DEFACING BELFAST:

STREET ART IN A POST-CONFLICT NORTHERN IRELAND

A dissertation submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of MA in

Visual Anthropology in the Faculty of Humanities

2017

KARI R. MCGUIRE

ID: 9888446

THE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

 LIST OF CONTENTS

Title 1
List of Contents 2
Abstract 3
Declaration and Copyright Statement 4
Acknowledgements 5
Associated Visual Media 5

Chapter 1 An Introduction to Belfast and the Project 6

1.1 Introduction 6
1.2 Building the Project 6

Chapter 2 Historical Background 8

2.1Belfast Divided 8
2.2 Selling Civil War 9
2.3 The Aftermath of Peace 11

Chapter 2 Street Art and Belfast 12

2.1 The Importance of Street Art and Representation 12
2.2 Paste Up Those Walls A Street Art Crash Course 13
2.3 Painting the Walls Together 16
2.4 City Curation 17
2.5 Aesthetic and Identity 17

Chapter 3 Changing the Face of the City

3.1 Stop the Bastards Demolishing Belfast! A Rebranding Story 20
3.2 Community Engagement 22
3.3 Defacing Belfast 24
3.4 The Commercialization of Street Art 24
3.3 The Street Art Blog 26

Chapter 4 Conclusions 28
4.1 Theoretical Framework Analysis 28
4.2 Field Work Conclusions 30

References 32

Final Word Count: 9215

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Abstract

The paper shortly reviews the background and history of the political and cultural

divide in Belfast, and how the influence of these mindsets still effects the city today,

as seen through its contemporary street art. This project looked at how street art

impacts and is impacted by life in a post-conflict Belfast, gathering information from

researcher conducted interviews and surveys, supported by research into articles,

newspapers, blogs, etc., to gather a cohesive argument regarding a complex topic. The

author began the project expecting to find a clear influence of contemporary street art

on the cultural mindset of the city, but instead found a city still deeply divided and

attempting to come together as a community. The struggle of finding cohesion from

multiple disparate perspectives can be seen through the wide range of street art.

Though as the cultural dialogue of the city continues to change and become clearer, so

will the street art. At some point, it will likely reach a point of critical mass, and the

street art will begin to lead the city toward new viewpoints as the alternative cultures

and forward thinkers continue to come to new conclusions as the patchwork of the

city continues to develop.

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DECLARATION

This dissertation is the authors original work unless referenced clearly to the contrary.
Portions of the Conclusions chapter of this dissertation refer to the students previous original
work submitted in support of MA Visual Anthropology programme at the University of
Manchester. All photographs in this dissertation or the accompanying visual media works
were taken by the student author unless cleared referenced otherwise.

All referenced personal interviews were recorded with a verbal confirmation of consent
within the recording, artist surveys (of which there were only three) two of the three had
written consent forms. In one instance, the participant signed the page the written interview
(as they did not wish to be recorded but did not wish to fill out a survey) was recorded on as
they wished to be referenced as their street art handle only. Filling out and returning a survey
known to be associated with an MA project implies consent on the behalf of the participant.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY/COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

i. The author of this dissertation (including any appendices and/or schedules to this
dissertation) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the Copyright) and
s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright,
including for administrative purposes.

ii. Copies of this dissertation, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or
electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where
appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has
entered. This page must form part of any such copies made.

iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trademarks and other
intellectual property (the Intellectual Property) and any reproductions of
copyright works in the dissertation, for example graphs and tables
(Reproductions), which may be described in this dissertation, may not be owned
by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and
Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior
written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or
Reproductions.

iv. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and
commercialization of this dissertation, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property
and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University
IP Policy, in any relevant Dissertation restriction declarations deposited in the
University Library, and The University Librarys regulations.

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Acknowledgements

Many thanks to all of those who contributed to this project, anonymous or otherwise, through

conversation, surveys, interviews, and suggestions for further research. Thanks to family and

friends who lent their emotional and moral support in the construction of this project and the

collection of the research. A very special thanks to everyone at Belfast Beyond who were a

great resource in gaining information and gathering completed surveys.

Associated Visual Media

This is a companion text that supports an accompanying photo essay and website. A PDF

copy of the photo essay may also be found on the website.

Website link: karimcguire.weebly.com

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Introduction

Belfast is a complex and vibrant city that is difficult to describe as it seems to be in

the process of continually repurposing itself and the various city districts attempting to

change its image. As a post-conflict city, both the local government and the people are trying

to change the worlds (and their own) perception of Belfast. They hope to change what the

city is known for, and it seems that street art is being used as a part of this attempted

rebranding. This sense of moving forward from their past influences the choices made by

both the everyday individual and the street artist.

I went to Belfast thinking that I would find evidence of the street art having a social

and political impact on the city. Instead I found a city that had a significant impact on the art.

In a place that was so deeply and violently divided, there are still many disparate groups

attempting to piece themselves together as a cohesive community. The street art that can be

found in Belfast is a representation of this struggle and the slow wandering process of peace.

Building the Project

I had originally planned to make a sound-map of the city through the street art that

exists. This had to change while I was in the field because people did not want to stop and

talk to me when I asked them to do street interviews. Everyone either had places they needed

to be, or simply did not want to stop to talk about street art (and murals) which for many is

steeped in politics, religion, and a cultural divide. After about a week of failed proposed

interviews I had to change tactics if I wanted to be able to get clear information from people,

although I did eventually have four people agree to sit-down audio interviews.

