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After Eoin O’Broin shared to his Twitter page an
image of the artist Spicebag’s reworking of Daniel MacDonald’s 1850 Eviction Scene painting, which was updated to feature members of the Gardai, the deputy came under fire. While the satirical work used actual imagery from an eviction on Prussia Street in Stoneybatter, O’Broin was lambasted for what was perceived as apparent contempt for An Garda Siochana. Similarly, Spicebag, real name Adam Doyle, was criticised by the journalist Fionnan Sheehan for creating “politically motivated art.” So, when Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave took to Twitter, stating his plan to pay an artist to recreate the Spicebag piece as a mural, his plan to bankroll the continued protest against the housing shortage was met with an unlikely critic. “It’s very likely that this will be extremely polarising and create political issues for the Public Art Bill, which is currently before the Dail,” replied Subset’s spokesperson. “That would be unfortunate and extremely damaging to the future of the medium in Ireland.” The response confused Caolfhionn Halton, the muralist who eventually completed the piece on the side of a house in Arbour Hill. “Art does not have to be political, but my interest is in political affairs, and this is something that is reflective of the times, it’s It’s about going out and wrecking the streets and having a bit of fun. 20 activism,” she says. “The image provokes a very visceral response,” says O’Broin. “It was making a connection between government policy leading to mass evictions in the Famine era, and government policy potentially leading to mass evictions today. And a lot of people understand what the image was trying to do.” “I don’t know what will happen with that mural in Arbour Hill,” he says. “But what I would say is that it does speak to the power of art.” The fundamental concern, he speculates on Subset’s behalf was that they are keen to get a positive political response in the Dail. “But ultimately, if we are going to say that good political art is good political art, well… where does one decide what is permissible or not? There has to be a space for people to do this.” As Neto Vettorello sits in a steamy café in Harold’s Cross, he says labels such as graffiti or street art are mere categories. “I just want to call all of this democratic art.” His body of work is primarily comprised of what would be classified as illegal work, and which frequently features a minimalist, almost surreal character composed of wavy lines. Around the corner on the canal, this character crops up in doorways, on items of furniture in derelict buildings, broken greenhouses and basketball hoops in abandoned parks. To date, his first major work in the city was a collaboration with the artist Asbestos, titled ‘Do Not Remove,’ and which is spread across a two-storey hoarding on Ormond Quay. Conceived as a celebration of 200 years of Brazilian independence, and a simultaneous warning to Ireland against erasing its cultural heart, the work, he says functioned as a lesson in history, accessible to all. “My work is not for the inside of galleries or museums,” Vettorello says. “Anybody can see it, from the homeless to the super rich guys, and you are seeing the same stuff.”