Those that were wondering about Aldi’s involvement with Aerosolarabic‘s graffiti mural (mentioned here the other day) that overlooks the Aldi car park on the Stratford Road now have an answer. To quote the artist:
Aldi are not keen on the Feed the Poor mural, as it overlooks their car park, and they feel its not something Aldi wants to have their customers using their car park, wanting to see…?! The building that is painted, has nothing to do with Aldi
Apparently yesterday’s completion of the project went quite well until the police and Aldi’s regional manager showed up.
There’s a chance the mural may have to be painted over so Aerosolarabic, aka Mohammed Ali, has documented this on his blog where there are pics showing the mural’s progress.
Maybe if it said Feed The Middle Class, Aldi wouldn’t mind.
Agreed, although when was the last time you saw a middle-class person (bar a student) wander into Aldi?
It’s my guess that a mural of this size comes with a requirement for planning permission. If it’s got that there is little Aldi could do.
Personally I don’t really like it from an aesthetic point of view (personal opinion, I can dislike a piece of art, so don’t shoot me). While I agree with the sentiment, I can think of areas that could do with the point hammered home more than one of our most economically deprived ones.
I’m fully behind Mohammed and his mural – it’s the community who will appreciate the artwork and they are, after all, Aldi’s customers.
As for Aldi, in all honesty, this has nothing to do with them because it’s not their building. They can’t argue that it will affect their business anymore than if there were vandalism on a any other neihgbouring building.
If there was, Aldi wouldn’t prioritise having it removed as it wouldn’t be their building and therefore not their responsibility.
Clearly the ‘message’ here is what the fuss is all about. ‘Feed the poor’ doesn’t really wash with big corporations who exploit the poor in order the make a quick buck…
What sort of person has a problem with the idea of helping those less fortunate than themselves (be it in’yer’face or not)? The answer, the sort of person who is stuck in his happy little bubble of ignorance and selfcentred content. This project is an amazing display of art, but rather more so makes you think instantly of those less fortunate then yourself who are in need. I am pretty sure that if the same projects lettering was changed to ‘££ALDI’s PRICES ARE LOW££’ they, nor the manager would have one iota of negativity towards it and perhaps would encourage a nice little price list sprayed up there too. INCREASE AWARENESS.
@Abdul Some people don’t like graffiti style art, no matter what it says. Rightly or wrongly (wrongly I my opinion, but they are entitled to their artistic judgement) they believe that it contributes to an air of lawlessness.
No-one has reported what Aldi’s manager or the Police have said, that Aldi don’t like it is neither here nor there if the work has permission (from the building’s owners, which it seems to, and also from the local council planning dept, if it needs permission under law).