Murals: Markers of Time Past and Present
4/28/18
I live in a co op with fifty other students. The house we live in was once home to a cult in the 1960s and later became a fraternity before finally becoming what it is today: a lower cost housing option for students, a home for students from all sorts of backgrounds, and a place that has given me and many others the opportunity to meet wonderfully vibrant and driven individuals. Obviously the house has undergone some major culture shifts between the transitions from cultists to frat bros to co opers. But the house also changes now from semester to semester as new co op members filter in and out, and I think these changes are best physically represented by the house murals, a type of art that I have come to closely associate with the co op (cooperative living) system.
Dr Suess mural on the third floor
The murals are like markers of time past. The variation in styles, subject matter, and placement offer us both an idea of the individuals(s) who painted each mural and the house culture of that time.
Talented portraits of David Bowie on the second floor
Like the people who come and go, murals can be painted over with white paint so that a new mural can replace it, a mural more representative of the people most currently inhabiting the space. The decision to paint over old murals is voted on during council and is passed as a motion democratically. There are some murals that have been here for many years and some that are only a few months old. The paint on our walls are a collection and meeting ground of the past and present, and the blank walls, for the sake of this metaphor, can signify the future.
The murals aren't always beautiful, but I love most of them anyway because of their oxymoronic function as temporary record keepers and because they present us with an echo of the vibrant characters who painted them.
Perhaps one of the things that I love most about this house is the fact that even though I've been living here for eight months, there are still days when I discover something on the walls that I haven't seen before, whether that be posters, words, or a tucked away mural. And of course there are all of those murals in people's bedrooms, many of which I haven't laid eyes on.
As for my room, there aren't currently any murals residing on these walls. I'm sure if I were an artist I'd be tempted to paint something, to leave a piece of me here. Unfortunately I am no artist and perhaps appropriately there are no paintings and only words on my walls. But I love that I sleep in a room adorned with poetry. And not just words that I love, but words that strangers before me loved enough to decorate their temporary room in and leave for future dwellers to see.
Whether it's a mural, poetry, or lyrics to a Pink Floyd song, I'll smile at each new discovery and wonder who put it there for me to find like an unintended treasure, or a good joke a friend whispers to you in a quiet room.
