Aerosol Arabic|Mohammed Ali creates a Tweeffiti masterpiece

This weekend internationally renowned graffiti artist Aerosol Arabic|Mohammed Ali paid a visit to Bullring to create a piece of artwork as part of Bullring’s Art Project.

Throughout Saturday and Sunday Mohammed worked on a unique piece of graffiti taking inspiration from the feelings and thoughts of Midlanders that were tweeted through a live Twitter feed displayed in Rotunda Square alongside the artwork. Using those tweets Mohammed created the unique Tweeffiti mural symbolising messages of hope, happiness and optimism.

We caught up with Mohammed to have a chat with him about Tweeffiti, Bullring and exactly what makes him feel happy…

“I do a lot of work travelling all over the globe so the Life Feels Better campaign was particularly interesting to me as I was born and raised in Birmingham” Mohammed says, “the Art Project ran by Bullring is happening in my city and I always have pleasure in offering something back to the city.”

Tweeffiti relied heavily on social networking site Twitter to seek inspiration, Mohammed revealed to us that he’s actually quite knowledgeable about technology following the Multimedia Art degree he did before turning to graffiti art full-time and states that the connectivity of digital media excites him. “It’s a global village that can bring people together in a really exciting way,” he says, “communicating with people online, sharing pictures and sending tweets is something that really excites me.

“Earlier today somebody posted on my Facebook profile that because of their location they were unable to get onto Twitter to send their message of happiness to be included on the mural so they posted it straight onto my Facebook page instead.”

The South Bank award-winning artist was born and bred in the UK’s second city and is excited to see the changes Bullring has undergone over the past few years. “So many decades on it’s great to be here and see how it has transformed” he commented before adding “I’m excited by real beauty, when you take something that’s ugly and transform it into something beautiful.”

When asked what makes him happy Mohammed simply answers “When I see people smile when I’ve created something – that’s what makes me feel happy. My skill is using colour to inspire and uplift people and I know I’ve done my duty when I’ve uplifted somebody with my work.”

With projects lined up in Dubai and Australia amongst others for 2010, Mohammed is also looking forward to returning to Birmingham as he states “there are more things I’d like to do like trying to spread more positivity throughout the city.”