This piece appeared recently as part of the amazing Withington Walls project in Manchester. It is next to the Marcus Rashford mural and therefore is prime real estate for anyone visiting the area (which I would thoroughly recommend btw) to check out the street art contributed to by so many talented artists.

This piece was created by Tom Jackson as a collaboration with Music Declares: it will probably look vaguely familiar to many of us (of a certain age) as it is a re-working of Joy Division’s ‘Unknown Pleasures’ artwork. The original “rotating neutron star” has been replaced by flat lines to symbolise the eternal silence of a dead planet.

No more music on a dead planet…

In terms of protest pieces this is a subtle, engaging and quality piece of art. It does exactly what art is supposed to do: it challenges and forces us all to think.

A BIG thank you to Withington Walls for continuing to push the boundaries and encourage freedom of expression on the streets of Manchester. In the meantime COP26 is due to finish today after the great and the good of world leaders have spent the last two weeks debating how little they can get away with. No doubt we will be told what a great success it has all been but the simple reality is that we are killing the planet and we all need to do more… our children’s very future depends on it…