Giant sculpture to be located in Liffey (2 Viewers)

[Denny Oubidoux]

HEADLINE: Giant sculpture to be located in Liffey

BYLINE: Marie O'Halloran

BODY:


A sculpture two-thirds the height of Liberty Hall by internationally renowned artist Antony Gormley has been commissioned by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority.

Costing an estimated EUR 1.6 million, the sculpture is likely to be located in the river Liffey close to the Seán O'Casey footbridge, pending planning permission.

While the final form of the work is yet to be decided, the artist has been inspired by the research of Trinity College Prof Denis Weaire who, with Prof Robert Phelan, "unlocked the geometries of the bubble matrix", or "double helix", to "radically redescribe the human form as an open structure".

The London-born artist is perhaps most famous for his Angel of the North, a massive sculpture that put Newcastle on the international artistic map. He wants to have the Dublin sculpture "arising from the water as a drawing in space".

Mr Gormley said: "The work will allude to the human body as a dynamic interconnected matrix evoking the collective body, which is in itself in dynamic relation to the movement of people in the street and across the new Seán O'Casey Bridge."

The sculpture is expected to use previously unused construction techniques to build the 48-metre-high structure and carry its weight.

According to the authority, the work will be "a signpost for the realignment of Dublin's epicentre eastwards". In other words, they want to move the "city centre" to the docklands, as a symbol of the development and the large numbers of people moving in to the area. The sculpture "will read as a drawing against the changing light of the sky, within an area of Dublin that has low-rise buildings on both sides of the river".

Mr Gormley has evolved this proposal from Field, a vast installation of 35,000 sculptures last seen in Dublin in 1993 at his show in Imma, where tiny clay objects looked up at the viewer.

This dynamic has been reversed in this proposal for Dublin, where the pedestrians on the street will be "Lilliputians" relative to the sculpture.

The docklands authority will apply for planning permission at the end of the year and, if successful, construction will begin in 2008 and take about eight months to complete.

Mr Gormley's latest exhibition, Antony Gormley: Blind Light, was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary and is on display at the Hayward Gallery in London until August 19th.

The artist was selected from a shortlist of six after an international competition for the landmark public art project for the docklands.

LOAD-DATE: August 2, 2007

what do you think of this helix idea? im not sure about it - it'll get called the spoiradle. i'd like to see a giant statue of Granuaile the pirate queen placed in the liffey instead, maybe with a patch and a fag in her mouth. for immigrants sailing into dublin bay it would be a striking symbol of their new home - thievery, crime, terror, mad auld ones and, ultimately, a miserable booze related death in a field in connemara.

other suggestions?

 

[theoootini]

any suggestions are unlikely to beat that magnificent one.
can we make this thread a sticky? i think people need to hear this grainne idea.

 

[pete]

Sounds like a load of me bollocks.

 

[rettucs]

what do you think of this helix idea? im not sure about it - it'll get called the spoiradle. i'd like to see a giant statue of Granuaile the pirate queen placed in the liffey instead, maybe with a patch and a fag in her mouth. for immigrants sailing into dublin bay it would be a striking symbol of their new home - thievery, crime, terror, mad auld ones and, ultimately, a miserable booze related death in a field in connemara.

other suggestions?

I like that suggestion. Can we have her wheeling a shopping trolley with a Tescos bag in one hand? And maybe a big sign that says something like 'Thanks for letting us into yisser countries for the last few thousand years, but we're fucked if you're getting in here', in front of her mealy gob. And maybe a second figure as part of the sculpture, that rascist bloke that lives outside Aldi in Rathmines shouting 'Ireland for the Irish' in a big granite speech bubble. Sounds like a winner.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

And maybe a big sign that says something like 'Thanks for letting us into yisser countries for the last few thousand years, but we're fucked if you're getting in here',

ah, its too late for that now. its 10 years ago we needed that sign

 

[Hector Grey]

Sounds like a load of me bollocks.

now, there's a sculpture

 

[pete]

Why can't they do something useful, like a giant digital clock or something.

 

[rettucs]

Why can't they do something useful, like a giant digital clock or something.

yeah, it could count down the seconds to the next millenium or something. What a deadly idea

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

and what about the cable car thing? im not mad about that either unless the towers are shaped like dinosaurs and they hold the cable in their hands

 

[classic seanc]

At first I thought “sounds interesting”. Then I went to google to remind myself of what a double helix looks like. I then thought “Ah Jaysus, not more of those yokes”.

 

[magicbastarder]

the docklands is pretty fucking awful; bland buildings designed by engineers, not architects. is this meant to make up for it?

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

the U2 Tower has a bit of a helix thing going on too

 

[therealjohnny]

Now that they're building a hotel on the site of the old waxworks they should coat all the statues in bronze and create a huge diorama that involves every one fo them , from ET to Sonia O Sullivan and Hitler

it'd be very tasteful

 

[classic seanc]

Just put up a gigantic €uro symbol

 

[Raudi Raus Schinkel]

what do you think of this helix idea? im not sure about it - it'll get called the spoiradle. i'd like to see a giant statue of Granuaile the pirate queen placed in the liffey instead, maybe with a patch and a fag in her mouth. for immigrants sailing into dublin bay it would be a striking symbol of their new home - thievery, crime, terror, mad auld ones and, ultimately, a miserable booze related death in a field in connemara.

other suggestions?

wheres this article from? today's?

 

[Space]

Just put up a gigantic €uro symbol

Winner.

I prefer this double helix yoke to the cable car idea as long as it doesn't end up looking like a Christian fish. the angel of the north is deadly even if it is more Christian imagery.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

wheres this article from? today's?

august 2nd, irish times

that angel is cool, it looks more like a war plane though

 

[Space]

august 2nd, irish times

that angel is cool, it looks more like a war plane though

Which is a good thing in my book.

Angel of the War sounds cool.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

is it a WW2 memorial thing?

 

[M. Stratosphere]

i can't see how the docklands is going to be the new centre all there is down there are new apartment complex and supermarkets like Fresh and Eurospar.

this sculputre sounds like the lad figured out how yo use a maths software package for building models, mmmmm a twisty phallic symbol coming out of the river, not so great sounding