Axel Void was recently in Manchester (UK) to paint a brilliant mural on the walls of the People’s History Museum, curated by Cities Of Hope. Entitled “Peterloo” this mural is a tribute to the sacrifices of the marginalized and oppressed who gave their everything, to stand against injustice.
About The Mural
According to Wikipedia, the Peterloo Massacre occurred at St Peter’s Field, Manchester, England, on 16 August 1819, when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60,000–80,000 who had gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation. Monday, 16 August 1819, was a hot summer’s day, with a cloudless blue sky. The fine weather almost certainly increased the size of the crowd significantly; marching from the outer townships in the cold and rain would have been a much less attractive prospect.
They came in their thousands representing their towns and communities, with their families, their neighbors, their friends. They came not to riot or to revolt, but to listen to words of hope. They came wearing their finest, determined to show all those that witnessed, that they were neither the dirt nor demons that the press of the time had portrayed them to be. The women even came dressed in white.
The mural depicts a Mancunian young woman, Lydia, and her two year old son, Ezra. Dressed in her white, Lydia is much more than a symbol of the women who attended that day. A daughter of a Windrush victim, the injustice experienced by Lydia connects to the injustices of the past. Her son, her everything, held tenderly in her arms, hers is not a story of fiction, hers is not a tale of yesteryear. Peterloo is not just a story of the past. For many, it remains relevant today.
This mural, a beacon of hope, rises defiant, on the walls of the People’s History Museum. The mother and child, symbolic of those who came to St Peter’s Field that day.
About the Artist
Alejandro Hugo Dorda Mevs, also known as Axel Void, was born in Miami in 1986 from a Spanish father and a Haitian mother. Raised in Spain from the age of three where he became strongly influenced by classical painting and drawing, Axel Void has been in contact with graffiti writing since 1999. He studied Fine Arts in Cádiz, Granada, and Sevilla, and based himself in Berlin until moving to Miami in 2013…
He moves between all kinds of different media such as mural, installation, oil and acrylic painting, audio and video recording and drawing which display his radical vision. Unpleasant, psychological and social issues that are yet many times interrupted by ironic statements, dominate the content of Axel Void’s work. It is in this mirror to society that he reminds us of how fleeting time is and the importance of remembering.
Images by People’s History Museum
