Irish street artist Maser: ‘All I look for is openness’

From his Repeal mural, to the Ballymun Flats project with Damien Dempsey, Kate Demolder talks to Maser about the power and potential of political of art and graffiti

Irish artist Maser in front of a building he has painted. Pic: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

According to lore, modern graffiti — in lieu of etched cave paintings and deep, red hieroglyphics — began in the late 1960s, when a Philadelphia teenager named Darryl McCray started spray-painting his nickname, Cornbread, around the city, hoping to catch the attention of his crush. 

Unknowingly, then, he conceived an art form. One that inserts, inspires, and irks in equal measure.

Modern Irish graffiti then, the kind bold in messaging, and all-too-often painted over by State-funded organisations, proves bold in its contemporary politics, all the while providing free-to-visit art in a city chastised for underfunding creatives.

While connotations of street art can be fraught, few burst through the noise to cement themselves, and their art, as important cultural icons. 

One of these centric spirits is Maser (real name Al Hester), a contemporary visual artist whose work is astonishingly prolific, blanketing the city with spray-painted stencils and deep socialist messaging. It dares to ask us all the same question: Are you alive?

Creating since 1995, Maser’s work has inspired a dedicated following around the world, despite his home city’s long-standing war against street art by way of gentrification. 

His most famous pieces make use of bold, primary colours in contrasting stencilled lines, some committed to words (The City is my Garden, U Are Alive*, Maser Loves You), some not.

It commits to a free-for-all transformation, bringing art to the artless and hard-discussed topics like religion and immigration to the fore. 

Because of this, his work is digestible, ambitious, and new. But what makes his work so absorbing is Maser’s playful use of juxtaposition.

“If you’re gonna do a piece on the street somewhere, you want it to be seen and loud. So you introduce colours that you know will do that,” he says from a seat in his Dublin 2 studio. 

“I’ll always start with something warm and then introduce colder shades to sort of balance hot and cold and loosen things up a bit. I like the idea of people seeing my movement within it; seeing my hand mark there and choices there. It kind of brings it home a bit.”

The morning we meet in Atelier Now, his Charlemont Street studio, Maser’s current and past work shows traces of the masters some might deem are before his time; Twombly’s sensitivity, Koons’ boldness, Warhol’s anarchy.

What’s obvious, though, is that Maser’s sprayed lines, buckling contrasts and eloquent splatters, are all his. “Sorry about this,” he smiles. “It’s a bit of a kip at the moment.” 

Water shuffles loudly through pipes as we speak and Hester laughs. Up to 20 unfinished works are mounted behind him — in a way that makes them appear as if they’re floating — on bright, white walls.

“I’m impatient so always have to be working on a few things at once,” he says. “Otherwise I’d just be waiting for paint to dry the whole time. It works out because they kind of end up inspiring and influencing each other.”

He reveals his favourite piece of work when pressed. “The Repeal piece was great when it was there,” he smiles, alluding to the compromisation of the political art piece by Dublin City Council who informed the Project Arts Centre (whose wall bore the piece) that it was in violation of planning rules. 

“It’s funny, I was adamant at the time that it was not my piece, per se. That I was never going to be taking ownership of it — it belonged to others.

“But in hindsight, I look back on it, and it was pretty incredible. I don’t think it was an incredible piece of work or anything like that, it just sort of gave something that everyone could sort of communicate with.” 

He pauses, asking me to look behind me at a large-scale photograph. “I also can’t answer that question without mentioning the Ballymun Flats piece.”

(In 2009, prior to its demolition, Maser worked with Damien Dempsey to paint a string of Dempsey’s lyrics ‘Concrete Jungle Mother Farewell to your Stairwell Forever’, on a nine-storey block in Ballymun.)

“That got me to take a moment, sit back and say to myself, ‘Fuck, that’s pretty wild’. I was really proud of that.” 

While some may still need convincing, street art is slowly but surely no longer representing the offence it once did.

Many rejoice in public art, cementing its rightful place as part of a hometown’s romantic, rough-and-tumble past, preserved in museums and coffee table books.

There was once a time when that might be laughable, but with initiatives like Colourama at Kildare Village, you’re as likely to see graffiti on streets of plush, luxury boutiques as hanging on the walls of the people who shop there. 

