slogans, but they are very carefully executed. The translation is: "We should, if we can, wage a war of virtue, trying in every engagement to overcome the enemy with honesty, faith and generosity. / The more liberated a people is, the more enlightened it is."

Then I have two more pictures with a very detailed hummingbird and then two indigenous women. To my chagrin the paint is already peeling off the wall.

There are even more beautiful pictures to admire in Quito. I would try my luck in La Floresta, one of the newer barrios, the next time I'll visit Quito. And then I found a map by Street Art Cities for Quito [3], in which you can sort out some beautiful photos, but more photos would have to be added here; so I'd like to encourage people to share their pictures. But you can already use the map as a guide to where more murals might be.

I will certainly look through my 6000 or so pictures from Ecuador in the near future to see if I can find any street art outside of Quito to share.

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://www.ardaudiothek.de/episode/cosmo-en-espa-ol/muralistas-en-alemania/cosmo/13786481/
[2] Just for pictures as the texts are in German.
Buchforst und die Wandmalerei
http://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2017/05/buchforst-und-die-wandmalerei.html  
Wandmalereien in Buchforst
https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2017/08/wandmalereien-in-buchforst.html  
[3] https://streetartcities.com/cities/quito

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Street Art inside the Arctic Circle

 

Inside the Arctic Circle you have lots of sun hours during summer and lots of darkness during winter. I've seen nice libraries full of light and illumination, also by the books you may read there. And I've found at least a few pieces of street art during my short visit to the north of Norway / Lofoten. Colorful walls, light, and street art may help to cope or even prevent the winter depression due to the lack or better the absence of sunlight. During summer the bright pictures may even attract more views. The first picture has been near a supermarket on the left side. „Ikke glem å pust!“ mean: Don't forget to breathe!“

I'll put more notes underneath the pictures.

 

Near the Polarmuseet Tromsø -
Roald Amundsen behind a large heap of snow

I guess the artist had been invited

This is uninvited near the art of the upper picture

The next three pictures are from Sortland, which has an art project
called Blåbyen, which means blue city,
and besides this street art you find houses painted blue

This is most probably a door that isn't used anymore,
it is opposite of a kindergarden.

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Street Art in Tallinn

 

One of my brothers and sister-in-law had visited Tallinn a year ago and raved about the street art there [1]. Actually, I only came back with one important photo of street art and when I showed it to them, they said, oh, we didn't see that one. But I missed the spontaneous strett art. Actions where artists really put art on the walls without completely having planned it for a client, like the example I'm showing here. Anyway, the picture itself on the wall is beautiful and I hope it stays there for a long time. And what else? I took a few more photos, which I'll come to in a moment.

But first I'd like to talk a little about Tallinn itself. Tallinn is the capital of Estonia [2] and thus also the most populous city in the country. Tallinn used to be called Reval. We'll look at Reval and Tallinn etymologically in a jiffy. For me as a child and teenager, Reval was more the name of a cigarette brand [3]. The Reval brand and the Roth Händle brand were considered strong, but I can't find out how strong, because the half-hearted conscience of industry and politics agreed on upper limits for tar content and nicotine levels instead of banning cigarettes altogether. There was a joke: "Anyone who smokes Reval will eat small children too." I think that all cigarette brands, no matter how "light", or smoking products in general are detrimental to health. I have just revived an old article about ginseng cigarettes, because the writing on the pack simultaneously lists health risks and makes claims about how much these cigarettes are good for your health [4]. In 1976 a Reval cigarette cost around €0.06 in Germany, now a cigarette costs €0.45 - still too cheap!

Tallinn means Danish castle. And that goes back to Danish rule after the Battle of Lyndanisse [5] in 1219. Reval comes from the Estonian Rafala. The German form Reval was used internationally (adapted in each case), because Tallinn received city and trading rights from Lübeck and the Hanseatic League in 1248. The place itself has certainly been inhabited for 5000 years.

And what else am I showing? A painting on the wall of a church; would you call anything but street art?! And historical at that! On my last trips I saw a lot of anti-Russian street art, i.e. politically motivated street art, which I did not see in Tallinn. The embassy and the outside walls are free of it, although the railings in front of the Russian Embassy are used for protests. And I took photos from the old pharmacy [6] looking outside through a fishbowl [7], the water was colored blue.

Links and Annotations:
[1] Here are some example from the net: https://www.visittallinn.ee/eng/visitor/ideas-tips/tips-and-guides/street-art-in-tallinn and https://streetartmap.com/tallinn/ ... as my article isn't about street art in sensu strictu.
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallinn
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reval_(cigarette)
[4] Ginseng Cigarettes https://rheumatologe.blogspot.com/2024/12/ginseng-cigarettes.html
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lyndanisse
[6] I'll write later about the old pharmacy, which has been operating since 1582.
[7] And yes, I thought of Pink Floyd's „Wish You Were Here“, too.

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Street Art in Tiblisi, Georgia

While travelling I hvee an open eye for street art. In Tiblisi (Georgia) I've come across some interesting examples. For me street art is a non-commercial form of art in public spaces, which is intented to remain there permanently to communicate with a wider group of people. It is often political and sometimes just funny, but sometimes annoying if it takes a wall that isn't intended for such art or if tags destroy a work of art. If you want to know more on street art in general, please look up the Wikipedia article [1].

There are also internet articles on street art in Tiblisi, which are different to what I am showing here. One is in English “Discovering Tbilisi’s Street Art Scene through Murals and Graffiti” [2] and as the writing of the Tiblisi is different one knows that the article originated in Georgia. There is also an article in German, which I like to recommend highly, lots of interesting pictures arranged with reference to the artists [3]. The Article is about the Street Art und Mural Festival.
 
I like the Mouse Electric Power Station and the connection to the electric meter boxes. There's also a strong wish to be part the EU; Georgia is part of Europe and has always been. One picture has the Russian "Путин – убийца детей", which means: "Putin is a child killer". I stumbled on a picture of a man and below was the Greek word „Βασανίζομαι“ [Vasanizomai], which means „I'm being tortured“, but relax, most problably picture and text aren't connected. „Βασανίζομαι“ is a song by Klavdia [4], which could lure me into listening to more Greek songs.

 

 

Links and Annotations:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_art
[2] Discovering Tbilisi’s Street Art Scene through Murals and Graffiti
https://visitgeorgia.ge/discovering-tbilisis-street-art-murals-graffiti/
[3] https://www.georgia-insight.eu/georgien/street-art-in-georgien You have to translate the text!
[4] Βασανίζομαι by Klavdia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcWpDghI7Rs  

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