Just back from watching the final section being put in place with yojimbo. There’s still a bit of bolting and crane detaching to be done but it’s basically all there. The overall effect is very impressive and it’ll be interesting to see it by night.
If I can wax philosophical for a moment, the spire, the millennium dome and various other recent major pieces of public art offer a perspective on the fragmentation of modern society. There was a time when a shared set of beliefs could be identified and these could be represented through specific civil and religious works of public art. A historical figure, a battle or a religious scene could be struck upon and they would be seen as genuinely inclusive representations in a public space. Nowadays, all those items would appear divisive and public art has to be abstract and, in the search for inclusiveness, increasingly meaningless. Overall, despite the loss of meaning, I would welcome this trend which mirrors the breaking down of the old cosy certainties and challenges us to attempt to find new public ideals, which appeal to a more pluralist society. I would not suggest that the spire is the most effective piece of public art ever, and for the moment, it probably only works on the “wow - look at that yoke” level, but it’s probably indicative of the modern trend.
To those who feel it’s a waste of money, can I ask whether that’s an objection to public art generally, when the money could be better spent on hospitals or schools or are your objections more specific and based on aesthetics? I have no problem with the latter (to each his/her own) but I do feel that the hospitals/schools argument, taken to the extreme, involves little or no public expenditure on sport or the arts, which IMO is not a good thing.
Anyone who’s been to Amsterdam will be familiar with pissoirs. We could do with a few of them around town. Maybe a giant, 120-metre one in O’Connell St? Fixed URL - ub
Oh god, they really went ahead with that thing?
I remember reading about that a few years back with various discussions of the apropriatness of a huge needle in the middle of the city considering Dublins drug problems. I thought they had decided that the whole idea should be round-filed?
Well, it is indeed a needle, and damn the irony. But I think it’s pretty cool. I drove past it this evening - they haven’t lit it up properly yet so we don’t get the full nighttime effect, but damn it’s high. It looks particularly impressive from Westmoreland St. looking across O’Connell Bridge.
Well Kal, Twistoffate has given it a week before someone manages to throw a bicycle tire over the top. Bless him, he shows great faith in the gougers of Dublin.
