Homeless World Cup’s unofficial artist in residence
By Danielle Batist
English artist Andy Brown has painted over 150 stadiums across the world, but on Sunday, he painted a special one: the Homeless World Cup stadium in Seoul.
An unusual sight on Sunday morning on Pitch 1. In the far corner of the main stand, we spotted Brown in front of a large canvas on an easel. Paintbrush in hand, he kept moving his gaze from the pitch to the canvas, and back again. Slowly, a beautiful acrylic-based painting of the street soccer on the pitch started to emerge.
Brown turned out to be an artist with many unusual stories. As the Official Team Artist for the Great Britain baseball team, he travels the world, live-painting all of their games. He also made a portrait of the Queen of England out of a thousand teabags, which featured in a Trivial Pursuit question. And now, somehow, he had made it here.
He had arrived in Seoul a few days earlier to paint various sporting events, including the WTA Korea Open tennis tournament, when a journalist friend of his told him about the Homeless World Cup. He had never heard of it but was intrigued and decided to go check it out.
“Sport shows you so much about the culture of a place and its people”, Brown said. The Homeless World Cup has a culture of its own, he thinks.
“There is a very harmonious atmosphere here off the pitch. The games are obviously very competitive and matter a lot to the players, but then there is also this lovely, festival-like atmosphere where everyone helps each other. That is really like no other sporting event.”
Brown got a lot of interest from players and supporters as he carried on painting. He uses acrylic paint for all his matchday work: “That dries quick enough before the game is over,” he laughed.
Image: Angelica Ibarra Rodriquez
|Image: Angelica Ibarra Rodriquez
At the end of the day, he posted the result of his work on his Instagram account. Brown usually sells his artworks on his website, including print editions of it. He has already been in touch with Homeless World Cup staff to see how his work may be able to benefit the organisation.
Words: Danielle Batist
Photos: Angelica Ibarra Rodriquez