Thoughts on wall art

In Manchester to help son move house, these two murals caught my attention. The mosaic of Emmeline Pankhurst is a tribute to the city's claim to be the birthplace of feminism after she effectively kickstarted the suffragette movement in 1903. It's a little unfortunate perhaps that the quote chosen for the mosaic I would rather be a rebel than a slave was one which caused a negative reaction in 2015 when Meryl Streep and other white female stars of the film Suffragette  were pictured wearing T shirts emblazoned with that slogan. While Pankhurst was no doubt referencing servitude to men,  to 21st century ears her words seem to imply that slaves were not rebels. Many were, but for most the choice was not available to them.

Bees have long been a symbols of Manchester's industry and many have popped up on walls since the  bombing of the Manchester Arena a year ago. I didn't know that when I saw this one and I thought it was a visual pun on the name of the street. Female mason bees make a series of tiny nests in crevices,   provision each with a larder of pollen and nectar on which they lay their eggs, then seal up the capsules with mortar they make from clay, mud or macerated plant tissue. They have no more to do with their offspring, nor with the males of the species whose only function is to impregnate and die.
 Slaves to an evolutionary process you could say.