After completing a BA in Fine Art at Limerick School of Art and Design, Cork artist Conor Harrington relocated to London where he has lived and worked since. Starting out painting graffiti and later moving on to large-scale murals, his work has always been inspired by the urban environment around him. His latest project saw him team up with Maser to design the Hennessy Founder’s Edition bottle, commissioned to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the birth of its founder.
The last thing I saw and loved… The Outrun with Saoirse Ronan. A difficult film to watch at times but like all great pieces of art, you don’t forget it in a hurry.
The book I keep coming back to… I’ve never read a book twice but if I had to pick one to reread it would be The Grapes of Wrath.
I find inspiration in… the bottom of a coffee cup. Chuck Close once said ‘Inspiration is for amateurs, real artists go to work.’ It’s a very accurate account of the reality of making art. It’s often less about magic moments and more about the slow process of creation.
My favourite film is… Boyz n the Hood. I rented it repeatedly on video when it came out and listened to the soundtrack throughout my teenage years. I recently listened to a great podcast about the director John Singleton and how he made that film when he was only 23.
My career highlight is… yet to come. Clichéd answer but I hope it’s true.
The song I listen to to get in the zone is… I’m a big hip-hop fan but I usually listen to a lot of jazz and electronic music when I paint. It helps me flow better. Stan Getz is a jazz favourite of mine and Nils Frahm’s long compositions are quite cinematic and full of imagery.
The last film I recommend is… Sing Sing. It’s a true story about a theatre rehabilitation programme in a maximum security prison. The film features a lot of former inmates playing themselves and it is a perfect antidote to a lot of the glossy blockbusters dominating film today.
I never leave the house without… checking my various travel apps. I don’t have a car so I rely heavily on buses and trains.
The performance I still think about is… Saul Williams in Dalston many years ago. The queue was so long to see him that not everybody could get in so he came out and did an impromptu performance on the footpath.
The best advice I’ve ever gotten… ‘Don’t worry about what others are doing, put your head down and do the work.’
The art that means the most to me is… Subway Art by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant. It was the first major publication that documented the nascent graffiti scene in New York. I got it when I was a teenager and I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much time with a book. I was as enthralled by the NY cityscape as I was by what was painted on the trains and it really opened up a whole new world to me.
My favourite thing about the new Founder’s Edition bottle is… collaborating with Maser. We’ve worked together previously on two murals—one in London and the other in Arkansas—so it was great to work together on a large canvas in my studio that formed the basis for the bottle design.
What I like about being an artist is… I let my paintings do the talking.
If I wasn’t an artist, I would be… a jazz musician. In reality, I was never good enough but I played the saxophone for many years in school and briefly considered studying it instead of going to art college.
The magic of art to me is… happy accidents. Often, the paintings I struggle with the most – the ones I nearly abandon – can be the ones that work out the best.
The Hennessy Founder’s Edition Bottle, €41, is created with pride by Irish artists Maser and Conor Harrington and available widely from grocery and independent wine shops.
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