Mandela Way T-34 Tank
The Mandela Way T-34 Tank is located on a small piece of scrubland on the corner of Mandela Way and Pages Walk in Bermondsey, London. The tank is a decommissioned Soviet T-34-85 battle tank.
It is a former Czech army tank that was used in the filming of Richard III (1995). It was bought in 1995 by Russell Gray, who lives nearby, for £7,000 then installed in its current location.[1] The tank was the subject of a work by Cubitt Artists and Aleksandra Mir who painted it pink in 2002.[2] It has since been repainted by artists (and also graffitied) many times. In 2009 a company called Graffiti4hire transformed the tank's livery into that of a yellow cab. As of 2014 it is painted with yellow and black stripes with a Remembrance poppy design on the turret.
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The T-34 tank's original a military green colour
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The tank painted pink in 2002
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Black and cream, swirling design, December 2008
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June 2009
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Post-2009 design influenced by American-style taxi cabs.
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The tank in November 2014
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The tank in January 2016
Similar graffitied tanks
There are also T-64 and T-72 tanks that have been graffitied in a hippie manner at the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Kiev.
The Monument to Soviet tank crews was a memorial located in Prague made up of an IS-2m tank on a pedestal. In 1991 artist David Cerny painted the tank pink and hoisted a large middle finger over the turret to protest the controversial monument. The monument was later removed and the tank is now stored at a military museum, painted pink.
References
- ↑ Mandela Way T-34 Tank, Sean Spurr, Bermondsey.org, Accessed 5 August 2012
- ↑ Gibbs, Jonathan (2 November 2003). "Talk of the Town: Pink Tank". The Independent on Sunday.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mandela Way T-34 Tank. |
- More about the tank's history.
- Evening Standard Newspaper – Revealed: the story behind the Soviet tank with its guns trained on council HQ
Coordinates: 51°29.579′N 000°04.962′W / 51.492983°N 0.082700°W