For Maser, this evocatively breaks down barriers further.

“It’s another avenue, another stream for artists to make a living,” he says. “As long as that aligns with your intentions, absolutely it’s a good thing. Commercial gigs are what gave me the ability to do art as a full-time job.”

Standing in front of a building painted by Irish artist Maser is Ola wearing Loulerie earrings, Paul Costello dress, Sandro heels. Pic: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Colourama is Kildare Village’s new street festival celebrating art, music, wellness, and fashion throughout the summer with a glut of the country’s most prominent artists, musicians, and wellness experts. Maser has contributed a mural.

“They got onto me and said they love what I’m doing — providing a space for artists to create — and they wanted to do something similar. And that’s exactly what they’re doing. And so they got me to come out and do a mural to kind of be a part of the lead of Colourama alongside two other artists.”

The initiative forms part of a commitment that Kildare Village has to showcasing the creative talent across our island, says Kildare Village Business Director Victor Biffi Rosano. “We are immensely proud to work with and showcase the best in Irish talent across art, music, wellness and of course fashion in the Colourama festival, including Irish artists Maser and James Kirwan and Irish musicians Aimee Fitzpatrick, Tolü Makay, and Kildare native Ryan Mack. 

"These collaborations give our guests the opportunity to experience the best of Irish creativity in many forms across the Village. 

"We are delighted to continue to provide a platform for Irish talent and to deliver these exciting experiences to our guests.”

“It’s been pretty fun, and much more glamorous than anywhere else I’ve painted,” Maser laughs. “I’m kind of used to car parks and the backs of pubs.”

Like it or not, Maser, now 42 and a father of one-and-a-half-year-old Alfie (“what I’ve learned from parenthood is that I can function on about three hours’ sleep”), is arguably among the most important Irish artists of his generation.

You might fondly wish, as I’m sure some do, for a champion whose art is hung in expensive, deep-set frames, only to be hung in galleries and restaurant bathrooms. 

But Maser’s choices, startling in their simplicity and rich in their morality, are the reasons behind his success; his stencilled repetition of colour and font choosing to crack open a soul instead of hiding within it. 

If you are put off by the supposed harshness of public art, it means you might not be ready to confess to the questions he asks.

But once you stop resisting Maser’s mien, his work feels authentic, bracing and even, on occasion, calming. 

“All I’m ever looking for with my work is openness,” he says. “Don’t look too deep. I’m just going to put this here and you can respond to it in whatever way you want. Even when I do shows and talk about work, I try not to hammer down too fine of a point. People can project what they want.

“I’m just happy they have a space where they can do that. And if in that process, people get a bit of joy and happiness, that’s enough for me.” 

To make the world appear uniformly colourful requires rare discipline — the kind Maser makes feel nonchalant.

His work, previously primarily in cities, will shine in Kildare, the Village creating a blank canvas for minds like his to guide. 

For Irish people, Maser and his counterparts made beautiful, powerful street art and topography new; merging the anonymous aggression of graffiti with the stateliness of formal abstract painting.

It’s something for which he counts himself entirely lucky. “I’ve gotten used to the idea of my art being quite transient, due to being knocked down or painted over or whatever.

“But I’ve realised that it kind of adds to the beauty of it all. Like I’ve done huge works over the world in Vegas and Sydney and stuff, but as I’ve gotten older, I realise how lucky I am to be creating here in Ireland, and in a place where I’m genuinely happy. It’s really loosened up my work, and kind of eliminated that fear of judgement.”

He pauses, before saying finally: “It’s my meditation as well as my work, and getting to do it in the place I am now is a joy.

“Even if people still go to my Instagram to comment, ‘That’s bollocks’, every once in a while.”

• From immersive experiences to vibrant murals and installations, this summer sees Kildare Village take on the role of canvas for some of Ireland’s leading and emerging talent.
• Contemporary Irish artists James Kirwin and Shane O’Malley have also been commissioned alongside Maser to bring their signature colourful style to Colourama.
• London-based DJ and broadcaster Tara Kumar will bring festival beats to those keen to groove, with Wild Youth just one of the music acts performing as part of the line-up.