If These Walls Could Talk: collective speaking through murals
by Cónal Ó MIANÁIN and Allan LEONARD
20 March 2024
As part of the 2024 Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics, Ulster University hosted a panel discussion featuring a presentation by Dr Struan Kennedy — “If These Walls Could Talk” — to examine the theory that murals could and should be used as safe spaces for a mutual exchange of ideas.
Dr Struan Kennedy recently completed his PhD studies at Northumbria University, investigating the “weaponisation” of culture and gender, specifically certainly forms of masculinity and how they are expressed in loyalist murals in Northern Ireland.
This theory of murals as safe spaces is rooted in the idea of “repeated activation”, of which he surmises that there are three varieties: educational, cultural and political. To explain his theory, Kennedy showed the audience several murals both local and international, as well as some accompanying videos below.
Northern Ireland case studies
One idea is that we in Northern Ireland have become less actively aware of the murals that surround us, due to their omnipresence, leading to a form of inattentional blindness. This could be positively combatted by using similar tactics to political murals such as Free Derry Corner, which is used as a soapbox stand during Bloody Sunday commemorations. An alternative is to use murals for cultural and/or educational purposes — for the benefit of future good.
Using local murals to show the symbological progression away from that of tribal area marking (which is discussed in our article, Street Art), Kennedy suggested that we need to actively remember these newer, more positive murals and their meaning, by putting repeated activation into practice at these locations, or at yet unknown murals that have not yet been created, but that should be created for this purpose.
Kennedy considers the Lyra McKee mural, It Won’t Always Be Like This, as an entry point for the idea of repeated activation as a force for positivity. Furthermore, as a queer-forward piece, helps further the idea that acceptance of all is the only way to achieve peace.
The International Women’s Day/Children in Crossfire mural was described as the perfect space to provide the opportunity to practise this theory, because there is ample space in front of the mural to host events celebrating women in future iterations of International Women’s Day.
The mural, Derry Lama, depicts local man and founder of Children in Crossfire, Richard Moore, along with his friend The Dalai Lama. Kennedy explained Moore’s story of being shot and blinded in 1972 by a British soldier whom he has since made peace with and developed a friendship. Kennedy spoke about the symbology of the artwork, with its bright and colourful background representing the flag of Tibet — a flag much less contentious than the usual flags seen around Northern Ireland — stating, “The visual voice of peace is often but a whisper”. One could argue that this piece is an embodiment of the idea of repeated activation.
The Hugh Smyth OBE Third Class Citizens mural on Shankill Road, Belfast, was also shown to be a positive mural, due to the message displayed on the aluminium plates below, which states:
“Historically, Unionist politicians fed their electorate the myth that they were first class citizens… and without question people believed them. Historically, Republican/Nationalist politicians fed their electorate the myth that they were second-class citizens… and without question the people believed them. In reality, the truth of the matter was that we all, Protestant and Catholic, were third-class citizens, and none of us realised it!”
Kennedy remarked that he felt this type of mural was less effective than those created through the more traditional methods of the paintbrush/can. He later elaborated with me how the community rallied together via social media to ensure the defacing of the mural wasn’t repeated.
External exemplars
Kennedy then went on to discuss the concept of repeated activation through murals that have been created elsewhere.
Shido Shino Suleman, founder of Fearless Collective, explained its movement’s work with an example of a mural created in support of Muslim women in India, who have had their rights recently reduced by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi:
“The reason why we need art, or I would even say, beauty, is because beauty has this capacity to make everything worth it. No matter what our hardships, no matter the struggle…beauty saves us again and again.
“And given all of the ugliness of the world, the creation of beauty is an act of resistance.”
As explained in a short documentary film, the Wall of Respect in Chicago was a mural of over 50 portraits celebrating African-American heroes:
“In the spring of 1967, muralist William Walker and others formed OBAC — the Organisation of Black American Culture. OBAC [oh-ba-see] brought artists together to creatively engage in the struggle for equality.”
The documentary also speaks about a layering of artistic forms — paint, poetry, and photography. Haki Madhubuti, a poet, said:
“We understood black to have layers also. Black was not only colour, black was culture and consciousness. Culture gives you a sense of identity, purpose, and direction.”
Romi Crawford (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) added:
“The sense of community, the sense of congregation, the sense of collectivity that happened at this site was another really important part of that layering.”
Mural Arts Philadelphia was described as America’s largest community-based public art programme. Perhaps in contrast to the Wall of Respect’s focus on a single community — African-American — Mural Arts Philadelphia’s work brings together individuals from a variety of backgrounds and identities, such as military veterans and parolees along with artists and schoolchildren:
“We use art to transform individuals, to provide people with a moment of hope, to build resilience.”
Mural Arts Institute, an initiative of Mural Arts Philadelphia, hosted a symposium in 2023, bringing together artists working with communities in public spaces. The two-day event explored critical questions in the field of public art practice, including, “Who owns public art?”, “Where do we prioritize care for our communities?”, and “Who defines success?”
Conclusion
The main points of murals — where the idea of repeated activation should be put in place — were summarized as coming from a place of care and showing empathy, which should be achieved by rigorous research and involvement of the local community, in order to be “the visual voice of the voiceless”. As a contrasting example, The Geisha was brought up in post-event conversation as a possible pointer towards “muralism done wrong”, as there are no links in the work to the local Shankill area.
