The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
More examples of street art have been appearing in Spalding town centre.
One of the most striking is a representation of Tank Man, an unknown person who defiantly blocked tanks in Tiananmen Square, Beijing on June 5 1989, the day after the Chinese government violently ended a demonstration against it there.
Edgars Bokans created the image to mark the 33rd anniversary of its occurrence.
He said: “I’ve wanted to create this work for a few years,” said Edgars, who said the image had stuck with him. “It was just one man taking on a big tank.
“It’s particularly poignant now with everything that’s going on in the world, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
33-year-old Edgars took up graffiti in 2007 and working alongside brother-in-law Karl Barfoot, his work around the town has received praise and also led to South Holland District Council adopting a Street Art policy and identifying areas for it to be lawfully done.
This wasn’t one of those, but Edgars says he got permission from the new owners of the building which he says is to be a shop after previously being Lisboa Cafe in Short Street.
He’s also been commissioned to do a Ukrainian- themed mural in Leicester.
It adds to artwork in that area of Spalding by Peter Bird.
“I live along Church Lane and I’ve been trying to improve the area and hopefully deter some of the illegal graffiti in the area,” said Peter who works as a tiler as his day job.
“Myself and my wife Sandra are both Wombles and have a boat we take out to pick up litter on the waterways.
“We just want to make our area look better.”
