"I don't just want to create popular Instagram spots" says Camille Walala

由专筑网小R编译

Camille Walala为伦敦首届壁画节设计了两件公共艺术作品，这成为了社区项目的新焦点，这位法国设计师诉说了她对于自己的苛刻要求。

Walala为Rich Mix慈善艺术文化中心设计了艺术作品，这是伦敦壁画节的一部分，该作品强调了其作品的社会影响力。

Camille Walala has created two public artworks for the inaugural London Mural Festival as part of a new focus on community-oriented projects. The French designer tells Dezeen why she is now being more selective with her commissions.
As part of the London Mural Festival Walala created an artwork for the charitable arts and culture centre Rich Mix in Shoreditch. The work is an example of a renewed emphasis on the social impact of her work.


上图：名为“Belleville”的Rich Mix壁画；首图： Walala设计的伦敦壁画节的第二件作品，位于Canary码头
Above: The Rich Mix mural is called Belleville. Top image: Walala's second London Mural Festival contribution is set in Canary Wharf

近些年来，孟菲斯模式在社会媒体上崭露头角，Walala逐步对自己的合作对象要求愈发严苛。

Walala说：“我经历了10年的抗争，我接纳了一切，因为当时我没有很多工作需要完成。”

After rising to prominence in recent years, with her colourful, Memphis-meets-tribal patterns that are shared widely on social media, Walala now feels she is in the position to be more selective with who she works with.
"I had 10 years of struggle, where I was saying yes to everything because I didn't have much work to start with," Walala told Dezeen.


Walala改造了Adams广场大桥
Walala has transformed Adams Plaza Bridge

“但是我现在已经完成了一些好项目，我也逐步提升自己作品的责任感和可持续性。”

“有些公司想要和我合作，因为这能够提升他们的知名度，但是我拒绝了，我不想我的作品只是网红而已。”


给建筑添加色彩“有强烈的影响”

近几个月以来，这位设计师在伦敦东部的家里完成了几个项目，这些项目与当地社区与组织共同合作。

这个为Rich Mix而设计的作品在其首个众筹项目之后而诞生，见证了Leyton整个街区的重新修整。

“将色彩和图案应用在建筑上并不困难，但是对于人们来说有着强烈的影响，这种影响是积极且快乐的，它来源于艺术作品，这会给予他们骄傲感，同时也向社区展示了我们对于他们的关怀。”

她继续说：“建筑越不好看，那我越想要重新粉饰它。”


伦敦壁画节中Walala的巨幅作品

在伦敦壁画节中，有超过40个大尺寸墙体，其中集结了包含Walala在内的多位国际街头艺术家的作品，另外还有书法艺术家Seb Lester和插画家Marija Tiurina。

"But now I've done some really great projects and I'm trying to make very conscious decisions in terms of the responsibility and sustainability of my designs," she continued.
"There are companies that have wanted to work with me because they knew it would push their popularity [on social media] and I've been saying no to working with them because I don't just want to create popular Instagram spots."

Adding colour to buildings "has such a strong impact"
In recent months, the designer has tackled several projects in her adoptive home of east London, which engage with the local community and community organisations.
The work created for Rich Mix comes shortly after Walala's first crowdfunded project saw an entire high street block in Leyton repainted.
"Bringing colours and patterns onto buildings is not really hard but it has such a strong impact on people to have some kind of positive, joyful artwork in their community," the designer said. "It gives them something to be proud of and it's a way to show the community that we care about them."
"The uglier the building is, the happier I am to refresh it," she added.

Walala's piece largest at London Mural Festival
As part of the London Mural Festival, more than 40 large-scale walls will be painted across the capital by a roster of international street artists including Walala, calligraphy artist Seb Lester and illustrator Marija Tiurina.


Rich Mix建筑的壁画特点带有Walala式孟菲斯模式形态
The Rich Mix mural features Walala's Memphis-meets-tribal patterns

Walala的Rich Mix建筑壁画名为“Belleville”，是一件很大的艺术作品，它横跨文化中心后部三面墙体，面积为600平方米。

Walala说：“我发现Rich Mix大楼和伦敦东部地区的趣味性，当我来到伦敦的时候，我就生活在这里，这座独立的艺术中心和电影院仍然存在，这非常棒，我认为这是真正的场所。”

Walala's Rich Mix mural, called Belleville, is the largest artwork being created as part of the festival and stretches across all 600 square metres of the cultural centre's three back walls.
"I find Rich Mix and this area of east London so interesting. It was one of the first places I spent time when I moved to London," said Walala. "It is so great that this independent arts centre and cinema is still standing strong, I think it is a real institution."


