A grandad and his granddaughter watching the Swans are the stars of a new mural on Salubrious Place in Swansea city centre.
The football heritage artwork is the work of street artist Hasan Kamil, commissioned by Swansea City, and depicts lifelong fan Salvatore Rullo in the stands with his granddaughter Rosa Allen, surrounded by fellow supporters.
“Feels Like Home” runs across part of the wall — alongside “Since 1912” and a section of the old yellow gate that led to the players’ entrance at the Vetch.
The mural is the first in Kamil’s Muriau Mawr project, which aims to bring five large-scale paintings and five smaller ones to the city centre — an ambition the artist describes as turning Swansea into the street art capital of Wales.
Chosen by the fans
Muriau Mawr is community-led, with people across the city invited to shape the artwork’s themes. Members of the Jack Army joined Kamil, Mioe creative productions and Swans legends Alan Curtis and Kev Johns to discuss what they wanted to see.
The theme that came back overwhelmingly: fans and family.
“Football is a huge part of Swansea and its culture and it needed to be one of the themes,” Kamil said. “We wanted it to be a community piece working with the community and showing the community, and we decided on a grandfather and granddaughter. Salvatore and Rosa fit that bill perfectly.”
“There were lots of words and phrases that came out of the consultation. But really ‘feels like home’ was my favourite and the group’s favourite.”
Kamil said he felt the pressure of the brief. “I just wanted the fans who had been consulted and been part of the process to like it, and I think we’ve done that. I wanted to have integrity behind the artwork, but also I wanted the fans to feel like they have ownership over the mural.”
“Football goes in unison with family”
For Rullo, seeing himself on the wall representing supporters across the city is a source of pride.
“To be a part of the modern Swansea and the new architecture and artwork like this is absolutely awesome,” he said.
“Football goes in unison with family, and Swansea City is a family-orientated club so this is amazing. I’m so proud to have been part of this process, and hopefully this mural will last for years to come.”
More to come
Kamil’s connection with the Swans goes back to last summer, when the club commissioned him to paint a Snoop Dogg image in a stairwell of the Swansea.com Stadium’s West Stand. His work can also be seen in The Swansea Jack.
Muriau Mawr will bring artwork themed around the Welsh language, poetry and women’s voices to walls around the city in the coming months — with a map and trail to follow once all ten are complete.
The new mural arrives a fortnight after Briton Ferry’s much-loved Brunel mural disappeared under white paint, following an ownership dispute — as one wall in the region loses its artwork, another gains one.
