Scratching the Surface — Old Truman Brewery

On Dray Walk at the Old Truman Brewery, this July 2009 intervention was among the earliest public manifestations of Scratching the Surface in London, coinciding with Vhils' first UK solo exhibition, at Lazarides. The former brewery complex had shifted from an industrial powerhouse into one of the city's leading centres for contemporary art and creative production. Vhils worked the wall's surface to expose the layers beneath it, engaging a site continually reshaped by cycles of production, abandonment and cultural reinvention. Though the intervention has since disappeared, it belongs to a pivotal moment when the project expanded beyond Lisbon into Europe's post-industrial urban landscapes. Photo: Miguel Moore.