At Upfest 2024, the format of the festival changed a bit, and I don’t think that it worked as well as it has in the past. I believe that the changes have come about by the enormous cost of hosting a festival over two days, and the rapidity of the clean-up afterwards have worn down the organisers. So this year we had feature walls which were painted over a three week period, allowing for a lot of high-end murals, and small 1m square boards – there was nothing in-between, which is the bread and butter for most street artists.
The 1m boards were painted on three occasions, and I managed to photograph them on one of those occasions, missing out on the other two. This was a board painted by the wonderful local artist Zoe Power.
The stylised painting is full of symbolism, and a story of our time. It features a hand holding an olive branch, and rarely have we needed to see the olive branch extended more than now. There is a simplicity and crispness in the piece that betrays the complexity of the underlying messaging and what it represents. It is always a real treat to see Zoe Power’s work.
Natural adventures 