Above Beyond Below Mural

When visiting Seaham there is plenty to see. Eleven O One AKA Tommy has helped make the Town a busy tourist destination. Above Below Beyond is a mural in the St Johns area of Seaham which is a bit quieter. It is on the side of a three-story licensed coffee house called The Volunteer.

You may notice the mural is in the manner of the traditional trade union banner that is familiar and popular in the north, particularly miners.

The miners depicted are not real people, their images are typical cheery-looking men after a hard day down the mine. You can tell as their faces are grimy from the coal.

The red and gold framing resembles the silk threads that were used in the banners.

Artist Jamie Holman and Producer Alex Zawadzki as 'Uncultured Creativity' designed the work and Cosmo Sarson painted it with paint brushes: He is a classically trained fine artist.

Look closer and you can see brush marks. No spray cans are to be seen here.

Cosmo has a varied career, best known for Breakdancing Jesus. He has worked on film sets, from a blog called Inspiring City he says “One minute I'm doing graffiti. The next I'm doing frescos, faking oil paintings or painting a tapestry. It can jump from anything to anything”.

Uncultured Creativity spent time in the community gathering ideas and the Miners Banner was a popular choice. On their website they explain:

Above Below Beyond (was a) Response to a 10 month project working with young people across East Durham.

Above: Three storey painting of a miners' banner installed on The Volunteer Arms.

Below: A series of new miners banners will be paraded at Durham Miners Gala.

Beyond: A new website utilising the iconography of mining heritage remains as a legacy of the project.

Below is their logo for the project.

East Durham Creates (now called No More Nowt) commissioned this work. The project ran from Aug 2019 to May 2020 with the mural completed by August 2020.

This striking artwork certainly catches your attention when walking or driving past it.