Canada’s Largest Mural

Old St. Triple JOOO’s

By RISK (Los Angeles, USA)
Curated by KWEST (Toronto, ON)

Old St. Joseph’s Hospital, 700 Paris Street, Sudbury, Ontario
August 2019, Up Here 5

Legendary graffiti artist RISK has shattered the record for the largest mural in Canada. The 74,000 square foot mural was created on the abandoned walls of the old St. Joseph’s Hospital in Sudbury, Ontario between August 13th to 26th 2019 as part of Up Here festival.

Up Here worked with guest curator and contemporary graffiti-sculptor KWEST to attract Kelly Graval (RISK), who’s known for his large-scale, intensely colourful pieces of public art. It took 860 gallons of paint, five people on RISK’s crew, 24 people on the local crew, 1500+ volunteer hours, three lifts and one crane to create this stunning work of art.

Old St. Triple JOOO’s

This is the latest piece in Kelly Graval’s Triple O series, which is based on object-oriented ontology, and the theory of unified realities.

RISK's goal is to create hyperobjects that leave lasting effects on the viewer. He achieves this by pursuing total coverage of buildings with his vibrant colour palette.

Graval was inspired by Heidegger’s philosophy that we take for granted things that are normal. If things were nothing but their visibility "they wouldn't surprise us". This reveals a missing link, or a mystery to them, and there is indeed a mystery "living" in everything.

In this art activation, Graval focused on a mundane dilapidated building that had a vast history. He chose the old St. Joseph’s Hospital in Sudbury, Canada because of the community’s affiliation with the site—most of the people in the area were born there, and had an incredible memory of it.

As most of the stories focused on an ending, he took on the goal of bringing new life to the building and opening it up to a new interpretation.

Graval's public works are usually large colour field paintings, he strives to evoke emotion with colour, staying true to his graffiti roots by using a colour palette from his formidable years as a graffiti artist.

For this building, he added delicate butterflies, which provides an energetic new thought, as a real object, the old vandalized building, is transformed into a sensual one… the caterpillar to the butterfly.

The ambitious project was made possible thanks to the support of Panoramic Properties, PPG Canada, Dulux Paints, Equipment World, Cooper Equipment Rentals, Surface Art, Garson Pipe Contractors, and hundreds of donors across Greater Sudbury.