By Ulelli Verbeke

The pictures of graffiti are a few excerpts I displayed from my first photo exhibition, Guy-Braz Photographic Exhibition and Conference Guyana, Brazil and De colonization, coordinated and presented by Priscila F. Pascoal

I had traveled to Brazil from Guyana with my partner Priscila in January of 2013 to visit her family and friends in Brasilia; it took us almost 2 weeks to get there. We had taken the journey over land travelling the Amazon River on the last boat of the year, that itself took us 6 days, with us both getting ill on the way.

One of the things that stood out for me was the graffiti. In every town I visited graffiti was never absent. Even Darcy Ribeiro Campus – University of Brasilia graffiti is ever present.

The Pussy Riot and Tamo Por Favor and many others (not in this album) are a feminist protest campaign against gender based violence, these were done by a group of young diverse feminist women in Brasília. Priscila was part of the planning of this project and she took me, in all of our tiredness, to the tunnel one night to see the work that was done there, she had said, “it’s not a safe place to be”. I remember us laughing at the thrill of it all as we ran back to the safety of the car after. The other photos of graffiti were taken in Riacho Fundo, Brasilia.