INTRODUCTION
The stadium wall has been littered with illegal graffiti for quite a few years. The wall used to be faded, dirty, and annoyed the students and teachers. The long-awaited stadium wall project is now complete. Take a look!
Contents:
- THE PROCESS
- ABOUT THE IDEA
- VIRTUAL GALLERY
- THE WALL BEFORE PAINTING
- CREDITS AND SPECIAL THANKS
- VISITING
THE PROCESS
A volunteer team of VJG students started working on this project in October, 2020. There was an attempt at the project in 2018, but only in the spring of 2020 was a creative group formed. The project coordinators welcomed all artistic students, who wanted to contribute to the renewal of the stadium wall.
We started generating ideas for the drawings and composition in October, 2020. Due to the COVID situation, we were forced to work remotely through MS Teams. Our meetings usually took place about two to three times a week and lasted for a couple of hours each time. In the beginning, a street artist going by the name Morfai (@timo.tiejus on Instagram) helped us to grasp the world of street art. We are very grateful to him for his help.
We combined various ideas we had developed according to the theme and put them into one joint picture. Since there were a lot of people working on the project, we decided the quickest way to decide on the full composition of the stadium wall was for each of us to create a version of their own. After everybody had finalized their vision, the whole team reviewed the ideas together and selected the most interesting, most beautiful-looking parts, and put them into the final version of the stadium wall. This is when the idea of several themes came into being. (More on this in the 'about the idea' section.) Finally, we created digital visualizations so we could imagine how the finished project would look.
Digital visualizations
In the spring of 2020, discussions started about the fate of the football player’s leg graffiti, liked by a large part of the community. Once drawn by a street artist going by the name Stryts (@stryts1 on Instagram), simply called 'the leg' by the students, this graffiti was already a part of the identity of our school and a signature of its stadium. When discussions arose among the members of the creative group, the whole community was invited to vote on a referendum on whether to leave 'the leg' as it is or paint it over. The decision was almost unanimous - 'the leg' must remain on the wall. However, after creating the visualizations we realized how out of context the faded and crumbling old paint was with the new vibrant image. Thus we asked the community to vote once again, but this time we included the option to repaint ‘the leg’ in a modern fashion that would match the style of the whole wall. The majority (70%) voted in favor of maintaining the memory of 'the leg' by renewing it. Ultimately this renewed 'leg' is what you can see today.
Three voting options, provided to the community
The high school’s administration supported this initiative and helped us buy the required materials and equipment from the money collected through the Parents’ goodwill program. With the weather warming up, in mid-May, preparatory priming with rollers and brushes, light-colored primer was started. In the middle of May, once the weather had warmed up we started priming the wall with a light-colored primer using paint brushes and rollers. Even though preparations and suitable weather were required, we finished this stage in about 10 days.
Priming
At the beginning of summer 2021, we finished priming. It was time to take the drawings from their digital to the physical form. The easiest way to do this was to use a projector. After dark, we would set it up on a platform (a table, on which we would also stack boxes, bricks, tires, and all other kinds of things.). It is particularly important to position the projector correctly. The projected image must be just the right size in order for the drawing to fit exactly onto the wall. We traced the lines projected on the wall with black graffiti paint. Because the stadium wall is on a hill and the jogging track beside it is quite narrow, the projector could only display about 1,5 to 2 m of the drawing at once. This way we would work from around 8 or 10 PM to 5 or even 7 AM. In about 15 nights we finished all of the line art. Because of the frequent need to move the projector, we would only do about 5 to 10 m of the drawing in one night. We couldn’t avoid small incidents either - on the first night our neighbors called the police on us, because they thought we were working illegally. Finally, we overcame this stage, and the entire 120 m long wall was ready for coloring.
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Working with a projector
When it was time to color large areas of the wall we were trying to decide whether it was cheaper and quicker to use graffiti paint or regular paint with brushes and rollers. We decided to use the regular paint in some areas and that turned out to be the wrong option - not only was this much slower and more tedious, but it also cost more.
It was already the middle of August when the time came to give the drawing more life by coloring it. We ordered graffiti paint of various colors and started working. By using ladders and scaffolding we were able to color the whole wall in just a couple of weeks. In total, almost 170 graffiti cans were used and about 57 liters of regular paint and primer.
