Herakut

Herakut
A Herakut mural at the ARTotale in Lüneburg, Germany.
Born	Germany
Known for	Graffiti Street art illustrated books graphic novel Social commentary

Herakut is the name of a two-person team of German street artists specializing in murals. Though Jasmin Siddiqui, or "Hera," and Falk Lehman, "Akut," call themselves graffiti artists, most of their work is commissioned; smaller Herakut works have also been exhibited more formally in galleries. They have also released two books: The Perfect Merge and After the Laughter, which are retrospectives covering 2004-2009 and 2009-2011, respectively.

The Giant Storybook Project

One of their most famous projects is The Giant Storybook Project, which tells the story of two imaginary young people, Jay and Lily. The aim of the project is to promote interest in a children's book about Jay and Lily through a series of murals that have been painted at several locations around the world.

The Great Storybook Project started with an idea for a children's book, a project that was suggested by fans of the artists' work. According to the Rochester City News, the artists plan to collaborate on the book with American actor Jim Carrey, who they met after he commissioned a Herakut work for his home.^[1] The first two murals in the series were painted in Lexington, Kentucky, and commissioned by Transylvania University professors Kurt Gohde and Kremena Todorova. After becoming interested in Herakut's work, Gohde and Todorova raised the $8000 necessary to bring the artists to Lexington, covering the artists' travel costs and all materials, including a cherry picker, which the team uses to reach the top of the murals. The first mural, titled "Lily and the Silly Monkeys," is located on 156 Market Street at the end of a parking lot. It can be clearly viewed from the market pavilion at Cheapside Park, framed by the outline of Christ Church Cathedral.^{[2] [3]} They completed their second mural in Lexington, following the same theme, at the former Spalding bakery building on the corner of North Limestone and East Sixth streets.^[4][5]

Shortly after completing the Lexington murals, Herakut painted a mural in Montreal on the same subject.^[6]In that same month, they painted another installment in the series in Rochester, New York.^[1]

References