‘I can’t breathe’ mural on Mill Road bridge ‘for victims of racism’

Graffiti artist Kyle Warwick used his skills to paint this stunning mural on Mill Road bridge.

Kyle took five hours to do the painting on Saturday.

“I got there about 11 in the morning, and finished around 4pm,” says the Cambridge artist, whose tattooing business is on hold. “I used spray paint with normal wall paint on the background.

“With current world events, and seeing everything on the news at the moment, there’s not a lot I can do but I wanted to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I painted this piece not only to spread awareness and try force this issue into the public’s faces, as it is so often undermined, but also to show my solidarity in fighting against racism.”

The face is not George Floyd’s, the 46-year-old whose death in Minneapolis, Minnesota last month was called a “modern-day lynching” and triggered a new determination to rid the world of racist ideology.

“Originally I wanted to paint faces of people who had been victims of racism,” says Kyle. “However, I decided I wanted this to stretch beyond that, I wanted to raise the issue not just the names. I wanted it to be nameless and faceless. I can only imagine that’s how many people from ethnic minorities must feel more often than not. It’s food for thought anyway, and I think we all have a lot of re-thinking to do.”

Kyle isn’t sure when his Four Candles Tattoo business will resume.

“I have a studio in Linton,” he says, “Mainly I do tattooing and oil painting, and graffiti, but when everything is back to normal I’ll be tattooing.”

The section underneath the bridge is often used to address issues and topics in the public eye, including this artwork from 2018 about Stephen Hawking.