ASBESTOS

Asbestos is an Irish artist who’s been creating work on the street in a variety of media since 2003. 

His portraits explore the concept of identity that are a conversation with two versions of his persona. “Each mask portrays two versions of myself, one alive and one dead. The dead version is a fictional character that represents me, if I’d been killed in a car bomb”. The bomb he refers to was a real one that went off in Dublin 46 days before he was born, 5 minutes after his mother walked past it. “I’ve always been fascinated about the fact that I may never have existed.” So each portrait is created by two versions of his persona combining photorealism and abstract naive strokes. 

Alongside this he creates his Lost series, he sets out to find all manner of lost things using stickers and posters. He is searching for forgotten objects jolting pedestrians out of their daily routine. Anyone finding them can get in touch, and this part of the process creates a dialogue with the public.