Amplify - Mural Arts Philadelphia Mural Arts Philadelphia

location Union Transfer
Neighborhood
Center City
completion date
July 16, 2014

About the Project

To create the large gramophone mural for the Union Transfer music venue, the Restorative Justice Guild started by exploring the architecture of the building and surrounding neighborhood, and reflecting on properties of music, sound, and the amplification of voice. The abundance of ornament that wraps the interior of the venue served as a medium for Guild members to reinterpret, blend, form, and expand with drawing.

Installation shot of the mural. Photo by Steve Weinik.

Guild members explored the interior of Union Transfer and took hundreds of photographs. They then drew over photographs and borrowed segments of the building ornament to create a unique design. This exploratory design process eventually led the Guild members to combine all of the drawings together to create a large gramophone horn. Many of the unique designs are decorative but some are embedded with meaning. For example, an abstract portrait of a face muzzled with an X is positioned directly alongside the needle of the gramophone, and there are ornamental interpretations of a raised fist and a black beetle. The intensity of the positive energy within is revealed through the window segments.