In November I visited my brother and his wife in Chester. I was telling them about this boat I’d heard about that had some amazing graffiti on it. Turns out it wasn’t that far away, so off we went.
‘The Duke of Lancaster, a decommissioned cruise liner took up residence on the North Wales coastline in 1979, when the owners docked it there with plans to transform it into The Funship. The owners have faced an on-going, well publicised battle with the Council, who have consistently objected to every plan laid out by the owners.’ http://www.dudug.co.uk/
Latvian street artist Kiwie was the first artist to paint the The Duke of Lancaster with two pirate characters on the bows. All the pieces have a loose theme of corruption chosen by anarchist group Dudug who are coordinating the project with the permission of the owners.
Local, (Colwyn Bay) graff artists Cream Soda Crew were the second to paint on the ship with Eduk the Diver by Dime One and a collaborative effort with Japh Kash and Warpig on the ‘Boat that Shocks’ lettering.
Next was Bristol based artist Bungle with this monster piece titled ‘Face of Authority’.
French artist Goin came next with this thought provoking representation of see no evil etc. entitled ‘Council of Monkeys’. This is a fantastic piece and is huge!
Mr Zero and Fatheat from Hungary created two surreal character pieces, ‘The Prophets of Profit’. Mr Zeros’ piece is above and Fatheat below.
There is one other piece on the Black Duke, which I initially couldn’t find. Just as I had just about convinced myself that I had gone mad, I realised it was almost hidden.
My photos sadly don’t do this awesome piece by Fin Dac justice at all. The piece is on the stern of the boat and is only clearly visible if you have access to the dock. There were ways, but I still was on crutches at the time and got some very strange looks from a group of schoolchildren and their teacher at the position I managed to get myself in to take the pictures that I have.
The Black Duke is an ongoing project and I cannot wait to see what and who are on it next. Looks like I’m going to be heading to the welsh coast more often, and I bet I won’t be the only one.
fiona ferret graffiti - The Writing on the Wall 