GRAFFITI ART Marwan Shakarchi’s First Mural in Sharjah

Marwan Shakarchi, the artist behind MYNEANDYOURS / Courtesy of Maraya Art Centre

Following a successful first edition of Jedariya in February 2015, Maraya Art Centre, continues to enrich Sharjah’s cultural landscape, literally, with a life-size mural by MYNEANDYOURS. Jedariya, the live outdoor street art initiative presents a street artist to bring to life and beautify areas of the city with their signature style, bold colours and inspiration they find from Sharjah.

Born and raised in London, Iraqi Marwan Shakarchi, the artist behind MYNEANDYOURS, moved to Dubai two years ago to pursue a career in the arts and introduce the region to his recognizable image of a cloud caricature with ‘x’s for eyes. The symbol that he has been using to represent his practice and has since become synonymous with the artist himself and various elements such as stickers, wheat paste’s and apparel.

A life-size mural by MYNEANDYOURS / Courtesy of Maraya Art Centre

A life-size mural by MYNEANDYOURS, detail / Courtesy of Maraya Art Centre

Interested in symbol repetition, Shakarchi likes to leave his mark on new surfaces, leaving people who come across it something to think about. Now with a much, much larger canvas, he hopes that his symbol will “open up a dialogue with the public, to inspire them to dream big, and to brighten up their day with strong colours, and a positive message.”

The final product consists of the colourful clouds rising from the ground to the sky against a grey backdrop, with lines which follow them representing motion, which in turn signify people’s motion to develop and move forward. This, he says, also reflects in all great initiatives, industries and cities, in particular art in Sharjah and the UAE.

A life-size mural by MYNEANDYOURS / Courtesy of Maraya Art Centre

Maraya Art Centre Director Giuseppe Moscatello says of this second edition: “The art of graffiti has reached a level of international and critical acclaim, through the works of such artists at eL Seed and Banksy, for example, the result is an indication of talent and levels of creativity on unique surfaces. This “street art” presents an additional understanding of the depths that art holds and what better place to continue enhancing cultural initiatives than in Sharjah, for the audience that wants more, the community that loves it, and creating opportunities for the younger generation within the arts.”

Using a wide colour palette Shakarchi has been working twelve hour days for ten days to eventually cover 24x28 m of the full façade of the iconic Sharjah buildingon Al Khan From a secured and safe harness and platform, he has utilised spray-paints, and huge-scale stencil sto help bring his work to life.

“The skies above us are full of colour, the symbol of the cloud aims to inspire us to look up, and dream in colour. I hope my work will open up a dialogue with the public, to inspire them to dream big, and to brighten up their day”, says Shakarchi.