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Infant In The Bulb Of A Plant

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Here is the central portion of the east wall of Diego Rivera’s Detroit Industry frescoes in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Rivera’s wife, Frida Kahlo, had a miscarriage during their time in Detroit and the infant in the image is a tribute to that loss.

Rivera, a communist, was invited to paint the frescoes by Edsel Ford, of the Ford motor company. He painted four walls of a great hall in 1932-1933, celebrating industrial and medical progress while also portraying its deadly uses, and mixing Aztec, Mexican and Christian imagery. The east wall is the first in viewing order, just as in church liturgies.

See also: Building The Model B (South) | Life & Death (West) | The Assembly Line (North)

Below is an (unaccredited) image of Rivera painting the outline (the “cartoon”) for this section of the wall, in 1932.

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Copyright © 2013 Cathal Woods
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Belfast Such As Is

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2013-04-05 SuchAsIsWide+

Belfast in all its glory, such as [it] is: signs forbidding the posting of bills, a sign forbidding public consumption of alcohol, flyers scraped off an electrical box, double yellow lines forbidding you to park, with a car parked there nonetheless, a rusted postie’s box … and graffiti. Camden Street. Medium-range and Close-up views below.

2013-04-05 SuchAsIsMedium+

2013-04-05 SuchAsIsClose+

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Copyright © 2013 Ronan Woods
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Through The Fog

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2013-02-23 CityShutter+

This piece in North Street, in the city centre, combines realistic buildings with honeycomb patterning run together with cloud-like spray-paint, threatening to envelope the impressionistic figure in the foreground. The surface is the shutter of a shop front. By emic/This Means Nothing for CNB 2012. (The hand in the bottom left can also be found around the corner in Garfield Street.)

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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John Peel

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2013-02-18 JohnPeelYoung+

Two images of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, young and old, on the wall of the passageway to the Duke Of York pub in the city centre.

Peel is famous in Northern Ireland for his love of the song “Teenage Kicks” by Derry group The Undertones (WP). A line from the song – Teenage dreams so hard to beat” – was used in this mural/street art tribute to Peel, who died in 2004 (WP).

Update 2013-06-21: the ‘teenage dreams’ artwork on Bridge End has been painted over (Tele | BBC | Irish Times; video from U.tv).

2013-02-23 JohnPeelOld+

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Big Brother

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2013-01-07 DukeBigBrother+

A 3-D/plane-breaking board/collage from the courtyard of the Duke Of York, featuring King Kong on the Empire State building (1933), Atlas (Metropolis 1927), a zombie (also from Metropolis?), riot police controlled by a puppet-master, Hokusai’s Great Wave Of Kanagawa 1830, WWI biplanes, a steamer/cruise-ship with searchlight? and something that looks like the Giant’s causeway?? (Leave a comment if you can correct these, or recognise the car with L plates (Death Proof 2007 – thanks Bob) or Hollister on the document folder.)

2013-02 Update: Artists Ciaran Gallagher and Kathryn Bannister have a gallery of pictures of the piece being constructed and installed. The piece, they say, is inspired by “classics of the silver screen” and was part of Culture Night 2011.

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Copyright © 2013 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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Coming To Be And Passing Away

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2012-12-28 BankSquare+

This recent, biblically-themed, mural is in Bank Square, the open space outside Kelly’s Cellars. Included in the panels are various Bible stories such as Noah’s Ark, the burning bush, and the loaves and fishes. (Mary-Ann McCracken is also included?) Watching over them from both left and right are the pike-men of 1798.

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Copyright © 2012 Seosamh Mac Coılle
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