Because of these complications, I created a one-page short answer survey that could

be easily distributed and filled out in a variety of manners. I received about two thirds of the

surveys back hand-written, but I also got back digital copies that people had written in

Microsoft Word and sent back to either me or the person who distributed it to them. I gave

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digital copies of the survey to some of the social media groups in the city to broaden my

range of distribution, with the most coming back from Belfast Beyond who got about ten (out

of the thirty-five surveys I received) surveys filled out for the project.

These factors led me to change the scope of the project. Instead of a sound and image

map, I decided to make a photobook and a website. The photobook is a bog-standard concept,

taking a condensed version of information from the accompanying paper and illustrating the

points that the paper made through images. I attempted to make a book that could be read

with the text or simply viewed as a sequence of photos and be taken in similar ways, but

found it hard to properly format. Its a difficult thing to achieve normally, but I found it

especially difficult because of the ambiguous nature of a lot of the work in the city. Because

people are reluctant to put blatant meaning into their street art due to the history of political

murals, the images are beautiful and intricate, but the purpose behind them seems

disconnected, or simply absent. So, its hard to ascribe an order and meaning to them that

would make sense without words.

However, I felt that this disconnect may help contextualize how the art is viewed

within Belfast by the everyman. For most people in the city, street art is simply an image you

pass by if you happen to be in certain areas like the city centre. Theyre a very visually

distinct cultural phenomenon that citizens experience far less than one would think. These

images can sometimes be clearly associated with a topic of conversation, but often people

must guess about what meaning may be behind it, and what they think it is supposed to

represent. As most individuals in the city experience the art as a static, unmoving piece, with

only the context they can draw from their own experiences, showing the pieces in a heavily

structured and contextualized manner may take away from the understanding of the political

and cultural ideas that exist within and because of the artwork.

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 I decided to make an accompanying website for a few reasons, but mostly because of

the sheer amount of information and differing viewpoints that I gathered throughout the

course of my fieldwork. Over the course of a month and a half spent in Belfast I gathered two

and a half hours of interview audio, some thirty-five to forty written surveys, five hundred

plus photos, and dozens of hours of casual conversation, observation, and recommended

further research to draw on.

There were many people who did not want to be referenced directly, but pointed me

toward resources and articles that would have interesting information that could be relevant

to the project. Because the topic is so complex and the opinions are so varied, making a

generally informative paper is an easy pitfall. To combat this, and to make a more cohesive

and concise research project, the additional information is going up on the website. While the

site itself is still a component of the project, it is also an additional resource where the extra

information can be gathered for those who are interested enough to look deeper into the topic.

I am drawing heavily on ideas of identity and meaning-making from past

anthropological literature (Barker, 2005; Littlejohn & Foss, 2009) in the attempt to find the

connections and differences between the past and modern forms of street art happening in

Belfast and these forms of representation. While the focus of the research is on the

contemporary forms of street art in the city, there is so much history and influence that the

political murals have on the current climate and aesthetic of Belfast that it would be negligent

not to factor them into research on the topic.

Historical Background

Belfast Divided

Belfasts political murals, some of the most famous murals in Europe, predominately

cover the dark and bloody history of roughly 30 years of civil war between the

political/religious groups: the Republicans and the Loyalists (Engel, 2010). There is a range

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of subjects featured in these murals, including promoting paramilitary loyalist groups,

representations of solidarity with international revolutionary groups, etc. Early forms can be

followed throughout the 1900s, marking the historic and political changes important to the

time.

They move from loyalist representations of William III of England, to the radicalized

displays of the IRAs social and political movements in the 1970s. All of this had an impact

on the construction of urban space in Belfast (Foran, 2014). They were clear markings of

territory, and the images were intimidating for anyone living in the area at the time. As one

survey participant said, there was really no choice of whether you were near these images or

not. The images were done overnight and without any permission. If a paramilitary group

decided to paint your wall, there was not much you could do about it for fear of retaliation

(Anonymous Survey 1, 2017).

Selling Civil War

After the peace agreement between the two groups, known as the Belfast Agreement

or the Good Friday Agreement, signed the 10th of April 1998, the murals and their bloody

history have become a matter of public spectacle and tourism. Black cab tours now take

tourists around to see the political murals, trouble spots, and peace lines that are still scattered

around the city (BBC History, 2017). The tours take people on a journey through east to west,

and north to south Belfast, looking at both sides of the community and how the depictions of

the war were represented though murals by both sides.

The oldest tour group of this kind, Black Taxi Tour, ensures that all its drivers have

lived through the Troubles, and will have personal insight and background on their own

experiences living through the conflict. This adds a dimension of depth to the situation that

might otherwise be difficult to gain if you dont hear it from people that were there. There

wasnt a day walking around Belfast that I didnt encounter at least three different tour

9
groups from different companies taking tourists around to see the different murals and

various other works. The groups seemed engaged and the guides were passionate about the

sensitive subject matter, speaking on their personal experiences (Belfast Black Cab Tours,

2012).

The peace lines (or peace walls) are another source of interest and tourism related to

the Troubles. They originated in 1969 soon after the start of the Troubles and riots in

Northern Ireland. While many of them reside in Belfast, they are scattered across Northern

Ireland. The walls were intended as temporary measures, but due to effectiveness in curbing

violence they became more permanent structures. Since the signing of the peace agreement,

both the number of walls and the height have only increased. One of the most prominent

peace lines in Belfast is the wall separating the nationalist Falls Road from the unionist

Shankill Road areas in West Belfast (Belfast Interface Project, 2017).

