A Glasgow street artist created a mural for the new film and it has generated a lot of attention.
Bobby McNamara, the Glasgow street artist Rogue One, is known for his works across Glasgow, including The World’s Most Economical Taxi mural on Mitchell Lane and the beautiful montage of local famous faces that wrapped The Clutha. His depictions have included Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Billy Connolly, John Byrne, Paolo Nutini and Sharleen Spiteri. His latest work, a commission for a new film by James McAvoy, was a depiction of the character Renton from the film Trainspotting, played by Ewan MacGregor, emerging from a toilet, alongside the movie quote “it’s sh*te being Scottish.”
Bobby explains the background: “This piece, like the original movie, has became quite controversial. Painted as a temporary piece for filming in the new James McAvoy directorial debut movie California Schemin’. A film about two Scottish kids that took the American hip hop scene by storm but were shunned when it was discovered they put on American accents.
“In that sense of story, the piece has context, but of course it does have a swear word, and folk can be patriotic. I was given only two days to paint this, working together with Art Pistol Projects, so I did my best under pressure.
“We decided to cover the word sh*te with gallus while the mural was left a few days before filming. Then during filming the quote was revealed. Obviously people don’t realise it’s just temporary and for a film so chaos commences. Gotta love the internet. Now of course the quote has been covered until the artwork will be blasted off. The mural did it’s job, in more ways than expected lol. Finishing note* It’s brilliant being Scottish! But it can make it harder to succeed in things.”
The mural was spotted over the weekend in The Barras which has been a focus for filming during the production. The artwork will be removed from the wall now the scene has been completed. The image gained a lot of attention with some calls for it to become a permanent artwork in Edinburgh or to be replicated elsewhere in Glasgow. Others on social media were raging about it.
I interviewed Bobby McNamara at an event in the Ubiquitous Chip and one of the topics we discussed was the transient nature of street art. Exposed to the elements it will naturally decay or it will be tagged and painted over. Some of his artwork elsewhere in Glasgow has already disappeared, other examples – including some on the official city mural trail – are in various stages of their journey towards fading away. Whether the Renton artwork finds a new home, it’s worth considering what street art we want to preserve and what we accept as a part of the cityscape that has a finite timeline.
Meanwhile, the bold James McAvoy, having stirred things up around The Barras with this sweary mural, will continue filming his directorial debut. The new production, California Schemin’, charts the true story of Silibil N’ Brains, a Dundee rap duo who conned the international music industry by adopting American accents and pretending to be established Californian rap artists. A set-piece for the movie will be filmed in the Barrowland Ballroom next week.
This post was originally published on here
