Freak Lunchbox — Halifax, NS

Freak Lunchbox Halifax Mural: Exploring the Controversial.

Change often knocks at our door, bringing emotional discomfort, especially for those unprepared for a new guest.

Fear of change is a natural response, as we naturally seek stability and predictability

Change can also foster growth, open new opportunities, and provide learning experiences.

The Freak Lunchbox mural perfectly exemplifies a community’s powerfully polarized reaction to change. It was by far the most controversial of my career (to date). Paradoxically, it has become one of the most publicly celebrated.

SYMBIOTIC DANCE

This mural is a hard candy coloured song of sea life, tumbling forever in a symbiotic dance of interconnected communion with water.

It explores Halifax‘s direct link with a diverse marine life to which it is intrinsically bound.

The oceans are our life-support system, providing 70% of the oxygen we breathe. Having set collective sail on seas of short-term gain, we have rapidly changed the chemistry of the ocean. In doing so, we have damaged the ocean’s ability to sustain life on the planet.

Nearly two-thirds of the world’s population lives within 60 km of a coast. Coastal areas are home to over 90% of all marine species. These habitats are disappearing rapidly, with far-reaching consequences.

CHANGING TIDES

Work on this wall began on rocky shores.

Upon arrival in Halifax, I found a local bar to grab a beer and bite. Finalizing the color study for the mural, I quietly sat in a corner. The following morning, work commenced. Time was crucial, with a giant and expensive lift now on the clock, soaking up exorbitant rental costs.

At a nearby table, locals criticized the project without knowing who I was or what I had come to do. My name was certainly being dragged through the mud of this harbour town.

You can get a sense of that conversation from this Reddit thread, which offers an interesting glimpse into the public debate on changing tides.

FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT

My paintings often begin with a very dark colour, if not the deepest black of an obsidian mirror.

Darkness is where images dwell, behind closed eyelids.

Staring at a blank white sheet of paper paralyzes, while a black sheet reveals a nearly endless realm of possibilities. Images emerge through layers of progressively lighter colours, leading to the tiniest touches of pure white.

Unfortunately, painting a fat coat of black primer over a historically significant and much beloved landmark of Halifax’s mural art landscape is not (at first) a good look to most.

The nerve of some people

Insults and threats flew nearly as soon as brush touched wall. Perched high upon the man lift with a heavy workload ahead and feeling discombobulated, I reluctantly let heated feedback fall to the floor.

Painting in public like this, I’ve become accustomed to receiving all manner of coloured commentary. However — especially this generous East Coast Canadian community — I was completely unprepared for the level of hostility faced for two full days, from young and old alike.

A nerve had obviously been struck.

ART OF CHANGE

The buttery smooth plywood surface — mounted to an old brick wall — was a breeze to work on, graciously accepting of any and all brush strokes. As an added bonus, these panels made the perfect readymade grid, making quick work of the often tedious scaling-up process from rough sketch. It always feels good when the work moves quickly.

By the third day, emergent colours and form were working their magic, turning red hot opinions into something lukewarm.

By the end of the fourth day, with its application of final strokes, public response had become overwhelmingly positive, beyond anything I had experienced before.

This is the art of change.

THE POWER OF PUBLIC ART

I am interested in change. We need it now, more than ever.

Having painted hundreds of murals internationally, many of which fall under the umbrella of the EN MASSE project, I’ve seen firsthand the transformative power of public art.

It is important to recognize that the worldwide phenomenon of contemporary muralism grew out of Chicago-based grassroots Hispanic and African American initiatives during the late 1960s, where murals were understood as tools for emancipation.

Let that sink in.

Art can be an agent of change, very much depending on how we choose to put it to use.

Blending art and activism to tell distinctive—and sometimes disruptive—stories through painted walls, the work that I do could be referred to as ‘artivism’.

It is work that encourages each to become an artist of change in your own world.

In the very near future, this wall will vanish behind a new building development. While it will continue to live, it will do so as a tree falling in the forest, with no one around to hear. A hidden gem.

There it is, change in action.

To dive deeper into this project, I recommend exploring the following links:

The mural of the story

https://www.thecoast.ca/news-opinion/the-mural-of-the-story-4921491

“Hate it or love it — or just love to debate about it — Barrington Street has a brand new, big, bizarre and beautiful mural. Freak Lunchbox’s decision to commission a massive piece of art for the side of its new headquarters surprisingly ended up being one of the summer’s most argued-about topics, and amidst all of the opinions hurled in its direction the downtown candy shop awarded Montreal-based artist (and master of large-scale work) Jason Botkin the opportunity to create something equal parts Freaky and Halifax. In under a week, he transformed the north-facing wall of the shop’s headquarters from a blank slate to a showstoppingly vibrant water world.

That is the function of art, or a function of art. Obviously it’s not for everybody—if it was for everybody it would cease to be art,” says Botkin, who until overhearing a conversation at a downtown bar, had no clue there was controversy surrounding his would-be mural. “The best thing that could have happened is that it generated important dialogue, and opened up a conversation about change in general, and communication. People were opening up, talking about issues of culture and shared identity.”