The Taoiseach became embroiled in an online spat with a street artist after using an image of one of his artworks in a TikTok video.
Dublin graffiti artist Asbestos took to social media to express his anger and frustration that Micheal Martin had used an image of his 'What is Home?' mural on his TikTok account. The giant mural of a sad figure with a cardboard house over his head is located on the side of a building on South Main St in Cork City, in the Taoiseach's constituency of Cork South Central.
The Taoiseach included the image in a video compilation of the best parts of Cork set to the 'it's corn' sound that went viral a couple of months ago, using ‘it’s Cork’ instead. The street artist objected to the use of the image saying that both the mural and the photo used are copyrighted to him, and that their inclusion in the Government leader's TikTok suggests that the artist is endorsing him.
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In a statement on his Instagram earlier this week, Asbestos said: "I do not endorse him or his government, they have been in power and caused a great deal of this crisis. This mural is about a crisis in housing, in homelessness and the Irish governments terrible response." He said he was looking for the Taoiseach to remove the content and compensate him for use of the copyright material, saying that he will donate any money received to housing charities.
Mr Martin has since deleted the TikTok video and issued an apology to the artist saying any offence caused was "unintentional". A spokesperson for the Taoiseach told the Irish Independent: “The video in question has been removed from the Taoiseach’s TikTok account. We acknowledge permission was not sought for the image and the Taoiseach apologies for this unintended error. It was removed as soon as it was drawn to our attention.
"Any offence caused to the artist was unintentional. There was no attempt to give the impression the artist was endorsing the Taoiseach." In response, Asbestos thanked Michael Martin for his apology and said he hope it hits home that there is "terror and fear" around the housing crisis in Ireland.
He said: “I appreciate the apology @michealmartintd . thanks to everyone for their support. there’s still a lot to do about the housing crisis, but I hope this apology hits home to an Taoiseach that there’s a lot of terror and fear around housing, and that it’s not okay to use artists work without their permission.
"I do appreciate him offering the apology, I may not agree with him or his party, but I respect his offer of contrition. I hope it makes a difference to government policy and is an opportunity for honest debate and solutions, i may be naive in thinking it might, but I’m an optimist. Thanks for all the support and insight into this, I’ve learned a lot from all of you. Big love."
The 'What is Home?' mural was created during the Ardú Street Festival last year and provoked a strong reaction, not just across Ireland but also the world. It was nominated for the Best Street Art title against 99 other murals from around the globe.
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