Secret Skwadron
Location: The Rayback Collective (2775 Valmont St.)
“Community”
Secret Skwadron is a Denver-based crew of around 20 members tied together by graffiti, hip hop, and skateboarding. The collective uses pop culture references and illustrative styles to create fun and engaging work that’s rooted in contemporary culture and current events. The group’s name originated as a title to Chris Haven’s album “SecretSkwadron Signal Sessions,” and later translated over to the graffiti crew. Since the birth of the collective, Secret Skwadron has created many songs and performances and painted many walls together. Chris, Nice, Guts, The Dream Company (Only and Dboe), and Pin Pusher were involved in this mural project.
Those familiar with the graffiti scene in Denver may recognize Haven’s pyramid people in the mural. The artist always wanted a character of his own once he started writing graffiti, and the pyramid people developed organically as a symbol of the crew. Chris ultimately made them three-dimensional and added human-like characteristics. He has been painting the pyramid people for many years now, and it has developed into its own world.
Several pyramid people inhabit the skatepark scene created in the mural, along with characters and elements created by Pin Pusher, The Dream Company (Only and Dboe), Nice, and Guts. A colorful cityscape surrounds the skatepark. Pin Pusher’s signature character resembling a voodoo doll with X-eyes and doll-like extremities appears throughout the scene, one about to drop in and the other sliding across the rail. The Dream Company also incorporates its polar bear wearing sunglasses with a relaxed disposition, one skating along and another with his skateboard snapped in half. Birds, some with one eye and some with three, created by Guts also join the crowd. It’s a friendly and energetic scene with characters cheering each other on and enjoying each other’s company.
The project was meant to represent community through the various characters. The skatepark setting is a great representation of a collection of people that transcends race, gender, culture, religion, sexual orientation, or any other division. It is a community that looks out for each other!
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