Mohammed Ali is a British Bangladeshi artist from Birmingham. He has recently been spending time back in the East End’s Banglatown where he has family connections (as well as Bangladesh itself), listening to stories from the local community to create a mural to celebrate 50 years of Bangladeshi independence.
Coming from a graffiti background, Mohammed moved into mural painting and filmmaking. He runs the arts organisation, Soul City Arts and is a trustee of the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.
We managed to squeeze in this recording at our studio late one night during the creation of the piece. We talk a lot about the mural itself and its important role in giving a platform to the prominent, yet underrepresented Begali community in the urban art world.
There has since been some high profile pieces, critical about the commissioned nature of the mural by Tower Hamlets, written in National papers. As these chats aren’t scripted we didn’t go down that route this time so I didn’t get his take on this.
I hope though that this recording can be a testament to Mohammed’s personal connection to the community and his genuine desire to represent the people in his art as well as his integrity as an artist and human.
You can find out more about Mohammed on his instagram here @aliaerosol
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