D!VE

No Future. 280 x 500cm Hand-cut stencil, spray painted wall. The argument of Art vs Vandalism is regularly contemplated in the street art world. Though there is something of a line drawn between the two, you can find beautiful shapes in shattered glass if you look hard enough. This dispute is contemplated here by artist both applauded and apprehended for doing the same thing in different spaces. This painting is a reflection on that notion, but more than that, this painting is a tribute to Piero Cannata, an artist mistook for a vandal. In 1991 Piero Cannata took a hammer to the statue of David. He was unemployed at the time. No job, no hope, no future. He was found to be of unsound mind and sent to a mental hospital. When he was released he was, incredibly, employed as a museum guide giving tours of masterpieces, including David. He went on to deface a fresco by a Renaissance master, took a knife to "The Adoration of the Shepherds Before Baby Jesus" and spray painted a black "x" on a plaque commemorating the burning to death of a 15th-century preacher amongst other acts of vandalism. When he was asked to explain his crimes he expressed a sentiment shared by most artists, "a force inside me urged me to do it." Let's applaud Piero Cannata.

No Future

Painted on the Mardyke Walk, Cork. This bust references the Venus Italica by Antonio Canova, A figure studied in the Crawford Gallery's Recasting Canova exhibition. A collection of some of the greatest works of Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture in the Vatican Museums, brought to Cork in 1818 and have since transformed the ways in which art has been appreciated, studied, and practiced in the south of Ireland. This fractured version of the Venus is a continuation of D!VE’s ongoing series of fractured statues ‘Destruction, Deconstructed, which comprises of many pieces from the Canova collection as these works, as intended by their display, had inspired the project from it’s beginning.

Crew

Dissolved Girl

240 x 360cm Hand-cut stencil, spray painted wall. This image of an anchor disassembling in zero gravity comes from an Admiralty type anchor, recovered from the World War One wreck of the Cunard ship S.S. Feltria that was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine UC 48 on the 5th May 1917. The anchor can be found by the key in Dungarvan while the wreck now lies 14 miles S.E. of Helvick Head. After taking a 3D scan of the object and simulating its disintegration digitally to use as a reference for illustration. D!VE was invited by the organisers of Waterford Walls to paint the piece as a stencil at their next annual event. After enlarging the illustration to dimensions fitting to the suggested wall, he separated the image into 12 segments to hand screen print and cut the stencil. On the day the piece was painted directly on the wall by spluttering 3 different shades of Montana 94 blues to achieve a patina effect replicating the current state of the original anchor.

The Wreck of the S.S. Feltria

I Put A Spell On You. 54.5 x 72cm Hand-cut stencil, spray painted on a wall in the mural alleyway. With an Ireland 3000 piece underneath.

I Put A Spell On You

2 x 4m Hand-cut stencil, spray painted wall. Located at Spot13 in Paris, the painted stencil on this exploding bust of Marie Antoinette contrasts her character with The Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.

The Queen of Heads

170 x 90cm Hand-cut stencil, spray paint on a door. This take on the Dancing Faun focuses the breaking point of the statue on the legs. An alteration that recontextualizes its arms and facial expression from dancing to despair. The original statue was found at The House of the Faun, one of the largest private residences in Pompeii and home to many pieces of spectacular art. Much like the House of the Faun, The Panke Culture in Berlin is also home to many spectacular pieces from Berlin's street artists.

Dancing Faun of Panke

245 x 272cm Hand-cut stencil, spray painted wall. Here we see a bust celebrating Apollo. One of the most significant deities in the Greek pantheon, shattered to pieces with 'paint it black' spray painted across his face. Apollo's name is mentioned frequently in Greek mythology for the roles he played in the Trojan war (amongst other wars), killing all of Niobe's sons &amp; slaying the giants. In other words he gained notable credibility from death &amp; destruction. Paint it Black by the stones is considered by many to be written about someone's struggle with the sudden loss of a partner, others associate it with the Vietnam war. In either interpretation the character is overcome with loss &amp; despair and as a result of death wants to paint everything black. This painting associates Apollo, the God of music &amp; dance, with a song about death &amp; destruction.

Paint It Black

Hand-cut stencil &amp; handprinted woodblock wheatpasted on a wall. During their stay at the Retramp for the 'Recovering Catholics' exhibition D!VE &amp; Patrick Ireland 3000 installed this work around the corner from the gallery. A lot of the feedback from the opening was directed at how the works complimented each other and worked together so they applied the same practise to an outdoor piece, to see if they could carry that harmony outside the walls of the gallery space.

Recovery

220 x 150cm Hand-cut stencil, spray painted wall. The statue of Perseus with the Head of Medusa refers to the mythological story of the incident in which the hero has put an end to Medusa turning people into stone. This interpretation depicts the statue crumbling apart to reinforce that the image is in fact a statue and to explore the irony that the moment Medusa's curse was put to an end has itself become a statue. Medusas head remains intentionally intact.

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D!VE

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