If you take a walk on South Main Street, Cork City, you will be greeted by a stunningly poignant depiction of the current housing crisis in Ireland.
The mural is titled “What is home?” and was created by Asbestos for the Ardú Street Art Project 2021.
Ardú Street Art Initiative 2021 - Asbestos with his mural / Photograph by Jed Niezgoda - www.jedniezgoda.comThe piece is Asbestos asking “‘What is home?’… Do you have one, is it safe, can you afford it? Never as a country has our sense of what home means been more at threat.”
Throughout the month of October large scale murals will light up some of Cork city’s best-known streets.
The 2021 project features four large scale murals by very well-known artists; Friz at St Finbarr’s Road, Shane O’Malley at Lower Glanmire Road/Horgan’s Quay, Conor Harrington at Bishop Lucey Park, and Asbestos at South Main Street.
"What is home? Do you have one, is it safe, can you afford it? Never as a country has our sense of what home means been more at threat"
“What is home?” a brand new mural by #Asbestos for #Ardú2021📍South Main St #Cork #streetart #mural #homeless #artofasbestos
📸Jed Niezgoda pic.twitter.com/14xW7mb94H— Ardú Street Art Project (@ArduStreetArt) October 12, 2021
Abestos is a Dublin born street artist who specialises in mixed media artwork.
He combines photography and painting onto found objects and has been contributing to Irish street art since 2003.
Asbestos work portrays what he describes as the two versions of his persona.
“Each mask portrays two versions of myself, one alive and one dead. The dead version is a fictional character that represents me, if I’d been killed in a car bomb”.
The car bomb Asbestos speaks of is real and took place 5 minutes after his mother walked past the car, 46 days before she gave birth to the artist.
Asbestos says he has “always been fascinated about the fact that I may never have existed.”
For more details follow @ArduStreetArt on Twitter and Instagram and keep your eyes peeled for the other murals across the city.
Ardú Street Art Initiative 2021 - Asbestos with his mural / Photograph by Jed Niezgoda - www.jedniezgoda.comTo view more of Asbestos work check out his Instagram profile and website:
https://www.instagram.com/artofasbestos
https://www.artofasbestos.com/
- Photos by Jed Niezgoda.
