Female Artists Take Leake Street for Femme Fierce 2014

The famous Leake Street Tunnel in the arches underneath Waterloo Station has never seen anything quite like this. It’s previously dark graffiti daubed walls had been turned bright pink by over 100 female street artists for Femme Fierce. All preparing their ground for an assault on a spray painting world record to raise money for Breast Cancer Awareness. It’s also to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Part of the week long Femme Fierce series of events. The intention was to create the worlds largest continuous spray paint mural by multiple artists. Paint having been donated by the Forest Recycling Project. The walls were prepped in order to give a consistent background. It was then up to the artists. Each with different styles to create their own work. Finally they would attempt to blend in with others around them.

The walls of the Leake Street tunnel have never been so bright

Ayaan Bulale from Street Art Agency giving a morning briefing to all the artists

Leake Street Takeover

Organised by Ayaan Bulale from the Street Art Agency. It was also and supported by Earthtone Arts based out of Hackney Wick’s Cre8 Gallery. The Femme Fierce Leake Street Takeover has evolved into one of the most ambitious street art projects ever held in London. Artists from all over the world were joined by art lovers and curious passers by. Also a whole host of interested media outlets. They brought lights, cameras and action to the tunnels once murky archways.

For the women involved it was also an opportunity to meet other female artists. It has been considered a medium which has been seen as male dominated. A number of the artists told me that even they had sometimes assumed that works seen on the street had been drawn by men. It was only here that they realised that much of the art on the streets is produced by women. Spanish artist Boxhead summarised things by saying “people think I’m a guy just because I do street art”. Before the Femme Fierce event it seem that this was the default position.

A barrel of Femme Fierce Pink paint donated by the Forest Recycling Project

Female Street Artists

Many of the artists told a similar story. All expressed how glad they were to meet other women who were interested in the same thing. London’s Karis Knight told me how inspirational it felt to be in the company of established female artists. People such as Norway’s Zina, the UK’s Artista and Sweden’s Amara Por Dios. “They are just so incredibly talented. It’s really nice to know that you’re not the only girl doing it” she told me.

For Cbloxx, a professional muralist from Leeds the opportunity to come and take part was too good a chance to pass up. “It’s a chance to showcase what we can do” she told me. “It’s such a male dominated scene. It’s just nice to hook up with a load of girls and just recognise what everyones doing”. French artist Zabou told me a similar tale. Saying that she had previously known of only about 5-10 female street artists but now, “it’s like woah!!! We are quite a lot, you know!” She’s right, the scene is big and getting bigger amongst women.

Zabou next to her 'Girls Reload' image — Zabou next to her ‘Girls Reload’ image

Ayaan Bulale from the Street Art Agency next to work from Hannah Adamaszek

Banksy Tunnel Turned Pink

Such is the nature of the tunnel. It was first made famous as a legal graffiti spot when Banksy hosted his Cans Festival there in 2008. The art on the walls will no doubt not last long. The art is ever changing and finally the pink will begin to fade. Reclaimed eventually by the many other writers and street artists who will slowly retake the walls. The impact, left though by this celebration of female street art won’t go away anytime soon. The cat is well and truly out of the bag and the girls are here to stay.

The Femme Fierce Leake Street Takeover took place on Saturday 8th March at the Leake Street Tunnel in Waterloo. It featured 100 female street artists in an attempt to create the World’s largest continuous mural by multiple artists.