Above is a new mural on the Divis Street “International Wall” (Visual History) in support of travellers’ right, featuring horseshoes, musical notation, and a child looking out of a vintage caravan. Sponsored by West Against Racism Network (WARN – web | Fb) and Springfield Charitable Association (SCA – web)
The image that the artists were working from for central portion of the mural – a 2009 photograph by Mark Stedman – can be seen still taped to the wall.
KVLR’s massive (four storey high) work for this past weekend’s Red Bull Music Academy live music festival, painted just prior to Culture Night Belfast 2014, shows a boy sitting serenely on a speaker listening with headphones to a single-reel tape player plugged into a flue on the side of the building. On his knitted hat is the logo of the British Phonograph Industry’s 1980’s campaign against cassette taping.
A. E. Housman’s 1919 short poem “Here dead we lie” is featured, together with the poppies that grew on the Western Front in WWI, in this UVF commemorative mural. The 36th (Ulster) Division is not mentioned specifically; the plaque on the right-hand side (which pre-dates the mural) lists the names of five UVF members killed in the 70s who are depicted in the mural just out of picture but seen below in a wide shot of both murals (and by itself in C Coy Street). For a similar connecting of the two Ulster Volunteer Forces, see 100 Years Apart, Armed & Ready, Years Of Sacrifice, and others. Another wide shot is given in C Coy Street, taken from the main road and shows that the fish-and-chip shop on the Shankill is called “A Salt And Battered”.
“Here dead we lie, because we did not choose, to live and shame the land, from which we sprung. Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose, but young men think it is, and we were young.”
Here is Inkie’s new piece on the side wall of the butcher’s in Gresham Street, done for Culture Night Belfast, 2014. It includes a shout-out to the Loko skate-shop, just across the street. There’s a close-up of the work below.
The recently deceased (2014-09-12) Rev. Ian R. K. Paisley (Baron Bannside (WP)) is literally made into a demon in this flyer by TLO in Hill Street, in the city centre. The poster bears both “LOL” and “RIP” markings.
Here is the first of a number of panels from new work by Ciaran Gallagher (web) for CNB14 – Belfast Stripped Bare – in the courtyard of the Dark Horse/Duke of York. The piece humorously depicts a row of houses. In this pair, a woman smokes a cigarette on the front step of a house with portraits of Kennedy and the pope above the mantle, next door to a pregnant lesbian couple with a pride poster and a cat. The brick-work is real.
Pro-Gaza mural/stencil on Northumberland Street decrying continued US support of Israel: the bloody bars of the US flag stain the Star of David (in the place where the stars would be) and run down the wall. Sponsored by the IRSP/INLA. The phrase “These colors don’t run” dates to 1942 or 1943 in Iowa (see page 10).
A new piece for CNB14 in Lower Garfield Street, immediately recognizable from Scottish artist Elph’s inimitable style, here using a palette of pinks and blues. On his Fb page you can see a sketch done in preparation for the work.
Visible from the Ormeau Road, this large union flag greets visitors to Donegall Pass in the south of the city. It asserts the presence of the UVF and connects the original Ulster Volunteer Force of 1913 to the present-day group one hundred years later: the aim of the original UVF was to resist the impending rule by Catholics under Home Rule.
Unlike Ken Kesey’s Further, this bus goes Between, “Bringing sunshine to the children”. ‘Between’ was (and is) a Cork-based group who sponsored trips to Cork (Blarney Castle appears in the background of the mural), Monaghan, Donegal, and elsewhere, for the children of Ballymurphy and the Shankill during the troubles. The figures in the lower-right corner are shown in detail in the image below. The plaque to Gerard McDade remains on the wall. The mural was unveiled on 2014-09-20 – Ciaran Cahill has images from the launch.
Extramural Activity 