Work with graffiti paint
The stadium wall project is now complete. You can admire the drawings from several places on St. Kazimieras street.
In our work, we tried to hide interesting details, to capture signs and symbols of (pop) culture, places, persons, quotes, and other objects known not only to the school’s community but to the general public too. The drawing should be relevant both to younger and older viewers.
ABOUT THE IDEA
The entire drawing of the VJG stadium wall is divided into four thematic sections. Looking from left to right, you can see a part resembling the Middle Ages and also reflecting the school's daily life. To the right is a contemporary piece about pop culture. The center part, best seen from the street is like an artist’s wall, on which various paintings and other objects are hung, supposedly inspiring the notional artist. The last small part is a depiction of outer space with lots of bright-colored planets.
THE MIDDLE AGES
The map
This map covers most of the 'Middle Ages' section of the wall. In it, you can recognize real places that are important to our school's community. The buildings left of the sea are our school’s campsite in the village of Guopstos. The sea is, of course, imaginary, but the coordinates hidden at the bottom are real. They lead to one certain grocery store near the school. This is where many students go to buy buns for lunch while on their breaks. On the other side of the sea stands the St. Kazimieras church with the buildings next to it being our school itself and the Lojoteka - our school’s new library. The knights’ training field drawn below the school symbolizes none other than this stadium.
Medieval Attributes
Next to the map is a set of keys, astronomical instruments, various bottles, and other items. Here also hangs a knight's sword and the quotation of our school’s physics teacher, which is well known to every student here. It could be translated like this: ‘Whoever is late marches to the board’.
POP CULTURE
Godzilla
The first symbol of pop culture is the Godzilla, towering high above the city’s buildings. The gigantic sea monster first appeared in a 1954 movie by the same name and is well known ever since. Here we also included a sign with the direction to Guopstos, the aforementioned campsite, where students participate in various programmes for bonding with classmates, development of values, and education.
'GTA: San Andreas' and Street Culture
Here we displayed another part of street culture - car meets, a break dancer, and a crowd cheering for him. We also hid a reference to a popular video game. The guy on the left sitting on his car is a character from the 2004 game ‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’.
Keanu Reeves
Next up we see an actor well known to younger audiences - Keanu Reeves. On the wall, we displayed a moment from an Xbox E3 conference. While presenting the new ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ video game Keanu Reeves received a compliment from the audience. He responded with the same words - ‘You’re breathtaking’. This moment quickly spread through the internet and has since become one of this actor’s best-known phrases. Under the actor’s arm is a yellow pack of the drink ‘Wosanka’, which was sold in our school’s canteen some time ago. It was liked very much among students and many remember it with nostalgia.
VJG Throw up and Mr. Doodle
In the last part of the pop culture section we painted many small things that fit with the overall aesthetic: Chinese lanterns, a graffiti ‘throw up’ (a style of graffiti, where letters are usually bubbly and the work is done in a rush), the droid BB8 from the ‘Star Wars’ film series. On the right, we created something like a crack in the wall, through which ornaments inspired by the work of Mr. Doodle can be seen.
Optical illusion
This optical illusion is on a piece of wall that separates the artist's wall from the contemporary, pop culture section. In front of this wall, there is a sand pit for long jumps. Running towards it (in preparation for the jump), it looks as if you could jump into the tunnel in the wall.
THE ARTIST'S WALL
Piet Mondrian
We thought for a long time about what could appear in the empty frame. There was an idea to draw a beetle, a butterfly, or even Vincent Van Gogh's ear but in the end, the frame remained empty, as it naturally fit into the overall composition.
The first artwork on the artist’s wall is a reproduction of the colorful artwork of Piet Mondrian.
Movie Posters
In this section, we've created slightly modified posters of famous movies.
The movie 'Maze Runner' became 'Bėgantis į valgyklą' which means 'Canteen Runner' since younger students rush there through the corridors to get a better spot in the queue.
'Back to the Future' became 'Back to Guopstos', because the students really miss the wonderful camps and always wish to come back there.
'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' turned to 'Charlie and the Milk Bar'. To this day we call our school’s snack bar 'the milk bar' because of a café with this name that used to be in the vicinity.