The peace walls have become a magnet for all sorts of street art. There are metal art

installations, plaques and memorials to those who died in the conflict, political commentary

and satire, deliberately non-political art pieces, etc. Many people, including the tourists that

are taken by the peace walls in groups, have signed or written things on the peace wall. The

walls are covered top to bottom in art and written words, names. On any given day there are

sightseeing tour buses passing by and gawking, several large groups huddled in loose groups

around their guides, far enough away from other groups that there wouldnt be confusion,

people going up and adding their own words to the peace wall, individuals exploring outside

of tour groups.

While for many they are simply an interesting sightseeing opportunity, the walls are

still used to promote peace between potentially clashing residential areas. While there have

been talks of removing the peace walls, many residents are still concerned about violence if

the walls are taken down. Despite some hesitancy, as of 2013 the Northern Ireland Executive

10
(the devolved government of Northern Ireland) seeks to remove all the peace lines by mutual

consent by 2023 (Moriarty, 2013).

Because of the deeply political and potentially violent subject matter of the Troubles

murals in Belfast, there is some contention as to whether they should be leaned on so heavily

for the sake of tourism. Some of the older generation who lived through the Troubles have

problems with the tourism but find it better than the alternative. One older survey participant

stated that they thought the tourism seemed very fake, and mostly for show a way for the

city to brand and sell itself off the back of civil war. However, they continued to say that this

is a better alternative to living with thinly veiled threats and being scared by the murals and

their implications (Anonymous Survey 1, 2017).

Some feel that once they are removed, they also remove some of the social barriers

that they demarcate, leaving areas open for all to travel regardless of religious or political

affiliation. Others feel that the fact they are left for historical and tourism purposes has

already removed some of the more dangerous connotations intended. This remains a

contentious issue, with the murals being balanced carefully between stirring past feelings of

conflict and aggression and using the existence of these barriers as a tool to promote future

unity and cross-community relationships (Engel, 2010).

The Aftermath of Peace

As the city still attempts to recover from a generation of violent clashes, new

perspectives emerge. In place of the political murals of a civil war, you have a slowly

growing community of artists experimenting with forms of personal, cultural, social, and

political expression in the best way they know how. For many people growing up in the city,

the walls have always been a canvas for expression, so it makes sense that so many would try

their hand at it. But just as finding a way to navigate peace is a slow journey, so is finding

different forms of art to display on the walls. Many artists are attempting to deliberately keep

11
their work non-political because they are sick of seeing the remnants of the bloody civil war

that tore their communities apart. So, they attempt to find a common ground, art that

everyone can appreciate regardless of their personal background.

Unfortunately, for many this also makes it difficult to find a meaning behind the art.

Many of the people that I spoke to that were outside of the street art community didnt find

the street art as impactful as the artists hope it will be. Because people of the younger

generation have grown up with these old political messages still blatant on the walls of their

city, they seem to have higher expectations for the impact that images on the city walls

should have. They automatically perceive it as to be more than just graffiti because of the

mural tradition. As such, they expect each piece to have an obvious meaning or message that

they are trying to express. This ideal seems to put the community at odds with the artists,

because the artists find meaning in the neutral subject matter.

Street Art and Belfast

The Importance of Street Art and Representation

During this project, I am aimed to find a better understanding of the construction of

aesthetic, place, identity, through the socio-political dialogue of street art. As a quickly rising

form of self-expression among counter-culture groups, it is a crucial factor of urban space for

Anthropology to study if we wish to keep up with the most current forms of cultural dialogue

(Burnham, 2010). For quite some time, the walls have been speaking with the voices of the

masses, but only those who understood the language were able to read it. As graffiti has

slowly grown and transformed into something more artistic and easily accessible and

understandable to the masses (and has taken up far more space on the surfaces of urban space

than marker tags) the ability to infuse the artwork with deeper and more complex meaning

has increased.

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 This becomes even more interesting in places like Belfast, where the phenomenon

started much earlier than most places. Because of the political murals of the 1900s (but most

commonly in the 60s-80s), the people who live there have grown up in an environment where

the walls have always been inherently political. This brings into question whether all street

art that happens in the city has (or is perceived as having) more cultural and political dialogue

behind it then it may in other places simply because of this history. I want to see how the

political murals have shaped and transformed the city walls, and how the newer forms of

street art are changed by and filtered through this influence.

Paste Up Those Walls A Street Art Crash Course

Street art is a difficult topic to approach in terms of definitions. While its often still

taken under the umbrella of graffiti, it doesnt simply consist of spray paint and territory

marking tags that traditional graffiti is known for (Schacter, 2014). There are a vast number

of mediums used, including mosaic tiling, murals, street sculptures, street installations, yarn

bombing, etc. In Belfast, the main form that street art takes seems to be paint or paper on

walls, which has a lot to do with the cultural foundation of political murals in the city. The

contemporary artists in the area are expanding on the method and intent of putting art on

walls, but they seem to be beholden to the medium.

Despite having a smaller variety of mediums used in the city, the distinction of graffiti

vs. street art is a source of contention even among those within the street art community.

There are many different forms that street art can take stencils, pasteups, slaps (stickers),

tags, murals, street art, just to name a few. Deciding which of these counts as street art

depends entirely on who you are asking. The definition of the most commonly used forms of

street art in Belfast are as follows:

Stencil art uses stencils made from paper, cardboard, or other various media that

helps to create an easily reproducible image. This is done by cutting the image out of the

13
medium you choose to use, and then attaching (or holding up) the stencil to the surface you

plan to apply it to. You then transfer the image using spray paint or roll on paint. In some

cases, artists use multiple layers of stencils (often for more complex designs) to add colour

and depth to the piece (Norman, 2003).

