Spiral Form
Designed by Fred Conlon
Executed by Barry Feely & Sons, Boyle
Completion: July 1990
Material: Donegal Granite, brick base, 1.2m wide x .9m high.
Project: County Library, Abbeytown, Roscommon Town
Description: This solid stone spiral refers to a symbol much used in Celtic art; 'from the twist of the torc in metalwork to the surface patterns of the Castlestrange stone just outside Roscommon' -F. Conlon.
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Untitled - Plaque
Designed by Fred Conlon
Executed by Barry Feely & Sons, Boyle
Completion: June 1994
Material: Polished Donegal Granite, 9ft high x 2ft wide.
Project: Boyle Fire Station
Description: 'Flame' design sandblasted onto granite slabs and gilded onto the Façade of Boyle Fire Station.
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The Gaelic Chieftain
Artist: Maurice Harron
Completion: 1999
Material: Stainless Steel, Bronze on granite base. 4ftx9ftx8ft (W x L x H)
Project: N4 improvement
Description: The piece represents the chieftain Hugh O'Donnell "Red" who led an Irish victory over English forces. It overlooks the site of the Battle of Curlew Pass, fought in 1599. The abstracted figure on horseback is described as stoic, calm and dignified.
Featured The Irish Times
Interview with sculptor Maurice Harron | A Sculpted Journey of Ireland. Ep4
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Gateway of the Potato
Artists: Nigel Mullin
Completion: Made in Scotland in 1994, Installed Knockcroghery in 2000
Material: Stone Structure. Sandstone from Scotland, white stone from Isle of Portland and blue chippings from nearby quarry at Lecarrow.
Description: Celtic Links/Leader II arts initiative operated between Mid-South Ros Rural Development Company in the Scottish Highlands over 2 year period.
The work tells a story in shape, colour, incised drawings and writing in stone. The story starts in the West, in Ecuador, Peru, and northern Chile, from the pacific coast to the top of the Andes. Here 700 variations of potato were originally developed and cultivated to cope with the many climates and soil tyoes from sea level up to altitute of 15000 feet. Potato - as a staple food of conquered people becomes the same for the European masses from Russia to Ireland. The innocent potato of the Andean peoples conquers the stomachs of Europe. Tha suilean ann 's chan faic e ni - it has eyes and never saw. 8 framed drawings and associated documentary texts which accompany the main work - held by Knockcroghery Tidy Towns at Knockcroghery Community Center. The original arts initiative was to promote links between the arts sectors in the two project areas.
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On Home Soil
Artist: Barry Linnane
Completion: 2002
Location: Douglas Hyde Centre, Frenchpark
Material: Bronze
Description: ‘On Home Soil’ combines a man’s achievements with the place he is from. Executed in bronze, it depicts Douglas Hyde and while representational, it is treated in a manner allowing the character of the piece itself and the subject to emerge. Its elevated position and stance reflect the man’s aspirations and achievements in both literature and politics. Hyde stands dignified yet casual, the wind lifting the tail of his coat. Part of the sculpture surface is patterned with the texture of leaves of indigenous Irish trees sacred in Celtic literature. The same trees planted at the Douglas Hyde Interpretative Centre to illustrate the connection these plants have with the ancient “calendar-alphabet” system, as well as to the deep rooted love of Hyde for the celebration of Irish identity.
President.ie: President McAleese unveils Bronze Sculpture of Douglas Hyde at the Interpretive Centre, May 2002.
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Untitled - Painting Programme
Artist: Éamon Coleman
Completion: 2003
Material: Oil Painting 4ft x 4ft and educational programme.
Project: Roscommon Arts Centre Phase I construction
Description: The work is a response to the landscape history and culture past and present in County Roscommon. A series workshops in visual art, music and poetry to a variety of outreach arts groups throughout the county. Introducing abstract art to a non-arts audience, using the site-specific work in progress.
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Felt - Making Workshop
Artist: Cathy Carmen
Completion: February 2004
Material: Felt
Project: N5 community project, Strokestown
Description:
Felt-Making Community Arts project led by artists Cathy Carmen, Peter Fulop and Brigitta Varadi. The artists worked with an intergenerational group producing feltworks based on the nearby boglands. One communal piece is retained in the Dun Maeve Centre in Strokestown. The remaining piecers were retained by the group members that produced them.
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Coracles
Artist: Irene Benner
Completion: April 2004
Material: Spun stainless steel with polymer copper finish. In four parts 900mm x 3000mm each approx.
Project: N5 improvement at Scramogue
Description: Four copper finish hemispheres with central poles in two pairs located either side of the N5 at Scramogue on the crest of a hill, representative of coracles used for fishing.
Coracles were single person boats used in pre and early Christian times. According to folklore the boats were used mainly by monks on major rivers which were the arteries for commerce and dissemination of learning. The Shannon played an important role in this process. There were coracles on Lough Ree up to the 1850s. Modern day curraghs are a direct descendant of coracles. The boats symbolise the long tradition of learning, fishing and trading in the area.
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After
Artist: Alice Lyons, Carol Anne Connolly, Anna MacLeod, Gareth Kennedy & Christine Mackey.
Completion: November 2008.
Description: A series of public art interventions (following a residency) which addressed the effects of Ireland's economic boom on the rural landscape.
The residency involved 5 artists living in Leitrim and Roscommon who worked for a year with New-York based, TRADE international artist, Alfredo Jaar.
Funded by Leitrim and Roscommon County Council Arts Offices and The Arts Council.
