On a recent trip to The Gambia with cameraman Matt Glen, I was lucky enough to float upriver from the lodges at Mandina and see the Wide Open Walls art project at Kubuneh village. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was amazed at how strung out the village was – I’d imagined a tight huddle of properties, all lit up with gaudy street art, but the actuality was much different.

The village covered an area of two or three kilometres, the buildings arranged seemingly at random either side of a long dusty bush road. In between were expanses of land, covered in scrub and baobab trees. We’re so used to organised urban and suburban habitats, that it was unfamiliar to see the land used in this way, or simply not used, just left to be. As such, the project and the art forms within it, was structured by this layout – instead of a single area (an equivalent of a gallery space, for instance) the pieces appeared gradually, and their effect was cumulative. You might see one of Lucy McLauchlan’s birds halfway up the trunk of a massive baobab, an older Bushdweller’s stencil in a doorway, or you might wander into a compound and see one of Xenz’s larger installation pieces.

Because of all this, the wow factor I’d been expecting was largely muted, but it was replaced by an admiration of the way the artists had allowed their work to blend into the environment, not let it dominate, or in turn be dominated. This coalescence is the projects great triumph and will ensure its survival. The other major factor is the effect the environment has on the art, and specifically the paint: already some pieces are beginning to look weathered, some taking on the appearance of ageing or even prehistoric art – this adds a level of poignancy I’m not sure anyone expected.

Anyhow, Matt’s video tells a far better story of all this than I can. Please see his film below, and visit his website. And do stay in touch with the Wide Open Walls project via their blog and Facebook page – part two is coming this June…