A huge mural depicting teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg submerged in icy water has been unveiled in Bristol.
The artwork took Jody Thomas more than a fortnight to create and stretches the entire height of the Tobacco Factory’s 15-metre tall building.
Mr Thomas, who was part of Barton Hill youth centre’s legendary Aerosol Art Project alongside Banksy in the 1980s, created the piece as part of Summer Editions by Upfest, Europe’s largest street art festival, which has seen creatives decorate the city since mid-April.
“She’s very much in the limelight, very current, very contemporary and she’s obviously clearly leading a very, very important issue which affects all of us on the planet,” Mr Thomas told Huffington Post.
“She has a very fearless style, tells it exactly how it is and lets everyone have it with both barrels.”
The Swedish environmentalist became a household name after her decision to skip Friday classes to protest alone outside Sweden‘s parliament kick-started a wave of international school strikes.
Ms Thunberg, 16, was invited to address business leaders at Davos and met with Jeremy Corbyn, Michael Gove and Caroline Lucas during Extinction Rebellion‘s April protests, which prompted the government to declare a “climate emergency”.
Given the subject matter, Mr Thomas tried to minimise his use of conventional aerosol paint.
“65-70 percent of the wall was painted with water based paint with an electric spray gun powered by the Tobacco Factories solar cells,” he explained on Instagram.
“I used a minimum of conventional spray paint – around 25 full cans I’ve counted as this was a big consideration given the theme of the wall.”
An Upfest spokesperson wrote on Twitter: “Pictures say a thousand words, but in this instance the words of Greta Thunberg paint a thousand pictures.”
