Roma & Sam create the giant of Ballester
I spent an afternoon with Roma last week, and he took me around his neighbourhood of Villa Ballester to show me some of his latest pieces. I always like visiting Ballester. It’s just outside of the capital and is full of beautiful street art which looks especially striking in the context of Ballester’s modest low rise residential streets.
Roma’s latest mural is a collaboration with Sam. Both artists favour abstract forms and vibrant colours and their styles complement each other perfectly. The piece is gigantic. A 40 metre giant, composed of swirling shapes and psychedelic colours reclines against the wall of a printing warehouse. Each section of the giant has been beautifully detailed, and each body part is a work of art in itself.
It’s incredibly difficult for photos to do the piece justice – there is no way to recreate the sensation of walking along a quiet residential road and discovering a 40 metre giant. The only people who will ever really experience the full impact of this piece are a handful of local residents, which is exactly how Roma wants it to be. This humble barrio is slowly transforming into what could be called the abstract graffiti capital of Latin America.
Jonny Robson