By John Chenier
We have all seen the results of graffiti artists gone wild. For late-night strollers and early-morning risers, a series of shuttered shops can almost be like visiting a down-on-its-luck art gallery. While some graffiti can be artistic and at times entertaining, most are downright ugly, and a few are even worse — a catch-all of offensive words or symbols.
While graffiti is only a temporary eyesore for passersby, for shopkeepers there is the expense of removing it. Removing paint from a metal shutter is neither easy nor cheap. Fortunately, a group of people and organizations working together have come up with a solution for the shops in the Byward Market.
With inspiration from John Diener of Salsove’s Meat Market, support from the Digital Operations and Preservation Branch of Library and Archives Canada, the technological know-how of a local printing firm, coordination by the Byward BIA and financial assistance through an anti-graffiti grant from the city, the problem may have been solved.
Diener put forward the idea of covering the shutters with images of the original shopkeepers. When he discovered that Library and Archives Canada had a collection of photos of the Byward Market shops circa 1930 that could be digitized and expanded to fit store shutters, it was clear to him that was the way to go. Initially the plan was to match the current and historical shop address, but that proved too difficult. In the end, it was decided to use the best photos even if they depicted shops that were a few doors away from the shutters they would cover.
Once the photos were chosen, what remained was the difficult task of applying the images to the shutters which consist of metal slats which fit nicely together when the shutters are down, but which separate when they are rolled up. The challenges multiply when working with shutters that could be made from different metals, have been used for years and are not necessarily in pristine condition.
The first line in the promotional material of Sérigraphie Albion Screen Printing of Gatineau states: “We print on most anything.” While they couldn’t print directly on metal shutters, they could print on material that would adhere to them, with the added benefit that anything sprayed on could be easily removed. So far four shops along ByWard Market Square have been done successfully, and there has only been one case where the film did not adhere to the shutter. However, Albion has been able to come up with a treatment for the metal to solve the problem.
According to Byward BIA director Jasna Jennings, the Wine Rack, with its very wide store front, was to be left until the end because it stayed open so late at night. However, it also did not open until later in the morning, which left early shoppers looking at an ugly shutter.
Morning shoppers now see an image of proud shopkeepers posing in front of their store like the photo above, perhaps bringing them back to a time when there were no cans of spray paint on the store-shelves and no need for roll-down shutters.