Irish street artist Asbestos likes peeking out, just his inquisitive orbs taking you in from a safe space. “We all wear masks every second of the day.” Naturally that’s not hard to do since much of the world has been in quarantine a lot lately.

But all these world events have left him feeling fragile to tell the truth.

“I am fragile,” he says. “And I can feel how fragile we all are right now.”

This new mural in Dublin speaks to health, communities, our very lives, he says. It also speaks about masks that people wear to hide how they’re really feeling right now in a time of great social, political, and financial upheaval that you know is irreversible but you cannot predict where it goes.

“We deny how fragile we are. I wear these masks to hide the irrelevant parts of my identity, and this mural let’s my eyes speak, if not shout out how fragile I am. It’s empowering to admit that I’m fragile.”

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