This was not easy to photograph because of the angle of view from the footpath.

The Hugh Lane Gallery has collaborated up with renowned street artist Asbestos to install ‘Pass Freely’, a large mural on the side wall of the AIB building on O’Connell St.

The mural will take the form of a figure made of painted burnt matches. Each one represents one of the people who have sadly died from Covid -19. During its lifetime the mural will be updated with more matches until such time as when the pandemic has passed.

This initiative is part of a wider programme led by the Office of City Recovery.

Artist Asbestos: “The mural shows a figure made up of nearly 5000 individually drawn burnt matches. Each match represents the life of a person who has passed away in Ireland during the Covid pandemic, each extinguished at a different stage of existence. Each life cut short, along with their hopes, ambitions and the memories. Over a 10 day period I painted each match and after each match was finished I repeated the quote from Joseph Beuys “pass freely from one level of existence to another”.

As part of the project, hoarding at the wall will also feature a quote from Joseph Beuys’s book The Secret Block for a Secret Person in Ireland. The quote was chosen to mark the passing of each victim of Covid -19. The hoarding will feature details of the collaboration between Asbestos and the Hugh Lane Gallery.

Earlier this month new Light Boxes were unveiled in Smithfield with copies inside of art and sculpture from the Gallery.

Asbestos is an Irish artist creating work on the street in a variety of media since 2003. His portrait murals explore the concept of identity, a dialogue with two versions of his persona. “Each mask portrays two versions of myself, one alive and one dead. So each portrait is created by two versions of his persona combining photorealism and abstract naive strokes.

The ongoing Lost series sets out to find all manner of lost things using stickers and posters located around cities in Ireland and internationally. Anyone who locates them can get in touch becoming part of the process and opening a conversation with the public. After 15 years of the Lost poster series the public continue to respond.