Wheatpaste posters, or paste ups are an easy medium to get into but a difficult one

to master. A large part of this being that you can either draw the designs on the paper yourself

or print out an image youve created or found on your computer. Another reason is that while

thinner paper adheres to the wall better, and complex designs are indeed possible, its also a

medium that it accessible to just about anyone. In their most basic form, paste ups can be

made with plain computer paper, masking tape to hold the piece in place, and a paste made

from wheat flour and water, which can be applied with a paint roller, that essentially shellacs

the paper to the wall (Sakugawa, 2015).

While it is nigh-unto-impossible to remove a pasteup from a wall without resorting to

scraping it off, theyre very vulnerable to the elements. In places like Belfast where rain is

incredibly common, some paste ups may only last a week before becoming torn and distorted.

Interestingly, in Belfast every few months there will be dozens of paste ups of the same

image (often political, and using a new image each time it occurs) which will crop up across

the city overnight. While its thought to be a crew of illegal street artists, no one not even

others in the street art community knows who is responsible for them.

Sticker art, also known as slaps, are a basic concept. Slaps are an easy way for

artists to create a design (hand drawn or otherwise) and print hundreds or thousands of copies

at relatively low costs through either a commercial printing service or from their own homes

using adhesive labels. They can then go around the city and display their design quickly and

easily with a small chance of getting caught. They are often known as slaps because a

common way of applying them is to peel of the back of the sticker, and keep it cupped in

14
your hand with the adhesive side facing outwards. You can then slap them onto the nearest

surface without breaking stride (Allen, 2013).

Murals, in Belfast, have a much different definition than in most other places. Instead

of merely being a massive intricate piece of work done on a wall by either a talented

individual or a crew, it takes on an entirely different connotation because of the history of

political murals in the city. Murals, as a term, is something of a dirty word or a borderline

taboo topic unless you specifically want to get into a conversation about the emotional,

religious, and political strife that divided the city for so long and in some ways still does

(Wiedenhoft Murphy, 2010).

In Belfast, mural means a political and religious demarcation of territory, often using

accusatory, aggressive, or violent wording and imagery to let citizens know who would be

welcome, or not, in that place. Because of this, in the wave of contemporary murals, they are

referred to more often as street art. Instead of being a blanket term for the range of mediums

it has also become, for some, the stand in word for mural. Street art is generally beautifully

intricate, and very often carries either a positive social or political message or has no message

at all.

These tend to be the pieces that are seen more as public art rather than vandalism,

regardless of whether the artist had permission to put up the work or not. As the street art

aesthetic expands and the pieces become more complex, colorful, and well made the lines of

legality start to blur. Some still consider it to be vandalism, while others claim that (often

depending on the quality of the work) they are works of public art which improve the cultural

vibe and aesthetic of the city. Many Belfast natives (and quite a few of the visitors) believe

that the street art improves the atmosphere and aesthetic for the area that it happens to be in,

especially in more run-down areas of the city.

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Painting the Walls Together

Many artists that I spoke to or heard about from others approach street art as a path to

helping develop their community and try to unite everyone. They view it as an opportunity to

provide neutral works of art that everyone can enjoy, to repair the rifts left by the political

violence and murals of the past. Street art in Belfast now takes a very different tone from the

murals chronicling the bloody history of the Troubles. Several artists, like Glenn Molloy have

spoken out about the political history that colors life in Northern Ireland. Molloy has said that

they deliberately make their art about the positive aspects of community life in attempts to

ease political tension (Cooper & Costello, 2017).

Street artists, both legal and illegal, tend to have a tight-knit community throughout

the city. As such, several of the professional street artists I spoke with mentioned friendly

relationships with graffiti crews in the area. Occasionally the more legal street artists might

do some work with an illegal street art crew if invited, though often most dont bother as it

poses a potential risk to their careers as paid street artists and designers. This can be

especially risky if the artist has reached any level of notoriety and does not do their work

anonymously.

One such crew of street artists, possibly the most prolific group in Belfast, are known

as TMN a name that can be found tagged all over the city. It can stand for a variety of

things, but the most commonly used seem to be The Muts Nuts, The Most Nasty, or The

Mad Nice. A Belfast artist, KVLR, mentioned this crew when discussing the community

aspect of street art. He said that it helps to bridge gaps in cultural, political, and religious

borders, stating that the TMN was a diverse crew with members from many different

multicultural groups. He went on to say that for those in the street art community, art comes

first, and everything else is put on the back burner. People from differing sides of the political

conflict and many different cultural groups come together to create art (KVLR, 2017).

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 There are even some political mural artists that have become a part of the street art

community, who are able to leave their politics to the side when working on neutral pieces

with people from differing political and social viewpoints. While the political mural tradition

has certainly fallen by the wayside in the city, it is not an art that has completely died off.

Some still paint political murals, but avoid the more violent subject matter, focusing on

individual people involved in the conflict instead of representing paramilitary groups. It is not

uncommon to find memorials to those who died, or protesting murals calling for the release

of people who were jailed during the conflict for various reasons.

City Curation

Another proponent of building a close-knit community through street art and trying to

generate unity through artistic expression (for both artists and the public) is Adam

Turkington. Adam has become an important voice in the street art community although not

being an artist himself. He is a self-proclaimed curator of street art, helping to organize and

support both street artists and community building and development through art. As such he

often speaks with owners of buildings and businesses and helps to work out where legal walls

can be painted for several yearly events that he helps to curate (Turkington, 2017).

