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Living Mural #4: Colenso Parade- Botanic
As part of Belfast 2024, Wild Belfast are delivering a series of living murals through the Safari in the City project across the Belfast City Council area. The initiative combines art and wildlife conservation aiming to raise awareness and inspire action.The Ecology
Wild Belfast’s fourth mural at Colenso Parade aims to highlight the importance of creating "moon gardens" to benefit nocturnal pollinators and therefore another Northern Ireland Priority Species group - our bats.
The mural, created by Emic, occurs adjacent to the Botanic Gardens and highlights the importance of green space for pollinators: both nocturnal and diurnal ecosystems.
Incorporated within the mural are two cavity bat bricks suitable for cavity dwelling bats such as Pipistrelles which have been recorded in the area.
The loss of roost sites in buildings and trees is one of the main causes in the decline of many bats species though we are finding out more about their and other nocturnal species vulnerability to light pollution. The dark colour scheme was chosen to reflect this vulnerability.
The Community
The artistic ecological workshop engaged the Stranmillis Neighbourhood Association in the mural design.
The residents were able to share the features that makes their neighbourhood so special and the messages they want to convey in regards to wildlife and urban gardens.
The key ideas shared that inspired the design of the mural:
- The importance of greens spaces for biodiversity.
- Minimising light pollution and its effect on wildlife.
- The need for high quality green spaces in their area.
- The special calming features and sense of serenity that the Botanic Gardens adds to the residents' daily lives.
- Flowers and botanicals that link back to the adjacent Botanic Gardens.
The Art
Emic is an artist based in Belfast, Northern Ireland working primarily as a muralist. Blending realism with abstraction, Emic has garnered recognition for a distinctive approach to colour and tone. His art weaves together figurative, botanical, and geometrical forms, subtly reflecting the complex and layered experience of twenty-first century living.
The artwork features a bouquet of flowers on one side and a common pipistrelle bat on the other side.
The bouquet includes an arrangement of native night pollinators and flowers highlighting the concept of 'moon gardens' and linking back to the adjacent Botanic Gardens. The bouquet form is intended to represent home for Stranmillis residents and wildlife.
The large-scale image of the Pipistrelle Bat highlights the message and draws attention to the mural from the Stranmillis Road, allowing passers-by to discover the habitat interpreted in the bouquet as they move closer to the wall.
The colour scheme is dark and dimly, using a dark indigo background to lean into the night time theme; allowing a perfect camouflage of the two bat boxes installed.
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