There’s a new mural that’s set to add a spash of colour and meaning to the side of London’s Grand Theatre being painted this week.
Kazakh-Canadian artist Ola Volo is painting the mural on an 18 by 16-metre wall on the side of the theatre at the corner of Richmond Street and Dufferin Street.
“The vision for this artwork was to create something theatrical, something expressive,” said Volo.
The in-progress mural features a queen, who Volo said represents Mother Nature, partially covered by a large dove meant to symbolize new beginnings. Volo said the pink and green beams surrounding the queen replicate stage lights and the lightning bolts on the queen’s crown represent power. Around the edges of the mural are trilliums, which are Ontario’s official flower.
“I wanted her to take up the whole space, from top to bottom, head to toe, side to side,” Volo said. “It really symbolizes not shying away from speaking up, taking up space or being seen.”
The Grand Theatre has been talking about getting a mural on their stage door wall for close to 10 years, said Lyndee Hansen, the theatre’s executive director.
“We’ve always seen it as this blank canvas that we wanted to see filled with art,” Hansen said about the wall, located next to a parking lot. “We love the idea of free public art on the outside that just further complements the incredible work that’s happening inside the theatre.”
WATCH: Ola Volo’s mural process
Kazakh-Canadian artist, Ola Volo, is in London to paint a brand new mural outside the Grand Theatre, at the corner of Richmond and Dufferin streets. Londoners can watch Volo paint the project in real-time until August 30, which she says is a theatrical performance of its own.
The team at the Grand contacted Volo last December and she began her design work for the project this summer.
She started painting the mural last Monday and is expected to finish by the end of this week.
Public art as performance
Volo said Londoners have already stopped to watch her and her partner, Patrice Lacroix, paint the mural.
“I love when people come by to check out my work,” said Volo. “If somebody is able to swing by a couple of times, that’s even more interesting.”
Hansen walks through the Grand’s stage doors, next to the mural, every morning. She saw a drawn-out version of the final product before Volo began painting the full-sized mural.
“It’s very exciting to see it happening in front of you,” said Hansen. “It’s entirely different to see it come to life at such an enormous scale.”
Volo describes painting a mural as a performance, similar to theatre.
“I’m in a parking lot that gives you this stage to view this mural from anywhere,” Volo said. “I feel like I’m on stage, on this lift, performing … I’m out here creating something and really letting people watch my process.”
She said it takes a comfortable person to have their workflow, including mistakes, on display.
“In some ways, I hope that it’s an inspiration for other people,” said Volo. “Although the final product is amazing and interesting, it’s the bones behind the artwork that make other artists feel like they can do it themselves.”
“New wave” for London
Volo, who is based in Montreal, said she first got into muralism when she was 21.
Her artistic influences come from Eastern European folklore as well as the nature she saw growing up and going to art school in Vancouver. She said she didn’t see many murals using her style of artwork, which inspired her to get her art out in public.
Working on this project at the Grand, she similarly hopes that her large-scale mural will inspire more public artwork throughout the city.
“We can take up walls as canvases, not just buildings,” Volo said. “London has so many beautiful, empty walls that I’m excited for [muralism] to maybe become a new wave of expression.”
“As I’m meeting more and more people, I’ve realized it’s a very creative city and I hope this becomes a bit of inspiration for some people to take up more space on the streets.”