Rejoicify, fellow Ozians! Brick Lane has been swankified in celebration of movie musical Wicked: For Good. For more than one short day, film fans can walk down the Yellow Brick Lane and discover magical artworks demonstrating that pink does indeed go good with green.
Last year Greenwich was temporarily transformed into ‘GreenWitch’ to tie in with Academy Award-winning film Wicked. Now the publicity team has sprinkled even more Ozdust over an iconic London location ahead of its sequel hitting cinemas this week.
Six artists worked tirelessly alongside a team over the weekend to transform Brick Lane into a Wicked-themed art trail, with murals and installations paying tribute to Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba and Ariana Grande’s Glinda — as well as a squadron of flying monkeys. All of their designs have been kept so top secret that the artists didn’t even know who else would be creating and what their designs would be until they arrived on Brick Lane.
Swathes of paving has been turned into a literal Yellow Brick Road for residents and visitors alike to follow, follow, follow. Eagle-eyed pedestrians will also be able to spot life-sized portraits of characters peering from windows of the Truman Brewery Bridge, along with themed street signage and stickers.
Even Storm Claudia and 24 hours of near-constant rainfall couldn’t prevent east London’s most famous street from going Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Industrial drying machines, tents and sandbags were all employed to ensure the efficient yellow-fication of the road.
Heritage fans need not fear for Brick Lane’s long-term future. All the murals have been made on vinyl coating to allow for ease of removal come December 2. The yellow road paint will wash off easily — and avoids the historic cobblestones. Lord Lloyd Webber’s rogue painting of the Adelphi Theatre facade to promote Phantom, this is not.
Professional graffiti artist Mr Cenz has created a portrait of Erivo and Grande as their characters in his signature “futuristic funky” style. “I've been allowed to let loose and create something special,” he told The Standard. “I've had the freedom to just to go a bit crazy and make it into something unique and powerful.”
Mr Cenz is a regular on Brick Lane, having honed his freestyle spray-painting technique on its walls for over 20 years. The Wicked: For Good commission was something new, however. “I normally just do solo portraits, so doing the two together, showing the contrast of the two characters, their relationship, and the magical side of the movie in my style? I’m excited by it.”
Graffiti artist and illustrator Tom Blackford is also a regular on Brick Lane. He opted to paint a flock of flying monkeys taking to the sky and looking appropriately menacing. “I wanted to choose characters from the movie that were maybe a little less obvious,” he explained. “The flying monkeys spoke to me because they leaned towards the aesthetic of my work and its slightly darker imagery.”
Wicked’s backstory for the Wicked Witch’s airborne minions explore the musical’s themes of animal agency and the harms of uncontrolled magic. But most importantly, they look really cool. “They’re visually interesting and absolutely terrifying in a fun and amazing way,” says Blackford. “Something about a flying primate speaks to an evolutionary fear.”
In contrast, the mural created by street artist Sophie Mess is one of blooming hope. Instead of picking a specific character, she’s painted the film’s tagline ‘For Good’ in large typography shot through with her signature giant florals.
“I often incorporate text in my pieces that have very uplifting and positive underlying messages, which I thought tied in really well with the themes of the movie,” Mess explained. “I focused on the signature pink and green, which is an easy win for me because I'm all about the bright colours.”
Mess used 10 shades of pink and ten of green to create her piece, which incorporates tulips as a nod to the vibrant flower fields of Munchkinland. Although she now lives in Devon, Mess is a former Londoner and often painted around east London. “It feels like going back to very familiar territory,” she said.
Leeds-based artist Nicholas Dixon also packed a suitcase full of paint (six pink and six green) to make the journey to London, in what will be his first piece for Brick Lane. Titled When Worlds Collide, his piece has two overlapping circles filled with typography inspired by the lettering of the original Wicked of Oz film and the first Wicked film.
“It’s portraying duality, and individual virtues such as forgiveness, honesty and empathy,” Dixon explained. “There's a strong message there, especially in an ever-changing world, to never judge a book by cover.”
Dixon freestyles his designs and allows each painting to take him where he feels it should go. “Every piece is totally unique,” he said. “I surprise myself sometimes.” Also, unlike many street artists, he prefers to work with a brush rather than a spray can. “I’m a bit stubborn like that,” he said. “The lines are sharp and the finish is flat and clean. You wouldn’t get the same finish with spray, so I’d rather it takes me a little bit longer.”
Australian-born English artist Jimmy C was torn between realising Glinda or Elphaba in his unique drip painting style. So he was delighted when he was given two walls to work with. Glinda, who famously travels by bubble, is rendered with a constellation of soapy bubbles.
“Circles have been a big theme of my work for many years, and those circles sometimes get interpreted as spheres or as atoms, sometimes planets and bubbles,” he explained. “One of my paintings in Shoreditch has been called the ‘bubble lady’. So it was logical for me to transform Glinda into one of my bubble ladies.”
Elphaba, one the other hand, leant herself to Jimmy C’s “scribble paintings”, formed of layers of frenetic spray-painted squiggles. “The lines emanating out gives her the impression that she's very powerful, because she is the most powerful character in the story,” he explains. Again, both murals took a sizeable amount of paint shades to create — 30 different cans for Glinda and 25 for Elphaba.
Abstract expressionist Taya De La Cruz has applied her unique artistic process to Wicked: For Good, using medical-grade syringes to create precise drips of resin and acrylic. She created two matching doors, one pink and one green, to symbolise the relationship between Elphaba and Glinda and the ways they seek goodness — and ultimately find it in each other.
“They have different elements of each other's doors, because their stories and journeys are so intertwined and their journeys are so intertwined,” De La Cruz explained. “The installation acts as a portal into the spectrum of what goodness actually is. Once you step through those doors, who do you become after the choices that you make?”
Unlike the other artists, De La Cruz assembled the doors at home ahead of the install. “I commandeered my kitchen, because my studio is not big enough,” she said. “My poor husband was living in pink and green.”
Brick Lane is also a meaningful place for De La Cruz to display her work. “It feels like a homecoming, because I started my art career in the Truman Brewery with The Other Art Fair. So it holds a very special place in my heart,” she said. “More than anything, I love the concept that we're bringing something tangible from Emerald City into London,” she added.
“It'll be a great experience for all Wicked fans to immerse themselves in it.”
Wicked: For Good is in cinemas on November 21
