Street Writing Man – the Hot Press Interview with Conor Harrington

Conor Harrington at the Paris leg of the Underbelly project (photo: Martha Cooper)

This fortnight’s edition of Hot Press magazine hit the stands on Wednesday, with a big interview conducted by my good self with Irish-born and London-residing street and fine artist Conor Harrington.

It kicks off a mini-series I’m working on for the magazine about different aspects of street art, where I’ll touch base with some of the key players in the various outdoor art scenes linked to Ireland.

Sometimes dismissed as vandalism, the scene of recent years has not only produced fascinating work in its own right but also launched some remarkably successful careers.

In this issue, Conor spoke to me at length about what drives artists to brave the wrath of the law and paint illegally and how his work took him on a dark excursion into the bowels of the Paris Metro as a participant in the very rare Underbelly project.

Grab a copy of Hot Press to find out more.

Art Clash: bringing still life to life

Art Clash - ADW stencil art session - photo karl martini courtesy of Art Clash

Creativity and art have resurrected in Ireland, with increasing amounts of art-related entertainment and activities emerging from the gloom.

Art Clash is one of the latest creative initiatives on the Dublin art scene, offering a series of night classes, covering topics as varied as burlesque performance, stencil art, video performance art and clothes customisation.

Curator and watercolour artist Áine Macken is behind the concept: 10 events running from March to June, designed to make art accessible to everyone, to “shake up the concept of what an average art class should be and turn each attendee into an exhibited artist.” 

Using stencils as a weapon: Irish guerrilla artist ADW strikes again

poliTHICKS, photo courtesy of ADW

Somewhere in Dublin, a furry black and white gorilla may or may not still be crouching along the bottom of a dark grey wall, holding a paintbrush dripping with fluorescent pink paint. He’s admiring his guerrilla gorilla handywork. And on the bottom right, three letters: ADW.

When ADW calls me he sounds exhausted and admits to having stayed up all night completing this latest “illegal” outdoor piece. He placed the gorilla on “his” wall, near the Portobello bridge, where he first put up the now infamous Bertie Tiger stencil, depicting former boom-time Taoiseach Bertie Ahern sporting the face of the now defunct Irish celtic tiger.

ADW is an Irish stencil and sometimes guerilla street artist, originally from Dublin. His irreverent designs started popping up on the walls of Dublin over the last few years, identified with those three letters at the bottom of gratingly ironic images with politically charged messages.