Monday, February 12, 2018

Two Bears in Downtown Phoenix


There is a brand new mural in downtown Phoenix located on Central Avenue on the side of the historic Heard Building.  It depicts two bears but there is something a little different about these bears.  They appear to have parts of them covered with some type of black form.

The mural was painted by the Swiss team called Nevercrew. The artists are Christian Rebecchi and Pablo Togni.















The bears are 100 feet high and it took the artists 5 days to complete the mural, just finishing on February 9th.

The artists say the bears represent the Mexican brown bear which has become extinct and the black forms on them represent forms of communication that are no longer used or extinct in their own way.























Below the bears and partially hidden by the building next door, are a row of rather strange looking machines.  These appear to also have something to do with communication.  I read that there is another mural inside the lobby of the building.  I'll have to make my way back there to see it sometime soon.

Nevercrew have been painting murals together for 20 years but, they only have a couple in the United States and this is their first in Arizona.

13 comments:

Andy said...

The massive size of the mural makes it look awesome.

Christine said...

Sad to learn that these bears are extinct but this is a fantastic mural to commemorate them.

biebkriebels said...

A mural with a message to think about. So many things are disappearing nowadays. Very well painted.

PerthDailyPhoto said...

Murals that draw attention to the plight of animals are fabulous Sharon, so sad to think we were too late to save the brown bears, shocking really 😶

Judy Ryer said...

Interesting! I can't make out what the black part represents but the bears stand out well.

Lowell said...

I thought the bears were wearing teddies and thus were teddy bears. As for those machines, I dunno. Maybe some new type of slot machine? Fun murals in any case and a cool find on your part. Do you drive around looking for murals? We don't have very many here. We do have bears, though, and sometimes they show up in the downtown area and have to be rounded up and taken back into the woods and set free.

William Kendall said...

Unusual! I like this one.

Lois said...

It's amazing to me that they were able to complete this beautiful mural in only 5 days!

RedPat said...

It is really hard to make out what the shiny black stuff could be. I hate to hear of another species becoming extinct.

Bill said...

I love bears and this mural is well done. It's sad to hear that the Mexican brown bear is extinct, I didn't know that.

Catalyst said...

I was reading a story yesterday about the artist in which it said at age 87 he still refuses to explain his art. That's what this mural brings to my mind.

Steve Reed said...

When you said the artists were Swiss, I thought, "Well that explains it -- the bears have been dipped in chocolate!" (Aren't the Swiss famous for chocolate? Or am I making that up?)

I don't really get the representation of communication -- maybe the interior mural will clarify.

Jack said...

Even after reading the explanation, I am a bit puzzled about the bears. It might be a bit too intellectualized for me.