A Mural from Ground Up
Documenting our process with a traditional wall paint on an up cycled wall surface
Hello folks,
We’ve been kept busy over the last few months, one of which was being involved on our first mural project! Bingyu from Ground-up Initiative (GUI), a non-profit organization in Singapore that uses community farming and other experiential activities to bring people together kampung style, reached out to us about making a mural with our paints!
For our non-Singaporean readers, kampung is a Malay word for village, and today the kampung spirit is used to allude to the sense of community and shared solidarity in those times - feelings we often share when we visit GUI.
We said yes, feeling pretty excited to be given the opportunity to experiment. Paint binders we had initially experimented with was intended for wood. We had recently attended an online class taught by Caroline Nicolay on paints made during the iron age with earth, and we were both quite fascinated by the whole alchemical process.
Our interest in exploring natural wall paints began from our observations of modern outdoor wall paints, including at our own studio. Mainly derived from acrylic polymers, we would often find many plastic flakes that would break off from the parent wall into the soil. These eventually become microplastics which are difficult to remove.
The wall that we were asked to paint on was made from a new kind of material - upcycled LCD glass. The surface was surprisingly brittle; rubbing the panels would release powdery bits that feel like grains of sand. Yet the material is strong enough when compressed into panels for construction. We were told that the wall panels are waterproof, fireproof, and able to maintain consistent temperature indoors.
To bring back a piece to do some material tests in our studio, Bingyu literally sliced a segment of the panel off for us like a piece of (sandy) cake using only a screwdriver! The overall panel was a lot lighter than we had anticipated and we had no issues bringing it back to the studio in a bag.
We still had fragments of an earth oven built and well-used by the GUI community from their first site, which they had to break apart after moving out.
The LCD glass wall is structurally porous, which made painting it very tricky. Every brush, however heavily loaded in paint, just kept sinking into the little holes giving it an uneven texture.
Priming was necessary before applying the pigments, which we started with a thick layer of lime paste or hydrated calcium oxide powder. This step took us the longest, using up to five coats of lime paste needed.
We also made some mistakes, such as forgetting about how hydrating calcium oxide generates lots of heat, accidentally melting a plastic bucket in the process.
As lime is mixed with casein, a protein formed through acidified milk, a durable polymer for painting is created. Through our material trials, we learnt that casein imparts a plasticky texture to the paint helping to create a resist. Whereas on its own, lime rubs off quite easily when wet.
The wall faces direct strong afternoon sun making it unsuitable for plant pigments. Fragments from the old earth oven were the perfect pigments for this mural! The earth oven gave light yellow and peach-pink colours, and used pottery clay that we shared about in a previous letter gave a contrasting purplish-brown.
Upon finding out that the mural was made from the old earth oven, some volunteers came up to us to ask about the earth oven paints. We are super grateful for how this turned out in the end, despite a challenging start.
But all is well now! The mural depicts the growth of a tree from a seed into overarching shade that protects others - our hopes for this community in the years to come!
Being the first time we test these paints out, we will be certainly be observing how it responds to the environment over time!
Much gratitude to the GUI team for having us do this! We will be back soon!
Upcoming Public Events:
Market at Mandai Rainforest Resort (29 to 30 Nov, 10am to 6pm)
This weekend, we will have a booth at the Rainforest Festival organized by GREEN-HOUSE Hangout at Mandai Rainforest Resort.
Drop by if you can to say hi!
Living Earth Festival (5 to 7 Dec, multiple timings)
The Living Earth Festival organized by Living Soil Asia will be a three-day celebration of soil, land, food, and community — where urban life meets the roots of nature.
The community canvases that participants from our earth exploration and painting sessions in June will become part of the Living Map installation at this festival! Come down to learn more about the stories of the land beneath our feet together.
Till next letter,
Liz and Shirin