CLARA TRAYNOR (I want to make your ads)

 

The following is a short piece written for Bloom's website on Dublin street artist, Maser.

 

'Let’s go over and have a look at this big colourdy yolk in the middle here Mary!' said one elderly woman to another on Smithfield square last Friday evening. The two wander over and gaze around the giant abstract wooden structure of rectangular shapes of various sizes.

 

There is a queue of 30 or so people waiting to have their curiosity sated as to what is inside this odd form of colourful diagonal stripes.

It is the opening of Irish graffiti artist, Maser’s art installation. A piece commissioned as part of the Bram Stoker festival. I join the line of people and share their feelings of anticipation. Shortly after two young kids speed up to me on their bikes and shout ‘hey what’s that thing?’ I explain.

 

15 minutes pass when a tall middle-aged man taps me on the shoulder and asks ‘pardon me miss but do you know why you are standing here?’ I do. ‘Do you know who has created this?’ I do. He exclaims that I am the first person that he has asked that knew who the artist was and at this stage I was pretty close to the front of the line.

 

After he left me and continued to quiz the rest of the people that stood waiting before me, I started to contemplate on it a little. Do I know who Maser is? I knew about the petrol station in Limerick that he transformed. I knew some of us Bloomers had heard him speak at Offset 2014 and I was a little familiar with his work on Dublin’s docklands but apart from that I knew very little. 

So after experiencing what was inside it I started to do a bit of googling on who exactly Maser is.  Here’s some interesting things I found out…

 

He studied fine art and design communications.

He developed his reputation through graffiti first and foremost and has been creating street art for over ten years all over the world.

He was awarded Membership of the International Society of Typographic Designers, MISTD

 

That coloured portrait of G.B. Shaw in the Bernard Shaw is his creation.

 

He has collaborated with a lot of people including Askew, Conor Harrington and Fintan Magee to name a few.

 

He has worked on a lot of events. Some of which include The Maser Maze at Coachella ‘15, Australia’s Sydney Festival, Roskilde Music Festival, POW!WOW! Hawaii and Milan Expo 2015.

 

He has his own clothing line called Homebird.

 

Some online art folk have described his work as:

‘Flashy piece that give optimism and positive feelings’ -onthetrendyroad.com

‘A photographic playground’ -knstrct.com

Some people he is inspired include M.C. Escher and Ed Ruscha.

 

He has worked with some brands too. He redesigned the classic Brown Thomas bag, worked on a film for U2′s last album and created an Olympus photography playground in Berlin.

 

What Maser says about installations - ‘A piece has true purpose when people engage with it and within it.’

 

It is clear that his reputation only seems to be growing. The artist flew straight to Paris a day after the opening of the installation in Smithfield to work on his latest project in Palais de Tokyo. To keep up to date with this bloomin’ great Dublin artist follow @maserart or check out his installation in Smithfield Square for the Bram Stoker Festival.