Here is an electricity box in Jubilee Park on Kingsway in Dunmurry, transformed by NOYS (ig) and Jam2 (ig) at the end of 2023.
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Out Of Office, Into The Yard
Computer Says No
The Vault artists (ig) are making good use of the gallery space at their new digs in Marlborough House. FGB (ig) had an exhibition during HTN (entitled “He’s Not Right In The Head” – ig) and new work by Leo Boyd (ig) is on display this week.
The ad above is in Waring Street, in Belfast city centre. Included below is the same piece in paint form, in Kent St for HTN24.
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Upbeat Feel Good
In January, Bangor singer-songwriter Foy Vance (web) had reason to feel good when he, along with Ed Sheeran and Max Martin, won the (Primetime Creative) Emmy for ‘Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics’ for the song ‘A Beautiful Game’ (youtube) which was used in the final episode of the TV show Ted Lasso (Billboard | Emmys).
Vance’s portrait has been painted by Jossie Pops (ig) in Primrose Avenue. “Upbeat Feel Good” is a song (youtube) from his 2016 album The Wild Swan.
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Cupar Way 2024
Here is a selection of art from the Cupar Way section of the west Belfast “peace” line. Some of the artists came into town for Hit The North 2024 (Lidia Cao, Lours, Elno). We also see work by DEUX, SNAK, NOYS, BAISE?, NOTA, Keyto, and Kilian (Road Rage Ruth).
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The Rocker
The cover Jim Fitzpatrick did in 1973 for Thin Lizzy’s ‘Vagabonds Of The Western World’ album was reproduced in 2024 in east Belfast as a tribute to local guitarist Eric Bell (the middle figure). There is video of Bell playing the solo to ‘The Rocker’ in Berlin the week of the album’s launch, in September, 1973 (youtube). Bell – aged 22 – left the band at the end of the year, a few months after the release of ‘Vagabonds’ (WP). He currently lives in Co Down (BelTel).
By Blaze FX (web) Woodstock Road at Jocelyn Avenue. Tom McClean has video of the launch (youtube).
The album is also one of the cassette tapes featured in Back On The Streets further along the Woodstock Road. There is also a Thin Lizzy mural in Bangor.
There is a Visual History page on The Influence Of Jim Fitzpatrick on muraling.
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Garfield’s Street
Here is a gallery of images (and a list of artists, from top to bottom, and from North Street to Royal Avenue) from the (Hit The North) Paint Jam last Saturday (the 25th) in Lower Garfield Street, organised by Seedhead Arts (ig) and the Belfast Improvement District (BID web).
Stag (above) by HMC (ig)
Rose by Ollie Amscai (ig)
Pigeon by Strangford (ig)
Smelling The Flowers by Lost Lines (ig)
Melting House by Illoustrates (ig)
Dexter by NRMN (ig)
Crow by MWAK (ig)
Broken Hearts by Laura Nelson (ig)
House Panels by All The Doodz (ig)
Garfield by Cha Cha (ig)
Crow Chain Gang by FGB (ig)
Geometrical Flower by Katriona (ig)
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Cat by Jam2 (ig)
SNAK by SNAK (ig)
Wasp by Conor McClure (ig)
Leopard by Friz (ig)
Seed Heads by ?
Design by Not Pop (ig)
Gremlin by Wee Nuls (ig)
Embracing Our Creativity by Zippy (ig)
plus a pair of angel’s wings on the other side of the street.
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Where Strangers Meet
Australian artist Sophi Odling (web | ig) stuck around after HTN24 and painted this piece in Whiteabbey. It is perhaps part of phase two of Antrim And Newtownabbey Borough Council’s beautification project; for phase one, see Botanical Borough.
Odling also painted a large piece for HTN24 in York Lane, called Tomorrow.
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Back Of The River
‘2 Royal Ave’ (web | ig) – the building designed by WJ Barre (Victorian Web) for the Provincial Bank and more recently a Tesco Metro – was turned into a civic and cultural centre by Belfast City Council in 2023 (Belfast Live).
Coincidentally, the building’s rear doors open into Bank Street (formerly Bank Lane) and Bank Square. (It’s not clear whether they were so named because the Farset flowed along Bank Lane, or for the Bank Buildings, constructed in Castle Place in 1785-1787 (WP | Belfast Live); in any case, the streets already had these names well before the construction of the Provincial building in 1867 (Belfast Media)).
Street artist Decoy (ig), with support from DaisyChain (ig), has painted various shutters and electrical boxes. Bank Square is also home to a series of ‘life in the old days’ panels (see A River Runs Through It) and more recent work by Rob Hilken (see The Grid) and DanK (Fast Cars).
Also included (last below) is the art on the shutters of The Sagart in Chapel Lane.
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Copyright © 2024 Paddy Duffy
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Spinning Memories
The inspiration for this new piece of street art by KMG (ig) was the Strand Spinning Mill (formerly the Jaffe Spinning Mill) which closed in 1983 and is now the Portview Trade Centre. During WWI the mill made munitions and during WWII viscose rayon. The film Lint And Linen (youtube) covers both pre-industrial and mechanical linen-production (though mostly focused on yarn from line fibres rather than from tow, which was the Strand mill’s claim to fame (Duffy Rafferty)); the painting appears to present a more primitive and imaginary age in which fibres could be spun using the human hand.
For photographs of the old mill on the Trade Centre, see previously the image of A Block in Strand Spinning Mill.
“Spinning memories” is the name of a planned collection of stories for an archive at Portview (Portview Stories).
Townsley Street, east Belfast, next to the White Witch and facing Aslan Is On The Move.
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