By David Russell
When Adelaide-born artist Jimmy C painted a mural of David Bowie on the side of a London department store he hoped it would survive for four weeks. Two-and-a-half years later it is becoming the site of an ever-growing shrine to the late music icon.
Jimmy painted the mural to compliment a portrait he’d done for a gallery exhibition titled The Many Faces of David Bowie. Knowing Bowie was born in the South London suburb of Brixton, he found a department store across from the Tube station. When he walked in to ask permission, the Bowie song ‘The Jean Genie’ was playing – Jimmy took it as a sign.
Currently in Adelaide visiting family, he spoke to Inside South Australia about the surreal experience of watching flowers pile up at the mural from the other side of the world.
“When I painted it I was celebrating what he’d done and his life as an artist; no one thought he was going to pass away.
“His music has always been on my playlists as I paint… but my admiration of him is more about respect for him as an artist. He was constantly able to reinvent himself and push the creative boundaries.
“It was amazing watching the build-up from a few flowers and a crowd gathering, to a pile of flowers a metre high. It’s still growing; every morning another photo comes my way and it’s just getting bigger.”
From the day Jimmy completed the mural the Brixton community embraced the depiction of their local-boy-made-good. The piece has remained untouched over the years – incredible in a city literally covered in street art and graffiti.
Jimmy started his career in Adelaide in the late 1980s, doing graffiti along the train line with friends. He studied a masters in visual arts at the University of South Australia, focusing for a time on oil painting before going back to street work.
“When I got my skills up using the can I made the transition fairly quickly to legal, commissioned work, and I did that for many years in South Australia. I worked with councils in Adelaide and country towns all through the state doing community murals and workshops with kids.”
Jimmy C mural in Lisbon, Portugal. Photo: Lisbon Street Art.
Jimmy C collab with L7M, Sao Paolo, Brazil.
In 2010 Jimmy moved to London, and now splits his time between canvas work in the studio and large-scale murals on walls all over the world. His pointillist style (image creation using dots) has garnered him an international reputation, with recent public works adorning iconic locations in Miami, Berlin, Barcelona, Paris, Sao Paolo, Lisbon, Birmingham, Montpellier and London. Jimmy’s work on canvas is done in his trademark style using spray cans, and is exhibited in galleries and sold to private collectors.
Jimmy C mural, Brick Lane, London.
Despite his international success it’s ironic none of Jimmy’s early South Australian street art survives today. “If they do the paint must be pretty faded. But I will try to do something new on the street here… in the city most probably… I’m open to ideas.”