A large-scale painting made in about nine hours at Teufelsberg, carrying a real moment from a Berlin Späti rave onto a public wall.
A moment carried at speed
I painted this in about nine hours from a real moment at one of our Berlin Späti raves. I would like to return with better equipment, but I had underestimated how high I could reach with a ladder.
The ladder and a few cans of paint were the actual conditions of the work. The speed is part of its record. The wall holds the image, but it also holds how the image had to be made.
Returning to Teufelsberg
Teufelsberg is a former Cold War listening station turned open-air art site. I have returned across different years and wall conditions, so this painting belongs to an ongoing public record rather than a single isolated studio object.
Scale changes the decisions. A figure has to hold from a distance, while smaller marks, lettering, stars and shifts of colour keep the wall active when someone comes close.
A mural becomes a landmark
A mural is not simply a painting made larger. It is made for a surface, a site and people who encounter it without entering a gallery. At Teufelsberg, the wall becomes part of how the image is remembered.
The photographs keep the decisions visible even as the wall changes. This record sits beside the wider mural, street art and installation archive, connected to painting, drawing, tattooing and temporary rooms without being reduced to any one of them.
Credits
- Original Sketchy Shona record based on supplied Teufelsberg documentation and process text.