LUAP creates Recollection Of Innocence, a large-scale Mural for SKOG42 in Karlsruhe, Germany. Developed from original Photography of The Pink Bear, the work combines halftone, pattern and layered paint across the store’s interior wall.
The commission began after SKOG42 founder and designer Evelyn Engel encountered The Pink Bear in London in 2014. A photograph of the figure sitting in a tree caught her attention and led to an invitation for LUAP to create a permanent work for the Karlsruhe store.
For the six-metre-wide wall, LUAP returned to that woodland photograph and reworked it at architectural scale. Sections of the original image remain sharply recognisable, while others are broken apart through halftone, repeated pattern, paint washes and gestural marks.
The finished Mural moves between photographic detail and areas where the image becomes less fixed. The Pink Bear and tree remain central, while surrounding sections dissolve into white, silver, drips, scratches and layered surfaces.
Rather than simply enlarging the source photograph, LUAP used the commission to change the way the image sits within the space. Some areas appear newly applied, while others seem partially covered or exposed, giving the Mural the sense of an image that has accumulated over time.
The restrained black, white and silver palette allows those shifts in surface to carry much of the visual weight. At full scale, the work becomes part of the architecture of the store, extending across the wall rather than behaving like a separate image placed within it.
The Mural was completed on site over two intensive days in Karlsruhe and unveiled at SKOG42 in November 2014.
The project later developed into a further collaboration, with Recollection Of Innocence adapted into a limited-edition scarf with SKOG42 and Mala & Mad to raise money for children living on the streets in Nepal.
The making of the Mural was documented in a time-lapse film by Alexander Küpper, with music by Shahrokh Dini.
camera | video editing: ALEXANDER KÜPPER - music: SHAHROKH DINI
The finished Pink Bear mural at Skog 42
Opening night at Skog 42
