This impressive mural was painted by Gaia about a week ago in Greenville, South Carolina where he was invited by the Year Of Altruism Foundation to participate in their project.
Gaia explains the meaning of his mural as follows:
The mural features the warped images of four mills that have been repurposed or are slated for renovation flowing through the Reedy River falls. The Lofts at the Mills Mill, the Lofts of Greenville in The former Monahagen Mill, the Woodside Mill which is undergoing conversion and finally the coach factory and Duke’s Mayonnaise facility which has now been turned into an event space in the Wyche Pavilion of the Peace Center of the Performing Arts.
Sites of employment have now become places of consumption, residence and culture. Preservation of heritage demands significant investment that makes affordable housing options within such structure infeasible. Global competition restructures the lives of working class and white collar communities as the South meets the 21st century.
The calla lillies are a nod to the bible minded nature of Greenville, flowers that represent purity yet are also poisonous. They are paired with the tumbling red brick of change and destruction. A single story brick duplex emerges out of the top left of the composition with the phrases Webster Street and Phillis Wheatley as a memorial to the African American neighborhood that has since been erased from this area.
Author: Fran
Founder and editor of Urbanite. Street Art lover who after the finishing her MA thesis on the Mexican and Norwegian muralist movement in the 1920-50s, developed a fascination for street art and graffiti that eventually led to collaborations with different art blogs, including the creation of this one.
