A NEW mural has been officially unveiled at the public toilets at Corbière.
Artist Ben Robertson, also known as BOKRA, is behind the artwork, which was completed over the summer in partnership with Year 9 art students from Grainville School.
Mr Robertson has created many murals across Jersey including one to mark the 200th anniversary of the RNLI at the Albert Pier lifeboat station and another on Jersey Oak’s building on Seale Street.
He said that ahead of this latest project he was given a “loose brief” to base the mural in the Island and Corbière, and to mark 150 years since the lighthouse was first lit.
With this in mind, and armed with a stack of books and folder of images, he created a mural that is packed with references to the area’s history.
Mr Robertson’s designs focused on three different topics, with the left-hand panel representing shipping, the central panel representing tourism and the right-hand panel representing nature.
The first section was the result of meticulous research.
“Shipping is a big part of the area of Corbière,” he said.
The mural features a shipwreck and tide tables. Other references include nautical flags spelling out the words “take heed”, a cross-section of Corbière Lighthouse and a picture of the 1995 Channiland ferry disaster.
The passenger ferry Channiland St Malo sank while travelling from Jersey to Sark. It was carrying 300 people, but there were no fatalities.
The section on tourism includes references to the area’s appeal since the 19th century, with Mr Robertson’s design featuring a steam train on what is now the Railway Walk.
The crows depicted represent the area’s name, which translates to “a place where crows gather”, he said.
The right-hand area was inspired in part by the wildlife Mr Robertson saw over the summer, when he spent his days painting the mural.
“A lot of information has come from being on site for six weeks,” he explained.
During that time, he noticed green lizards, butterflies, granite, ragwort and more, which he included in the mural. Students from Grainville worked with Mr Robertson for six weeks to help design and create the mural.
The project was commissioned by Jersey Property Holdings.
