One day, Allan Halley looked at himself in the mirror and, faced with that deteriorated image of himself, seriously asked himself if he wanted to continue living. "I was alone in Barcelona, my brother had died shortly before in a motorcycle accident, my relationship had ended, I had fallen ill and had horrible pains. I had lost twelve kilos and, constantly, negative thoughts assailed me." Seriously –he told himself–, do you want to keep living? Fortunately, the answer was yes. And that he wanted to do it by dedicating himself to painting.
Leaning on the bar, before an unusual mid-afternoon vermouth while Cuando pase el temblor, a song that Soda Stereo recorded in the year of his birth, plays in the background, the Chilean painter looks back. Towards a childhood in which he was not still –which earned him the nickname of Cometa–, and in which he let himself be caught by the drawings, sketches and models he saw in the rooms of future architects, in the student residence managed by his father. "From there I established an affinity with plastic arts that, in the end, led me to study Graphic Design."
His university years, spent in his native Valparaíso, were a school at all levels, "coming into contact with many techniques such as silkscreen printing, engraving or composition; and meeting Javier López, who more than a professor was a master who taught me so much, about the craft and about life." In those years he traveled with López throughout Latin America, "that opened many windows to other realities" and discovered mural art through the work and memory of the Brigada Ramona Parra, the historic muralist group of the Communist Party hymned by Víctor Jara. "I began to reflect on the difference between painting on the street and doing it in the intimacy of a workshop," he recalls.
The millions of walls between Barna and Valpo
After finishing his studies, Allan Halley moved for a brief period to Santiago de Chile, "where I worked as a designer and realized that I was not made to live in large metropolises." There, his boss, Álvaro Calderón, introduced him to a lot of writers and films, artistic stimuli that, in some way, would be the seed for that yesthat, years later, he will say to himself in the mirror after asking himself if he truly wants to live.After this stage, he travels for the first time to Barcelona with his ex-partner. "Thus began an intermittence between Valparaíso and Barcelona, these two port cities between which I have been living in these last years of my life." It was precisely in Barcelona where he experienced that crisis from which he could only emerge with the firm purpose of dedicating himself to art.
"In Valparaíso I started painting murals. At first I signed them as El Cometa, the nickname I had been given as a child after Halley's Comet passed by Earth in 1986, but I soon changed it to Allan Halley." Horacio Silva, director of the NGO Valparaíso en Colores and of the Conversor program for young artists, liked his work, "and he has been representing me, which has allowed me to paint murals in Chile, Spain and other countries like France or Portugal." At the same time, he has discovered a taste for teaching as a professor at the Barcelona academy La Seu, "which is another vocation I have realized I have, along with painting." Another powerful reason to live.
With a style characterized by the combination of figurative and abstract elements of popular inspiration, Allan's art is rooted in the cultural and historical heritage of the communities he works with. "I am satisfied to have come this far, considering that I come from a very precarious and violent environment, although with the luck that my family has always given me a lot of support and love." And, while he continues to fill with color the thousands of walls that fit between Valpo and Barna, he is developing oil painting work. "Exploring, now, from the intimacy of the workshop," he laughs.
A place of passage
Despite loving Barcelona's winters, "in which it's not very cold and the city is not full of tourists or sticky heat," the artist sees it as a place of passage. "My long-term goal is to return to Valparaíso to be able to teach painting to the kids there, so they know that, there, there can be a future for them."Barcelona, on the other hand, has become an increasingly less friendly place to put down roots: "It demands great efforts to live here and, in return, offers precarity," he laments, and finishes the last sip of his vermouth, before concluding: "Proof of this is the number of people from the world of culture I see leaving here because they cannot afford the cost of living." And he frowns, knowing that a city without culture is a shell without a soul. A dish without substance.
--- What does have a lot of substance, and a popular price, are our dishes, tapas, and portions, in case you fancy having something for dinner…
Allan Halley sketches a smile. "I have a real passion for trying the tapas of the bars I go to," he confesses. The notes of Soda Stereo's En la ciudad de la furia crackle in the air, the crowd livens up. The artist feels at ease.
--- I forgot to say that another thing I love about Barcelona is the life of its bars ---he adds.