Yeller Zine November Issue

My new found hobby is writing articles for the art magazine of University of Edinburgh Art Society. So here's the one from November. And some amazing pictures from edinburghlook.wordpress.com

Art for the old

How many times have you walked down South Clerk Street and saw old pensioners wandering around with walking sticks and wheelchairs. This may sound a bit of a cliché, but without them, there would be no peace and prosperity as we know it today. Yet what we are seeing in our society today is that after they retire, they become an unproductive unit in the economy and their value in society becomes obsolete.

There are many services by the government and charitable services which provide the elderly with the essentials needed for a comfortable life after retirement. I am not suggesting that these efforts are not of importance. These are noble acts by charitable people. But perhaps we could extend our hands further by engaging them with what we think should be the furthest from them – Art.

What immediately comes into mind when I think about accessible art spaces around Edinburgh is the graffiti wall which connects Potterow to South College Street. Being educated in the East. I was taught to behave properly in public places and never to draw anything on walls, not to mention spray cans of paint on a big scale. Graffiti art seemed to me a form of vandalism, as a space for young rebels to voice their anguish against the rules and guidelines of society. It was a wall for the forgotten, for the marginalized and for the minority. A graffiti wall seemed to create chaos and disorder and reflect the government’s inability to keep things in order.


What about old pensioners and graffiti? What would an elderly who have lived through the perils of famine and war think of the society we are living in today? How would he represent his views through graffiti? How would he perceive graffiti as an art form? Can graffiti create a dialogue between the rebellious youth and the respectful old?

Just when I was thinking that I was probably stretching a bit too far to have old pensioners work on the graffiti walls at the corner of Potterow, I came across this news of an elder man doing, you guessed it right, graffiti art!

Juanjaime Lam

P.S. Enjoy old pensioners enjoy fencing!!