RIOT POLICE surrounded by pink love-hearts, breeze blocks printed with Monopoly money and a sign over Leinster House depicting it as the “National Zoo”, all feature in an exhibition of street art in Dublin this weekend.
The artist known only by the alias ADW – an acronym used in the US to describe the crime of assault with a deadly weapon – says the “wreckage of the economic collapse” provides the backdrop to his work.
While he also paints guerrilla street art in a similar style to that of the English artist Banksy, he has previously shown his stencils at an exhibition at the Back Loft Gallery in Dublin last year.
A number of pieces from that show gained attention, notably Bertie Tricolour, a portrait of former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, his face painted with tricolour tiger stripes. It also featured Somewhere over the rainbow, showing a tiger wearing shamrock shades holding a dead leprechaun in its mouth.
Continuing the leprechaun theme, the current exhibition also features The Jerk – a piece that reimagines a poster for the Steve Martin film of that name. In this, “Steve Martin” is a dishevelled leprechaun with trousers around his ankles and the tagline: “A rags to riches to rags story”.
The artist believes the Leinster House National Zoo, the last piece painted for the exhibition, perhaps best defines its mood.
“Those letters above the gate, people will be able to relate to,” he says.
ADW says he takes pictures of all his street art after he has completed it. The powers that be often wash the work away in less than 24 hours.
The exhibition opens today at 6pm at South Studios, New Row South, in the Coombe area of Dublin and runs until Sunday.
A video featuring ADW’s work from the show will be made available today at irishtimes.com.