Eine Entschuldigung

I was giving out recently on my website about the appalling amount and quality of the graffiti in Berlin. I thought it was really shocking. Much worse than Dublin, I thought. And I was probably right. But I'll have to get down a bit off my high horse after a walk along City Quay yesterday.

Having left Matt Talbot, in all his pristine glory, behind me I came across one of my favourite sculptures - The Linesman. A very powerful piece by Dony McManus (1999). And what did I see before me. Mindless graffiti. I was disgusted.

And then I came to Creighton Street, where I was turning away from the river to go to Pearse Street library. More mindless shite.

And this bit looks like a whole can of paint was thrown at the window and shattered it.

I moved along the street in the direction of Windmill Lane and more of it.

And this time I took a closer look at the stuff on Windmill Lane itself. I had a sort of a recollection from passing by on previous occasions that there was some good stuff there. But on a closer look it was just more shite. Given the location I had probably been retrospectively attributing some creativity to it.

But really, it was just more of the same.

So I continued my depressing journey up Creighton Street and, eventually, the graffiti were no more.

Anyway I'm just apologising to the Berlin graffitiers. I should have given out about our own crowd first.

However, now that I have done that, I still think much of the Berlin stuff is wanton and absolutely awful.

BANG

I was walking along Merrion Row, minding my own business, when the above mural caught my eye.

My first reaction was to wonder who would paint a mural so high up on a side wall in a side lane. My second reaction was to wonder what graffiti merchant would bother to climb up so high to deface it.

When I got home I checked it out. In the first place, it is not defaced. It is meant to be like that from the beginning. In fact the blank faced aristocrat also appears in other parts of town. In the second place, the complete mural was painted by a man who started out as a graffiti artist and is now busy establishing himself as an artist, tout court.

He is Conor Harrington, originally from Cork and now living in London. And this is what the piece would look like if you could see it close up and on the level.



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