Graffiti artist brings splash of colour to Fermanagh
A NORTHERN Ireland graffiti artist is bringing his special brand of street art, which adorns many walls across the world, to a completely different audience — the cows of Co Fermanagh.
Belfast’s Kev Largey, a popular figure in the city’s alternative art scene, is currently putting the finishing touches to three sets of silage bales in Fermanagh’s Aghadrumsee and Brookeborough areas.
And the results are certainly catching the eye of not only the bovine fraternity, but the rural community as a whole.
Kev (37) says the Sliabh Beagh Arts Graffiti Bales Project is designed to enthuse and inspire and bring the arts into the everyday lives of rural communities
“Sliabh Beagh Arts in Ferman- agh have been engaging with farmers and asking them if they minded if we painted the bales of hay,” he said.
“We put the painted bales in fields were they would be quite visible, like on the A4, so people can see them driving past. The bales are still used, they still carry out their function so essentially it is ephemeral art.
“Once the cows need the feed the bales are chopped up and fed to them and the art disappears. We did some last year and a cou- ple of the farmers decided to keep them. They liked them so much. “This time I’ve done a couple of sets which were very abstract forms, just colours and strange stuff. People have been responded really positively, thinking it’s great. People were so nice, I was well looked after in Fermanagh.
“Local farmers have been very supportive of the project and are really embracing the colourful bales which make up part of their working day. People are re- ally loving them, from old age pensioners to young kids. They are coming along and getting their photographs taken.”
Kev has even bigger plans to bring his unique brand of colour to the rural landscape.
“One of the people I met on my adventures in Fermanagh has this massive big container which he is turning into accommodation,” he said. “He wants me to paint on that. It’s huge.
“I also have my eye on a few barn walls on which to paint on. And I am also planning on doing another project with cellophane, wrapping it between two trees and creating a clear wall to fashion a kind of countryside mural.”
Kev’s latest work can be viewed in Aghadrumsee and along the A4 just outside Brookeborough in Co Fermanagh.
You can find Kev on Twitter at @KVLR1