Beth O’Rafferty
‘A Visual Feast’ is the newly published book on street art in Ireland, and it is both informative and jam-packed full of photos. There are photos of works of street art from all over the country, including pieces by Maser, Will St. Leger and ADW, as well as many others. These pieces of street art are often thought-provoking and satirical, while others are documentation of street artists’ tags on walls and buildings everywhere and anywhere. This book is a comprehensive round-up of what’s been happening on the street art scene in Ireland for the past few years, and provides vital photographic documentation of this striking yet impermanent art. The book contains not only photos but also profiles of the major artists on the scene at the moment, and has occasional anecdotes of the creation or reception of certain pieces scattered through the book (check out page 42 for a particularly funny story about St Leger’s ‘Land Mine’ installation).
The book is divided into sections called Society, Installation, Religion, Manifesto, Portraits and City Streets, as well as Profiles, in order to make everything easier to find. However if there is one major flaw in this book it is its page-by-page layout. The loosely ordered images do sometimes feel jumbled on the page, and the attributions and locations aren’t always easy to match up to each photo. This may seem like a small complaint, but as it is evident so much work went into creating, documenting and bringing together all this street art, one would expect that they would have put as much effort into hiring a designer for the book so the art could be showcased as well as it deserves to be.
If you’re already a fan of street art in Ireland then this book is a must-have, just so you have a record of these powerful pieces. It’s worth a look if you’re not into street art too though, as you might be pleasantly surprised at the creativity and clever design that’s on show here in our fair isle.
3.5/5
