00:00A new Billy Connolly mural has appeared in the city centre. Renowned street artist duo,
00:05Konzo Global, made up of Konzo Throb and Keenan Global, created the work at Nelson Mandela Place,
00:11showing the comedian in his big banana feet, paying tribute to Connolly and the Paisley
00:16Bourne artist John Byrne, taking inspiration from his painting. The work is self-initiated
00:21and was painted on the front of boarded up units. Konzo Global made headlines in 2023,
00:27when they painted a fake Banksy on a wall near the Goma, where at the time the official Banksy
00:33exhibition Cut and Run was taking place. They wanted to initiate conversation about the value
00:39of street art. As they noted, Glasgow City Council spends the most in covering up graffiti than any
00:44other city in the UK. They wanted to show hypocrisy within street art and graffiti, where some works
00:50are praised and some are removed without consideration for the artistic value. The pair
00:55posted their new work on Instagram with the caption, The Big Yin, a two-in-one ode to the legends Billy
01:01Connolly and the late great John Byrne and his painting, Billy Connolly Entertainer 2002.
01:08This makes the fourth mural in Glasgow dedicated to the comedian. The three others are each 50 foot
01:14tall and cover the side of buildings. They were commissioned in 2017 by BBC Scotland to commemorate
01:21his 75th birthday and highlight the different points in his career and are also part of Glasgow's
01:26official city centre mural trail. One is painted in the Galagate, another on the side of Hootenanny's
01:31barn, Dixon Street and the other just off of Osborne Street. It is the latter that caused controversy last
01:37year. When it was announced, it would be covered up as plans to build student accommodation and the site next to it had been approved.
01:44I think
Comments