One group that Turkington runs is Seedhead Arts. They provide art consultancy, event

management, and training services. They work with other groups in the area to run events,

tours, workshops, lectures, and much more. They look to help build connections and

communities through the work that they do. The group runs a walking tour of the street art in

the Cathedral Quarter (CQ) of Belfast, taking people through the pieces of art that Seedhead

has contributed to the creation of though events and the like. It is a two-hour long tour that

looks at past and present street art in the CQ.

During the tour, Adam talked us through some of the background and history of the

pieces, the artists who made them, and the continuous struggle with changing permissions

17
and legality, gentrification, and proposed community development projects that would be

detrimental to the art and history of the area. Quite a few people I spoke to in the city had

things to say about community development in Belfast, and the relationship between street art

and gentrification. One of the survey participants (2017) put it this way: Street art, especially

[contemporary] murals, are being used to gentrify areas before cleansing. Corporations have

hijacked street art. There is concern amongst the population about some trends that occur

between the appearance of street art in an area, and proposed development plans (Belfast

development is a bad joke).

Many street artists try to introduce their art into more run-down areas of the city, to

bring in some vibrancy and cultural aesthetic to an otherwise bland or negative part of the

city. However, because of the growing popularity of street art this has some interesting

effects. As the projected value of the buildings and area are increased because of the street art

that has been added, it brings the city council and city development teams attention to that

portion of the city.

As the value of the area continues to increase as more street art is added, which is

often deliberately overlooked or encouraged by local authorities because of the positive

impact that these pieces of street art can have the citys perception of that area can change as

well. Oftentimes this leads to city development planning changes to the area to attempt to

revitalize that portion of the city. As a result, this results in the gentrification of the area

and kicking out the poorer populations who the art was essentially painted. Ironically this

also usually ends up kicking out the artists and small local businesses which encouraged or

contributed to the art in the first place (Anonymous Survey 3, 2017).

Aesthetic and Identity

Several surveys (2017) have mentioned that in the previous years while there is a lot

more street art to be seen around the city (especially in the city centre) the works does not

18
look as good as it has previously. They look rushed and out of place in the environment that

they are in, done in the span of a few days, often with pieces picked beforehand regardless of

if the artist has seen the wall that they are going to work with. Some street artists try to

mitigate this by having loose plans or general ideas for what they want to make, but not

creating the concrete details until they have seen the space in person.

This approach to street art creates not only urban art, but open source urban design,

and in places like Belfast open source changes to the social, cultural, and political dialogue

of the city, attempting to shape it into something the artists feel is better suited for the current

time and the future. Through the socio-cultural agency (Barker, 2005) of these individuals

and the political agency given to the walls in Belfast working in tandem, eventual changes to

the social structure of the political scene (and affected city-scape) of Belfast can occur and

the inhabitants can continue to move forward into a more unified post-conflict Belfast. While

at first glance you would think that its the street art that is influencing the move towards

post-conflict unity, the feeling in Belfast is very different.

It appears that instead the gradual development of the city is influencing the art that

the citizens produce. Because of the caustic political environment, the initial response to

contemporary forms of street art was negative, which has inhibited some of the growth of the

medium. As such, it is a very small and insular community that is creating this mass amount

of art. Many of the people that I spoke with that were not actively a part of the street art

community in the city have not had that much exposure to street art. This was sort of baffling

to me, as it seemed to be everywhere, and highly visible.

However, as the city is so large, sprawling into North, South, East, West, and the city

centre, the spread of street art is not enough for everyone to have experienced it even though

its seen by many visitors to be one of the major components of the city. The majority of street

art is focused in the city centre, or in deliberately chosen areas that are less developed.

19
Because of this, street art is not a fact of their everyday life, and it has far less social and

political impact on them than it might otherwise if it inundated most every part of the city

like the political murals did (and still do).

This influences the cultural, social, and political impact of street art. Resulting from

the history of social, cultural, and political strife there are large gaps that still exist between

groups. Though peace was technically established through the Good Friday agreement, this

did not bridge the political divide between the different groups in Belfast (or Northern Ireland

as a whole) (BBC History, 2017). Currently, in Northern Ireland there exists a devolved

government, which exists as an administrative branch called the Northern Ireland Executive.

However, as recently as March 2017, the government seems to have collapsed. Every single

seat of the Executive Committee is empty, and has been that way for months. This is

demonstrative of the massive political divide between many, many different parties that exist

in Northern Ireland. This same division can be found in the citizens of Belfast, who have

views that vary wildly on politics, cultural phenomena, and the topic of street art, simply

depending on who you ask and what area of the city or surrounding areas that they are from.

Stop the Bastards Demolishing Belfast! - A Rebranding Story

In the effort to modernize and rebrand the city after a long conflict, these efforts can

often end up destroying cultural pieces of the city that lends to the overall atmosphere of and

cultural identity of a city. Many people (Anonymous Survey 4 & 5, 2017) in the Belfast are

outraged with recent Belfast development plans, as they would be demolishing independent

businesses, resulting in kicking out the creatives and art organizations, and taking down

buildings decorated with street art for their project that helped build these areas in the first

place.

#saveCQ (2016) is the name of a campaign run in the city protesting development

proposals in the Cathedral Quarter. As the Save CQ campaign website states, there is an

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investment company called Castlebrooke that acquired a large portion of land in the

Cathedral Quarter in 2016 and is looking to start widespread demolition to build shops and

offices. This is not an uncommon event when looking at plans for project development in

Belfast. However, the Cathedral Quarter holds a large amount of cultural significance in

Belfast, and Northern Irelands, arts and culture scene, and many citizens in Belfast believe

that tearing down portions of this area of cultural heritage will be detrimental to the city and

the communities living within it.

