HEADLESS URBAN EXPRESSION

DROGHEDA URBAN ART TRAIL

The Bridge of Peace is the second-furthest-west bridge in Drogheda. It was built as a part of an inner by-pass of the town in the 1970s.

Up until 2012 I visited Drogheda at least once per year in order to photograph the latest examples of street art under the Bridge Of Peacee. In 2011 I published the following comment: “According to the locals Drogheda hosts the worlds longest running annual graffiti art event on the undercrofts of the bridge of peace every August. This event has seen some of the worlds top artists visit the site since the walls were first painted in 1993.”

In 2012 I visited only to be disappointed as I could not find anything different or new and for various reasons I was unable to visit Drogheda again until this month [October 2023] and I was really disappointed to discover that there was nothing of interest at the Bridge Of Peace. However as I walked around the town I began to notice superior murals equal to the best on display in Waterford. [Note: I could not find suitable hotel accommodation at the right price so I had to cancel my trip to Waterford this year]

DRAWDA is a collaborative Project between Love Drogheda BIDS, Droichead Arts Centre, and Louth County Council with curator Dee Walsh and mythologist Anthony Murphy.

Until a few weeks ago there were six murals but there is now a new one by Vera Bugatti on Dominick Street – I really like it, and I hope that you like it. The mural portrays the Cailleach, the divine sorceress and mother goddess associated with the creation of the landscape and ancient monuments.

Vera Bugatti was born in Brescia (Italy) in 1979, she graduated in Conservation of Cultural Heritage in Parma and she was a research fellow in Mantua with a thesis dedicated to the 16th century heterodox treatises. He published essays on historical and iconological research and has collaborated with editorial offices.

Her artistic work is featured in the books: Julie Kirk Purcell’s Sidewalk Canvas, London 2011; Russ Thorne’s Street Art, London 2014; The Art of Chalk by Tracy Lee Stum, USA 2016; Street Art en Europe by Nath Oxygène and Brigitte Silhol, Paris 2018; Designing graphic illusions, China 2019. Her piece Die Erzahler was chosen by the London Flame Tree for the Street Art Calendar 2016.

Active since 2008 and expert in Anamorphic Street Painting since 2015, she painted in Italy, Holland, France, Germany, Ireland, Croatia, Austria, Malta, Sweden, Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Portugal, Spain, Latvia, Russia, Great Britain, Bulgaria, Belgium, the United States, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates and India.

She considers Urban Art as a variation of his artistic poetics, with constant references to the livability of the planet, man’s disturbances and social issues. She also works with different techniques and materials. First of all, the relief figures created by weaving wire with the help of nails, pliers and hammer (Iron and nails project). Then the wooden optical boxes, with locks that allow you to observe what is inside, which contain slightly deformed paintings or mirrors. Peeking you can see modern Mondi Novi, sometimes disturbing worlds. Finally the cylindrical anamorphoses with electric motor of the Memory theater series, restless elegies of time and at the same time homage to the world of the precinema.