Rich Mix是伦敦东部的慈善艺术和文化中心
Rich Mix is a charitable arts and culture centre in east London

慈善机构的首席执行官Judith Kilvington把这件作品称为“文化与创意的变革力量”，它从表面上反应了Rich Mix建筑内部各项活动的“活力和能量”。

这与Walala之前的作品不同，曾经，设计师将无序的图案和线条结合在建筑细部空间里，但是这个作品则利用了其巨大的空间来容纳了更加有序的形态。

The charity's CEO Judith Kilvington heralded the work as an example of the "transformative power of culture and creativity", capable of outwardly reflecting "the dynamism and energy" of the activities that usually take place inside the Rich Mix building.
Unlike Walala's previous work, which squeezes a cacophony of patterns and graphics into the space provided by different architectural details, this piece makes use of its vast, uninterrupted canvas to play with more oversized shapes.


Belleville壁画有着超大的尺寸与形态
The Belleville mural features oversized shapes

Walala说：“我喜欢空间的限制，在Rich Mix，有很多窗户都不是对称的，因此我要设计适合的图案。”

“在伦敦和纽约的那些项目，它们都有着一排排对称的窗户，但是这次，我设计了一些更像拼贴画的东西。”

Walala的又一个作品是Canary码头金融区的Adams广场大桥，这就像她近期的笔画一样，这个项目的客户是一位私人地产开发商，因此，这个项目为地区的发展起到了促进的作用。

这个项目标志着这位设计师首次将桥梁作为画布，并且在其中大肆应用了Op Art风格的线条和图案，以未来主义的手法强调了这座隧道式桥体的空间特点。

"I love working with the restrictions of a space," said Walala. "At Rich Mix there are a lot of windows that are not especially symmetrical, so I had to create a pattern that works for them."
"With the projects I did on [London's] Old Street and in New York, I worked with their symmetrical rows of windows. But this time around I created something that looks a bit more like a collage."
Walala's second contribution tackles Adams Plaza Bridge in the financial district of Canary Wharf. Like her recent murals in White City, it was created for a private property developer that has arguably contributed to the areas' rapid gentrification.
The project marks the first time the designer has taken on a bridge as her canvas, exaggerating the perspective of the futuristic, tunnel-like overpass by covering it in Op Art-style stripes and lines.


Adam的广场大桥Canary码头金融区的隧道式桥体
Adam's Plaza Bridge is a tunnel-like bridge in the financial district of Canary Wharf

这不只是墙体和天花板，还有窗户，它周围包裹着透明色带，光线会从外部照射进来，在夜晚，桥体看起来就如同万花筒。


“我很喜欢和建筑师合作”

Walala的作品不仅仅是将现有的设计策略应用在结构中，同时也对建筑及其特定的部分进行直接地回应和构思，这种想法来源于她的建筑师父亲。

This includes not just the walls and ceiling but also the windows, which are clad in transparent strips of colour the let in light from the outside and, at night, make the bridge appear like a kaleidoscope illuminated from within.

"I'd love to collaborate with architects"
Rather than transplanting an existing design onto a structure, Walala's work is created as a direct response to a building and its particular anatomy – a fascination, which she picked up from her architect father.


光穿过半透明的色彩带
Light passes through the translucent strips of colour

她说：“建筑和色彩细部很吸引我，这是设计的起点。”

“我设计了虚拟的3D建筑模型，在这里展示了一些表达透视和图案丰富的体量，我让它拥有新特征，这是我给自己的挑战。”

"I get excited by details in architecture and colours and then that's the starting point for a composition," she said.
"I work on a virtual, 3D model of the building and almost give it another identity by bringing out some volume here or playing with the perspective and the pattern there. That's the challenge I set for myself."


Walala通过横向线条强调了Adams广场大桥的空间尺度
Walala emphasised the dimensions of Adams Plaza Bridge through horizontal lines

举例来说，她对布鲁克林的立面进行了改造，让建筑看起来很卡通，同时也强调了建筑的平面对称形态，而她在毛里求斯改造的一家酒店里感受到，黑白水平图案让结构支柱更加吸引目光。

因此，这位设计师也很希望她的作品能够更多地存在城市之中，让人们能够拥有归属感与场所感。

Her transformation of a facade in Brooklyn, for example, plays up the building's flat, symmetrical structure by making it appear almost like a cartoon, while her renovation of a hotel in Mauritius saw structural columns accentuated via a horizontal pattern of black and white stripes.
Ultimately, the designer hopes to extend her work to even an even larger urban setting, in order to give citizens back a sense of ownership over their cities.


这个装置是伦敦壁画节的一部分
The installation is part of the London Mural Festival

她说：“我很愿意和建筑师合作，设计不同规模的公共空间，首先我会从长椅开始，但是我想给大家创造更加色彩丰富的空间，让人们能够聚集于此，就像是一座大广场，人们可以在这里交流沟通。”

Belleville照片版权：伦敦壁画节
Adams广场大桥照片来源：Sean Pollock

"I'd love to collaborate with architects and to keep working with public space on a different scale," she said. "I started with benches but I want to create more colourful places that bring people together, like a big plaza where people can interact and communicate."
Photos of Belleville are courtesy of the London Mural Festival and images of Adams Plaza Bridge are by Sean Pollock.