While this development project has a vehement group protecting the area planned for

demolition, a lot more has already been taken down or is in the process of being so. There are

some places that are demolished preemptively, in preparation for potential future

development projects. Often these are buildings with street art on them as they are in areas

that are or used to be run-down or in older parts of the city centre. While on an art tour, the

guide pointed out a demolition site and encouraged the group to take a close look at the

bricks that still layered the ground. You could still see the remnants of spray paint on

individual bricks from the art that had been on the building when it had been demolished.

This is a process that happen surprisingly quickly, as well. In preparation for the full

research project I spent a few days in Belfast several months for the projected research dates.

During this time, I took photographs of art that was on partially deconstructed shutters that

still stood on the site where the building was in the process of being torn down. In the three to

four-month gap between my first visit and the research period not only had they been

completely removed, but several of the low walls on the opposite side of the street had been

taken down as well. This process destroyed several beautiful pieces of street art, and even

more are on the edges of the demolition zone and likely to be taken down soon. This lends

well to the ephemeral nature of street art, but it also a clear sign of the beginning of

gentrification in certain areas.

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 There has also been a push from certain groups in the city, with funding from the

Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, to try to mitigate

the effects of, or replace, the political murals that still exist in many places in Belfast.

Evidence of one such movement are the cloth murals that Dee Craig has put up in several

parts of Belfast (Smithey, 2016). Focusing on youth and education, the pieces take a vastly

different style, in both medium and product, to the other forms of street art inhabiting the

city. As Smithey mentions, these pieces are put up using a parachute cloth technique,

which leads to easier application. They are also some of the first cloth murals in Belfast.

Stylistically they are far different from the other contemporary street art, utilizing a style that

is closer is aesthetic to the political murals than anything else. However, they utilize this style

to primarily promote education, youth and community development instead of the

demarcations of a political and religious divide.

However, because of the style and aesthetic used for these pieces, they often end up

looking like 1940s and 50s propaganda posters. They tend to not be as well thought out or

designed, partially because of this cloth technique which means much less thought needs to

go into exactly where a piece fits and can be added to the fabric of the city. One piece, a

picture of a boy staring off into the middle distance with Dream, Seek, Educate, Achieve!

written above and below, looks startlingly similar to posters of The Hitler Youth propaganda.

Community Engagement

Culture Night is Belfasts largest cultural festival, which is now in its 9th year. It

brings together 300 free events in over 150 locations in Belfast in a single day. It pulls in over

85,000 visitors each year. Adam Turkington, the city curator, had in previous years been a

part of the organization of Culture Night, but as Hit the North grew as its own parallel festival

he stopped organizing Culture Night to be able to focus more heavily on his own event. The

phenomenon of culture night is what helped to expand the street art community in Belfast, as

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a lot of it started off within or being associated with Culture Night, and slowly expanded past

the boundaries of the event. However, Hit the North still happens on the same day, because of

the cultural sense of lenience that occurs.

The Bank, another project that Turkington (2017) is heavily involved with, is a joint

creative space shared by several differing types of artists and creators in Belfast. There are

workshops, movie nights, lectures, and more than happen out of this building, which is an

empty, historic Ulster Bank building that recently became a home to these creatives.

Seedhead Arts, working with Blick Studios and EastSide Arts Festival, have run special

workshop courses with the resident artists of the Bank. There are many different Faculty

courses that have been available to take at the Bank. This is done to try to bring in members

of the community and to develop a deeper appreciation for the art and creative works that

happen in Belfast.

Most recently there were two street art workshops, both a Beginners and a

Masterclass, dark room techniques, screenprinting, experimental drawing, and vlogging. As a

part of my fieldwork I attended the Beginners street art workshop run by an artist known as

Emic. This was an interesting and entertaining experience, where participants work as a

group and with Emic learning tagging, stenciling, and fades, which are a type of shading that

occurs in street art. Together we made two large scale pieces done on boards which was

designed and carefully directed by Emic. It is aimed at inexperienced people who wish to

experiment with the medium, and works to encourage artists to learn and pursue street art. In

previous years there were more in-depth street art courses that taught individuals, such as

Friz, that are now renowned independent artists in Belfast.

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The Changing Face of the City

Defacing Belfast

Two of the largest events that Adam helps to curate and organize are Hit the East and

Hit the North, which are both street art festivals which bring in artists both local and

international to put up new pieces of street art across parts of the city. Hit the East focuses on

bringing art to East Belfast, while Hit the North focuses on Central Belfast. Hit the North is

the larger and original variation of street art festivals that happen in Belfast. It was

established in 2013 by Seedhead Arts and the Community Arts Partnership (CAP) as a

response to blank space on North Street, which is where the name originated. As the festival

has continued to develop, becoming one of the biggest street art festivals in Ireland over just

4 years. Hit the North has gained support by several different councils and businesses in

Northern Ireland.

During Hit the East and Hit the North, many international street artists from all over

the world come to Belfast to leave their mark on the city. This introduces art into the cultural

scene of the city which has a very different social and political bent to it, though not all the

pieces appear to be politically motivated at first glance. Often, it is not apparent until you

either speak with the artist directly, or speak to someone who is either familiar with or

worked with said artist. This change in perspective is helping to colour and adapt the art that

native Belfast artists do in the city as well.

