Feel the creative force blowing through Dublin
Head south of the Liffey and you’ll find a wonderland of street art projects bringing colour to the Irish capital, says Nicola Brady
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Ishasha Wilderness Camp
IT’S not every day that your attention is drawn to a car park. At first glance, the lot next to Dublin’s Tivoli Theatre seems as monotonous as any other. Above the entrance sign, windows are boarded up, the red bricks on the wall a little mismatched.
But one thing is sure to catch your eye. An abstract mural, painted in vibrant reds and blues, depicts a woman reclining alluringly on her side. It’s a cool piece — one that makes you stop in your tracks and snap a quick pic for your Instagram.
But it’s only the beginning. Walk through the entrance, past the graffititagged barrier and the walls dripping in peeling paint, and you’ll uncover a wonderland of street art. There’s a different piece at every turn, from basic tags to mammoth murals that beggar belief (one even requires 3D glasses).
Amble around the square (which is, oddly enough, devoid of cars most of the time) and you’ll find pieces shrouding every spare inch of space. There are abstract, Eighties-style geometric blocks creeping along a black concrete wall. A giant warthog, with angular snorts creeping out of his snout, stands tens of feet in the air, with coils of barbed wire topping the wall over his head.
Behind all of this, the striking spires of John’s Lane Church stand tall along- side the back of local houses and low apartment blocks.
It’s not just at the Tivoli, either. Over the road, the exterior of the bar Drop Dead Twice is emblazoned with jagged, bumblebee-hued shards, and a little further down the street a Yoda-style figure urges us to Stop Wars. At the end of Francis Street, the hipster joint Two Pups Coffee is a beautiful muddle of pastels, the main door adorned with a Bowie-esque lightning bolt.
So why is this little corner of Dublin such a magnet for street art?
It began 11 years ago, when the All City Jam took over the space behind the Tivoli for an international graffiti event. The brainchild of the folks behind All City (a record label and graffiti paint store), this mini-festival has drawn top street artists from Ireland and all around the world, including Dublin artists Maser and James Earley.
Artists gather to paint (and party), with