Two images from the “Rally Against Racism” this past weekend in Belfast, both featuring home-made signs. Above “My Belfast is for everyone!” on cardboard with an image of the Belfast Islamic Centre in Wellington Park. Below, “Seasann pobal na Gaeılge in éadan an chıníochaıs” (The Irish-language community stands against racism.) For background, see The Inaccessible Present.
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The corner of College Court and College Street is something of a contested space, as whatever street art appears is painted over in short order. First there was The Sun Will Make You Blind which was followed by Ballex and now there is “graffiti image loading …” with a progress bar – the third piece in under a year.
Along the same lines, see New Mural Loading.
The Red Ant visible in the wide shot, below, also appears in Cat & Mouse.
Andrew reports that a version of this piece also appeared at The Menagerie in 2010.
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SWANK Street Theatre characters Madame Fondant and Mademoiselle Patti Cerie, who graced Festival Of Fools 2014 in May, have been immortalized in a paste-up in Garfield Street (below) and Kent Street (bottom).
Here is video of two other SWANK characters, usherettes Pearl & Deanie.
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Reality takes many forms when you participate in Belfast’s Red Pill Spoken Word Showcase. In this David McClelland (a.k.a. Tweet, davidcreative) piece in Garfield Street, the speaker tells a tale of a luchador (Mexican wrestler).
For another luchador, see this piece by Friz: Free For All
Replaces Make Art Not Bombs which replaced Tynee Bear which replaced Not Criminals Just Thugz
Here’s a terrific time-lapse video of the piece being created.
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Belfast has seven geographical quarters and an eighth one in the form of Quarter Accountants/Cuntasóırí in Belfast’s city centre. Notably, the signage is in both English and Irish; the business is in the Cathedral Quarter rather than the Gaeltacht Quarter.
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Below is a general view of Nos. 1 – 19 Royal Avenue, that is, Corry House, built in 1881 for John Robb and now a listed building. At No 13 one of the original door-cases remains, the top of which is shown above: a fork-bearded gentleman and a lady with an empty pail on either side of a cartouche. (Planning NI and Historical Belfast – A Historical Gazetteer by Marcus Patton)
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The North Street Arcade burned down in April 2004 and has remained boarded up ever since (NewsLetter). Bristol artist Andy Council has painted a ‘Belfast Phoenix’, on the North Street end of the arcade, comprised of buildings from the Cathedral Quarter and central Belfast. The buildings include Crumlin Road courthouse, the MAC, the Waterfront, the Bank Of Ireland building, the Albert Clock, the Ulster Hall, Belfast City Hall.
“Up In Smoke” is a 12 min montage of images related to the fire on youtube.
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In the Cattle Raid of Cooley/Táın Bó Cúaılnge, the hero Cú Chulaınn, the main figure in the stained glass above, single-handedly defends Ulster by engaging in series of Queen Medb’s men in hand-to-hand combat as they attempt to secure the famous Ulster bull, which Medb wants in order to match her husband in possessions. Cú Chulaınn is eventually vanquished and the bull taken but, as can be seen at the bottom of the glass, the bulls fight each other and both die.
The piece is by Martin Donlin from East Sussex (pictured here at the unveiling in March 2012). According to Donlin’s Fb page, the old Irish at the bottom (“bendachtar cech óen mebraıgfes go hındraıc táın amlaıd seo ‘s ná tuıllfe cruth aıle furrı”) can be translated as “a blessing be upon all such as faithfully keep the Táın in memory as it stands here and shall not add any other form to it”. Here is a Flickr set of the piece in development.
Previously-featured City Hall stained glass: One Big Union | Famine Window | Centenary Window
See also the Visual History page, In The Shadow Of Cú Chulaınn.
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This emic (web) paste-up, which he titles ‘Deconstructions’, is on Rosemary Street at the junction with Lombard Street in the city centre.
Previously by emic: CameraMan | Through The Fog
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This stained glass by Ann Smyth was designed for the centenary of the construction of Belfast city hall, 1906-2006. At the top are the wolf and seahorse of the Belfast coat of arms, the city hall, and a tree of life. Below these we have a landscape in the style of John Luke’s The Fox, modified with a Massey Ferguson tractor and an electric hare (which CultureNI claims was invented by a Belfast man) instead of the fox. To the right of these stand a guitar, an artist’s palette, boxing gloves, various sports balls, and snooker’s fifteen reds. Ernest Walton smashed the atom in 1932. Short Brothers in 1957 produced the world’s first vertical take-off and landing aircraft and in 1963 the Skyvan. We also see the Waterfront, the Big Fish, the Thanksgiving Square Beacon, and Harland & Wolff’s Samson & Goliath and Titanic. In the bottom left corner is a town page upon which is repeated the refrain from I’ll Tell Me Ma: “She is handsome, she is pretty, she is the belle of Belfast city”.
Previously: One Big Union | Famine Window
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Seosamh Mac Coille Collection 