The Commercialization of Street Art

As the popularity of street art has grown, it has begun to be commercialized with

once-rebels publishing coffee table books of their art, and taking commission to make murals

or advertisements. To some this is a success, helping to develop the world of street art and

move the genre forward. Others fear that this is taking the meaning out of the pieces, and

ignoring the outspoken thoughts or views of street artists working from the street level.

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 Merrill (2014) discusses the possibility that the acceptance of street art into the larger

framework of acceptable society means that the entire framework must then be changed. This

is because while street art is becoming accepted as cultural and political discourse, it does not

fit into the traditional frameworks of illegality, illegibility, anti-commercialism, or the

formalized structure of society as it currently exists. It can be a somewhat complicated topic

for artists, as many must balance the commercialization of the art form with being able to

work as a street artist full time and financially support themselves.

It is increasingly common in Belfast, as more artists in the city approach street art as

their profession and main source of income, for artists to be commissioned to make adverts

for various businesses done in the style of contemporary street art. Some of these are

obviously advertisements, while others are more obscure, which can lead to confusion as to

whether the piece of art you encounter on a wall in the city is personal expression or an ad.

Both types of these adverts can be seen done by the local artist Visual Waste who operates in

Belfast.

While one piece is very obviously an advertisement the name Muddlers Club, a

local restaurant, is prominently displayed the other is more confusing. It is a great example

of political satire, featuring Donald Trump declaring Make Burritos Bad Ass Again, and

especially considering its location in the same square as Belfast City Hall its not

immediately evident that it is an advert for a Mexican restaurant called Bad Ass Burritos

which commissioned the piece from Visual Waste. This was likely done because their front

entrance is currently obscured by boards put up for construction. One of the research

participants (2017) informed me that this is the second incarnation of that piece. The first was

done much closer to the ground and was almost immediately defaced by vandals.

There is an art supply store (Ink Monkey) which resides in an area that is heavily

decorated with various pieces of street art. As such, it seems to be something of a popular

25
destination for street artists. Upon entry shoppers can find prints for sale of various pieces of

street art that can be found across the city, and some prints done by street artists that have not

been put up on the city walls. These prints are supplied by the artists themselves, who come

into the store periodically to leave prints for them to sell on their behalf. A discussion with

employees of the store revealed that it is the only physical store front in Belfast where artists

come to sell their prints. While most artists have online shops where prints and other

merchandise can be bought, and others sell their wares in craft markets, there are no other

brick and mortar locations where prints of this nature can be bought in the city.

The Street Art Blog

One of the most prominent social media presences in the street art scene in Belfast is

Belfast Beyond. Clare Watson (2017), the creator and mind behind Belfast Beyond started

this personal enterprise in January of 2016. It began as just a hobby, wanting to document the

graffiti and street art in the city, as well as in places outside of Belfast (hence the Beyond),

and being able to speak with street artists to get a better personal understanding for what they

do and why they do it. The scope began to expand when people outside her initial friend

group showed interest, including some street artists. While the overall scope of the project

continues to expand, they currently have a presence on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and

their own website. Clare has joined the ranks of photographers and graffiti hunters who want

to explore the ever-expanding world of urban art.

She plans, and has already started the process, to expand from merely being a social

media feed of photos, to giving more in-depth reports about events and exhibitions that occur

around Northern Ireland and beyond. While they are based in Belfast, they also explore the

street art scene in Derry, Manchester, and hope to be able to travel to different parts of the

world to continue exploring and reporting on street art. They have also conducted some

interviews of various street artists to find out more about their art, inspiration, past work, and

26
plans. Belfast Beyond attended the Hit the East event, and Clare was approached by street

artists who wanted to introduce themselves to the head of Belfast Beyond. One of the graffiti

writers even added a small shout-out to the group in his piece.

Following the trend of attempting to go beyond what simply exists on the walls of the

city, Extramural Activity (2017) is a blog that posts pictures of and discusses murals and

street art in Belfast and Northern Ireland. They try to stay impartial and inclusive to all types

of mural and street art that are present in the area. They wish to remain a broad view blog

instead of narrowing the field to more exclusive viewer bases because they dont want to

send the right message to some and the wrong message to others.

The main aim of the site is to go beyond just what is physically present on the wall.

They aim to explain the contents of each piece of art that they post about, and give the viewer

additional context to the image to try to garner a deeper understanding of what the artists

meant each image to represent. They believe that this is a more valuable take on each piece

than what an individual might take from it depending on their own knowledge base and

experience. They are also slowly building a map of the murals and pieces of street art across

Northern Ireland. It includes the (if known) the titles of the works, the artists, location, and if

there is a specific blog post on the site about it there will be a link to it.

Overall, there seems to be a large culture of people who want to experience, share,

and document/save images of the street art that they spotted around the city. There are

numerous twitter accounts, blogs, Instagram pages, etc. that frequently post images of street

art that people have found scattered around the city. These are usually accompanied by the

name of the artist (if known) and sometimes a rough location of where the image was taken,

if others want to go and see the piece in person. Some of the blogs are dedicated almost

entirely to location hunting the works, and will update the posting if the image has been

covered up, or the building it was on was demolished.

27
 There are some pieces that show political messages, usually for or against a political

ideal or person, such as womens rights, and abortion rights. There also seems to be some

critique of the CCTV surveillance that is so prevalent across the UK, with images of people

with camera heads, or posts with innumerable cameras mounted on them, tweeted with

#bigbrotheriswatchingyou, #Orwellian. Others seem to be calling a political commentary on

the city itself, such as the stencil of John F. Kennedy stating, Ich bin ein Belfaster. There

are some heavy parallels to the division of Berlin before the wall was taken down (Sommers,

2014).

