Naturally, when you stumble upon an abandoned ship from 1979, the given next step is to make it into the largest art piece around. DuDug, an international art collective, has taken such vessel under its wing and is transforming the once-revered cruise liner – but now rusting – Duke of Lancaster into an all-encompassing graffiti art project.
Being referred to as The Black Duke of Lancaster, the deteriorating ship sitting in a dry dock in North Wales has adorned contributions by artists including Fat Heat, Lora Zombie, and Fin DAC. With a total of eight pieces covering its exterior, the ship stuck in time is a growing gallery of large-scale paintings showcasing the clash of yesterday and today. With a history just as interesting as it appears, the liner built around cold war-era circumstances has seen its days of mystery and secrecy before it made its final stop at the shore of Llanerch-y-Mor.
As clues and documents provide more information surrounding the abandoned ship, the more willing the art collective is to continue the restoration of it as symbol of where the United Kingdom stood when it was built and how it parallels where the country stands today on a global scale.
Graffiti has a natural grit to it and out of that comes a sense of the reality behind the art. With the rise of street art culture, graffiti continues to evolve and take new forms in how it translates to broader audiences.
In the future, plans to cover the ship in its entirety with graffiti are set in order for a new tourist attraction to be born but more importantly to bring awareness of why the ship exists and why it was abandoned. Either way, it sure makes for one of the most visually-stunning art galleries around. Check the photos below:
– Juan Frausto
(Photo Credit: DuDug, Dan Callister, Rex Feature, Kez, Fat Heat)
Think people should hear about this?