Bob Ross
Bob Ross was an American artist who had his own TV show where he used to paint live. His TV shows were calm, the painter talked about trees, clouds, etc. in a soft, pleasant voice like they were alive. Bob Ross died in 1995. This drawing was created in memory of him.
'Black Square' and vinyls
The work seen here is the 'Black Square' by Kazimir Malevich. It is a modernist painting by the Polish-born painter, widely known around the world.
The upper vinyl is dedicated to a teacher of our school, Leonidas Abaris, who established the choir 'Krantas'. Justinas Ritauskas is his pseudonym and 'Sudie sudie' ('Farewell, farewell') - a song, with which the teacher said goodbye to our school on retirement.
The inscription on the lower vinyl translates as 'this is a dictatorship, haven't you noticed?' - is an ironic quote used by a history teacher Asta Jovaišienė and recognized by many student generations.
'Olive Trees'
In the very center of the artist's wall hangs a composition inspired by a painting called 'Olive Trees' created by one of the most well-known postimpressionist painters - Vincent van Gogh.
Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali
Further on the artist’s wall are two pieces inspired by the artworks of cubist Pablo Picasso and surrealist Salvador Dalí. The portrait of a girl resembling Picasso’s style is displayed near an easily recognized Dalí’s clock, hung on a tree branch.
'Opportunities', Kant the Cat and Paper Skyscrapers
The first artwork tells us about the opportunities at the Vilnius Jesuit high school. We enter the school with our chaotic energy and leave it all grown up, having formed our values.
The quote you see on the wall is the words ('dare to know') of the philosopher Immanuel Kant. The thinking cat is the pet of a Lithuanian language teacher Gerlanda Griškevičienė and it shares the same name with the famous philosopher - Kant.
The blueprints are a glimpse into the life inside our school. Each year younger students build these skyscrapers in their first engineering lessons. The aim is to make the structure as strong as possible in order for it to withstand the most weight placed on the top. We decided to commemorate a project that is familiar and dear to most of our school’s students.
'The Leg'
The upper picture shows the work of Stryts (@stryts1 on Instagram), which has been on the stadium wall for as long as many can remember it. Simply called 'the leg' by most of the students, it was an important part of the stadium. When we invited the school’s community to vote for the drawing’s fate, most chose to revive it for a new life by repainting it.
René Magritte and the logo of Vilnius Jesuit High School
The last piece on the artist’s wall is a reproduction of the Belgian surrealist René Magritte's 'L`idée' - 'The Idea'.
Our school logo, shown to the right of the geometric abstraction, is intended to represent the school and show the authorship of the work.
OUTER SPACE
Motivational quote
This message is for everyone running the long distance in our stadium. The rough meaning is this: 'Push on, each distance has its end!' We know how hard it is to run long distances so we decided to motivate the runners for one more lap.
Outer space
This area and all of the planets and spaceships have a meaning. We painted the stadium wall all together, but here each one of us got to think up and paint a planet of their own - kind of like a signature.
VIRTUAL GALLERY
THE WALL BEFORE PAINTING
Take a look at how the stadium wall looked before the completion of the project…
CREDITS AND SPECIAL THANKS
ORGANIZERS:
Ignas Blaževičius
Ula Grinevičiūtė
Ieva Gudelytė
THE TEAM:
Teofilė Jovaišaitė
Gustas Bložė
Fela Paukštė
Emilė Brožaitytė
Marija Maksimovič
Teja Tupinytė
Lukrecija Griciūtė
Mantė Jurkauskaitė
Meda Ražinskaitė
Ieva Kirvaitytė
Elžbieta Rėksnytė
Miglė Ulkytė
THANK YOU:
Sis. Edita Šicaite SSC, for her full support and trust;
Paulius Narušis for his advice and help during the project implementation;
To all the staff of the School for their help with keys, documents, wires, etc.;
Gintaras Venckas for lending the car to keep tools in;
Morfa (@timo.tiejus), for his help in understanding the world of street art.
VISITING
The VJG Stadium area is only open to visitors during special events, but the wall is also visible during the day through the gate on Šv. Kazimiero street.
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