The mural painted in Sparkbrook Birmingham was painted by two artists Mohammed Ali and Martin Travers.  Here is their perspective on the experience of painting this wall.

First up, Martin Travers:
I recently had the pleasure of collaborating on an exciting mural project with the artist Mohammed Ali in Birmingham. Mohammed invited me from my home in Holland to come and paint a wall in Sparkbrook, an area of Birmingham England where he grew up. What interested me was that Sparkbrook had transformed from an Irish community to an Asian/Muslim one. Both Mohammed and I grew up in The U.K, I have an Irish background and he an Asian/Muslim one.

Sparkbrook was a predominantly Irish neighborhood up until the 80′s and nineties when many moved into other wealthier suburbs. Having grown up in London with some Irish heritage I knew about Birmingham’s Irish influence and of course the Birmingham six which highlighted the fact that to be Irish in Britain meant you where associated with certain stereotypes.

I had all this in mind as we adorned the large wall in the middle of this neighborhood with Intricate Islamic and Celtic (Irish) patterns that blend in out of one another in the way that the demographics of an area might change, as one fades out another one comes in but somehow they are very much connected. It’s a challenge for me as artist from a social realist background to paint a mural with a message and have nothing figurative to work with. I appreciate this aspect of our collaboration as it pushes me into thinking and working in new and different ways and perhaps that’s part of our message, to smash the stereo types.
It’s very apparent (boarded up windows and lots of rubbish blowing around) that very little of the state budget goes into this neighborhood, people were very surprised to see us putting so much time, effort and bright colour onto their street. After seeing the word HOPE in bold shapely letters some people who we spoke to would comment “we definitely need some of that here!”

Camouflaged away in the center of the mural the message continues “A weapon against despair”
I don’t like to go into a neighborhood that I know nothing about and just do a painting and leave, as artists we have to respect the fact that for the local people this wall is a part of everyday life. For me I think it is empowering to engage the local people as much as I can, discuss the concept with them, get feedback from them and perhaps invite them to participate. In this way the painting becomes more than just the work of an individual artist but a part of the community and this is empowering to the art, the artist and most importantly the community. An added bonus will be the longevity of the painting because it belongs to the community. So painting a mural is not about getting your painting up in public, getting a name for yourself as an artist but about giving, sharing and communicating.
With this wall we arm the people with hope!