Featured on PublicArt.ie
Further information: www.after.ie.
Events:
- Carol Anne Connolly's Broken Appliance Depot took place in a vacant house in a newly built estate on a farmland designated for ESB pylons in County Roscommon. It presented alternative and creative solutions to address the re-use of surplus 'objects' and 'buildings' in our communities. Consisted of two elements; a solar powered light installation made from disused household appliances, and workshops concerned with the management of waste material and the built environment. Workshops were held in a newly developed property which was lying vacant.
- Gareth Kennedy's Inflatable Bandstand was a structure which travelled to various locations in Leitrim and Roscommon. A white van with crew inside (musician, artist and assistant) would arrive at a site and a bandstand would be inflated. The musician then performed a 15 minute musical score inspired by the Irish economy.
- Alice Lyons' Viewfinder was a poem installed in a shed beside the barracks in Cootehall, County Roscommon. A trick on the old and new Cootehalls (involving mirrors).
- Christine Mackey's Aggressive Localism involving planting seeds in various locations in Leitrim, Roscommon and abroad. The project proposed practical and redemptive tactics towards man-made structures and surfaces through the planting of native Irish wild-flower seeds.
- Anna Macleod's Raincatcher was a water filtration project based at The Dock, in Carrick-on-Shannon. This work harvested water, filtered and rendered it portable for the public to collect and drink proposing the reevaluation of the importance of collecting water as a focal point for social activity and community activism. While also offering an alternative, non chemical and sustainable solution to water management and conservation.
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Portrait of a Service
Artist: Pamela Wells
Completion: November 2008
Material: Power Coated Steel, 4m(w) x 2m(d) x 2m(h)
Project: Development of Roscommon Fire Station, Circular Road, Roscommon.
Description: Series of steel upright columns placed in the ground representing, in a manner similar to a bar-chart, the work of the fire service according to different catagories of call outs.
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Scars on the Mountain
Artists: Colin Beggan Frank Molloy
Completion: April 2009
Material: CD of mining songs.
Description: Celebrating 400 years of mining in the Arigna valley, Roscommon, in music and song. Scars on the Mountain is the culmination of two years work by Colin Beggan and Frank Molloy in Arigna. It involved a residency to research mining songs in the Arigna region, and included the development of 10 new songs and 3 new tunes recorded by Colin and Frank along with Eleanor Shanley (vocals) Paul Kelly (fiddle, mandolin, and banjo), David Knight (guitar), James Wickham (accordion), Sven Paetz (bouzouki and harmonica), Franjo Reld (bodhran) and Tim Kearns (Bass).
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Meanwhile
Artist: Yvonne Cullivan
Completion: June 2011
Material: Writing and Photography.
Publication Meanwhile, 136pp, 160mm x 210mm, Edition of 500. Secondary outcome was four large-scale outdoor image installations in Castlerea town.
Project: Castlerea Sewage Scheme.
Description: The once widespread tradition of Rambling Houses in the area, alongside the notable absence of a contemporary collective space in the town and the evident decline in economic activity within the town, prompted the artist to explore local attitudes toward these losses. Collected conversation and photographic documentation compile the material for a publication entitled Meanwhile, which is both a response to and a reflection of a moment in the social history of Ireland - particular to Castlerea and indicative of broader economic, social and cultural dynamics.
Featured on PublicArt.ie
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Gallowglass Warrior
Artists: Clare Biggar
Completion: 2016
Material: Stainless Steel, 4 meters High.
Project: N5 Ballaghaderreen Bypass under the Per Cent for Art Scheme. Funded by TII.
Description: Warrior Returns to Ballaghaderreen - A Galloglass Warrior will be finding a new home on the N5. The Gallowglass or ‘Galloglaigh’ could be said to be the Irish equivalent of the Samurai warrior. Their existence is an almost forgotten piece of Ireland’s history. Yet, in medieval Ireland, Galloglaigh were indispensable. The Galloglass Warrior has a long history with Ballaghaderreen and the surrounding areas.
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An Lucht Siúil (The Walking People)
Artists: Mark Garry
Completion: 2020.
Commissioned by Roscommon County Council in 2016 when engagement with the community commenced. Required for Mark Garry Exhibition at Roscommon Arts Centre September 2020.
Material: Music and Film.
Project: Funded by the Department of the Environment Heritage & Local Government as part of the Turpane Beg Traveller Housing Development, Ballyforan, Phase 1 Construction 2016 under the Per Cent for Art initiative.
Description: An Lucht Siúil (The Walking People) is a music and film work by artist Mark Garry exploring the relationship between Irish travellers and Modernism, specifically the relationship between Irish Travellers and the Irish state as it is played out between the traveller and settled communities in the middle part of the last century.
The film’s narration in five sections adopts the theatrical structure of a Greek Tragedy performed partly in English and partly in Shelta (de Gamon /Cant), the language of the Irish traveller. These songs, written by the artist, act as a poetic response to Ireland’s complex relationship to land and land ownership, and the relationship between the peoples who share this land.
Film available at - An Lucht Siúil (The Walking People)
Artist Mark Garry speaking about the work for Roscommon Arts Centre -
Mark Garry: An Lucht Siúil (The Walking People)
Credits
Texts: Mark Garry
Translation: Jack Delaney.
Cinematography: Padraig Cunningham.
Editing: Padraig Cunningham and Mark Garry
Sound Composition: Sean Carpio and Mark Garry.
Singers : Sean Carpio, Mac Carpio, Nina Hynes.
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