A piece of art that can be found around the city that exemplifies the relationship of

Belfast to its physical structures is If Walls Could Talk, a metal art installation by Kevin

Killen. While it is certainly an interesting piece and a lovely play on the saying, it would

seem that, at least in Belfast, the walls are already able to speak. Having found their voice

through the myriad of street artists that work with them to speak their piece. They are

creating a dialogue with and for the public in their urban spaces, politically non-political and

powerful in their own right because of that.

Conclusions

Theoretical Framework Analysis

Both examples of murals and street art in Belfast have a visible impact on the

construction of the city-scape. Because the social and political tensions in Belfast for so long

presented themselves blatantly on the walls, it stands to reason that the way to achieve a

unified community in Belfast would be through the same method. Young people expressing

their opinions through deliberately non-political art (Bell, 2016) not only gives voice to the

masses, but also shows the aesthetic and cultural agency that can be applied through a

network of individuals.

28
 Street artists view the urban landscape as a catalyst for their work, searching through

the cast-offs and neglected sections of the city to find where they can best contribute their

work. Artists often dont decide what they are going to create until they get a look at the wall

that they are working with, and a sense of the surrounding area. This is something that

becomes more difficult to achieve when the art comes from events like Hit the East and Hit

the North. For some members of the public, this can have a detrimental effect to the quality

of the street art that is produced.

As with most cultural phenomenon, this social and political puzzle becomes apparent

through the street art as well. There is no clear message being told through the art because

almost every single artist has a different viewpoint as to how street art should be enacted.

Many artists that grew up in the city are reluctant to broach cultural and political issues

blatantly with their art because of the history of the political murals. Politics seems to make

everyone sort of nervous and twitchy because it remains to be such a contentious topic. Past

that, there are some who simply do non-political work because they are sick of hearing about

the social and political debates that permeate so many different aspects of their city.

The people are so divided and there and so many pieces to the cultural jigsaw puzzle

of Belfast that it becomes difficult for the art that exists to have any real impact because there

is no unified message. So, for some, the deliberately non-political pieces seem pointless. As

one participant (2017) said, Its mainly either murals or rubbish. They believe that it could

have an impact on the city, and at least currently has some positive influence on the aesthetic

and vibe on certain cultural centres where the art is commonly found, but it needs more of a

message.

This is something that is slowly changing because of two main factors. First, are the

international artists that come in or are brought in to add their work to the city stage. As they

are outsiders to the political drama, foreign artists often have far fewer qualms about putting

29
up poignant pieces of street art that put across a cultural or political dialogue instead of being

so intensely non-political. This is starting to embolden the street artists local to the area. Over

time this will continue to grow and develop, and may eventually make a stronger foothold in

the social climate of the city.

The second factor is the city itself. As people in Belfast still struggle to find a place of

cultural identity and unity in a community that was so split, the world of street art will

continue to follow. Over time, groups will become more clearly defined, and the art will

begin to show more concrete messages as individuals have less hesitance to put their

viewpoint and message out there for the city to see. So as the cultural dialogue of the city

continues to change and become clearer, so will the street art. At some point, it will likely

reach a point of critical mass, and the street art will begin to lead the city toward new

viewpoints as the alternative cultures and forward thinkers continue to come to new

conclusions as the patchwork of the city continues to develop.

Field Work Conclusions

Because of the breadth of information that I gathered over the course of this project,

there were several aspects that I originally thought would feature much more heavily in my

final product that ended up not being included. While I conducted four interviews, with a

total of about two and a half hours of recorded audio, I found myself mostly referencing the

anonymous surveys. Because I was interviewing people who are heavily involved in the

street art community, most if not all the content of the interviews ended up being information

and opinions that they make readily available through the various sites, events, and products

that they produce for and within the street art community. As such, the information gathered

through the surveys was more interesting for the project, as it was unique to each individual

and covered a much broader range of viewpoints as they were not all a direct part of the street

art culture in Belfast.

30
 I had also, at the beginning of my research in Belfast, set aside a journal to be used

for both itinerary and field notes, which I was planning on including in the final project. As

time progressed, I realized that the field notes I was accruing were not in the book. Most of

the pertinent information, opinions, emotions, etc. that would have gone into the field notes

ended up being addressed in various emails, Facebook messages to friends, classmates,

family, or even project contributors as I talked through the process of information gathering

and collating. At the end of the research window I realized that the notes were so far scattered

in various formats that it would be nigh-unto impossible to form all the information into

something coherent and in the same document. This, combined with the sheer amount of

other information gathered, caused me to just not use the concept of field notes in the

research.

While attempting to connect the various threads of information found in the process

of field work, the main theories that I used to analyze the data gathered were: sociological

ideas on the individual and agency (Barker, 2005; Littlejohn & Foss, 2009), the construction

of the urban landscape (Burnham, 2010), and incorporating cultural heritage and history into

street art for the purposes of self-expression and encouraging cultural change (MacDowall,

2006).

I chose these three main theories because I feel they best help break down the

complex interweaving of art, politics, culture, and history that Belfast exhibits in post its past

and present examples of street art as the city works through post-conflict issues. For the time

being Belfast is, and will remain in, a constant state of flux. The city is constantly working

and reworking its ideas of politics, religion, and culture into what may in the future be a more

unified whole as the people work towards having more defined community groups. But as

with most things, it is a slow process, and in the interim, there will always be the street art

that will help illustrate the progress made toward a unified Belfast.

31
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