C101 Article
Cork: Daylighting
the City
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Jools Gilson Ellis:
Underbreath, June 2002, colour photograph;
photo Dara Mc Grath; courtesy National Sculpture Factory
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One of the main objectives of Daylighting
the City - a project organised by the National Sculpture Factory
in association with Horsehead International - was to address ways
in which artists might become more involved in the process of urban
development in Cork. The ultimate ambition would be to bring about
interaction with the disparate groups involved, such as planners
and architects, so that the potential is increased for even greater
creative solutions.
A Utopian ideal or a real possibility?
Well, at the very least a roundtable discussion held at City Hall
during Daylighting did bring together the main protagonists
for just such a partnership to occur. Nine artists from Cork and
Belfast were represented, as were town planners, arts administrators,
architects, curators and city officials. It was an interesting event
raising some quite reflective issues which can be viewed in transcript
form at www.nationalsculpturefactory.com.
Whether the involvement of artists during the formative stages of
urban development can yield real change might be a moot point. But
the scale and ramifications of the proposed docklands development
in Cork has meant that artists engaged in site specificity would
naturally have a vested interest. And considering the grand ambitions
of the Cork Docklands Development Strategy - with office, retail,
and residential spaces combining with a university campus, public
transport and recreation facilities - who would not be affected?
So with construction work imminent, the artists were asked by the
NSF to select sites in and around the Lapp's Quay area of the city,
where Phase One is scheduled to commence.
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Adrian O'Connell:
The Best Lie is 99% Truth, June 2002,
colour photograph; photo Dara Mc Grath;
courtesy National Sculpture Factory
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Directly confronting the political and
big-business side of the venture was Belfast artist Adrian O'Connell.
His installation The best lie is 99% truth, based
mischievously in City Hall, involved the artist interviewing
major Cork politicians regarding the docklands project. This was
played back through a TV monitor and linked to a voting booth, each
set amongst a maze of recently used ballot boxes. The booth was
fitted with a voice-analysis machine which seditiously questioned
the sentiments of the politicians. (Maybe any partnership between
artists and public officials would be more fractious than hoped!)
The views expressed by the politicians
were reportedly quite homogenous. However, reactions to impending
change usually elicit contrasting responses - i.e., infringement
upon history and heritage verses value of growth and change. Jools
Gilson-Ellis appeared to be affected by the former, with a sense
of nostalgia seeming to influence her selection of the Cork Bonded
Warehouse as a base for her installation. Located next to the Old
Customs House, these premises continue for the time being to operate
as a warehouse - a facet echoed by the artist through the fitting
of seven specially constructed doors with padlocks which the viewer
could access using a set of keys. Behind each door of Underbreath
was a collection of evocative objects relating to the history
and architecture of the space, including grills, vents, iron mouldings,
old keys, letters from the Customs Office and more.
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Dara Mc Grath:
By the Way, June 2002, colour photograph;
photo Dara Mc Grath; courtesy National Sculpture Factory
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Adjacent to this site is the remnants of
a former warehouse, which is to be replaced with the City Quarter
complex - the first construction work to take place on the development.
Here, Flock of Fables, an installation by Tracey McVerry,
featured a surreal juxtaposing of around 25 lampshades just visible
on a corner wall of the site - the arrangement reminiscent of a
cluster of multicoloured wild flowers reclaiming a derelict building.
A similarly surreal juxtaposition was also seen in Fiona Ní Mhaoilir's
installation, A Heavy Shower. Located in the Central
Bus Station, a mobile-like arrangement of white 'bricks' with the
word 'fragile' etched onto the surface, hung from the ceiling. The
visual/word play punned the fact that the objects were very light
and not at all a threat.
It's a given that the population of most cities take cars for granted,
resulting in many cases in the strangulation of civic life. Dara
McGrath drew attention to this issue in a very matter-of-fact way
by placing a large banner on the south façade of City Hall car park,
which itself overlooks another car park. The image in By the
way was simply a view of yet another car park, and in
an ironic fashion, the artist, I think, was making his point well.
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Fiona Ní Mhaoilir:
A Heavy Shower, June 2002, colour photograph;
photo Dara Mc Grath; courtesy National Sculpture Factory
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Cars make noise. Danny McCarthy's sound
installation, "Re"-Locating the Soundscape, was making a
subtle statement in reaction to the changes to Lapp's Quay and the
suppressed heart of old Cork City. Rigged around this block of the
River Lee was a series of old-fashioned loudhailer-style speakers
which created a soundspace that tied itself both physically and
metaphorically to the space itself. On first acquaintance the presence
of the soundwork was almost undetectable due to traffic - but during
lulls, and more poignantly from a distance, the sound accumulated
and swelled like the tide itself. The content was a series of prerecorded
sounds made further down the quay such as the pulsing drone of boat
engines, seagulls and splashing water.
Oftentimes the question of visibility is one which artists working
in the realm of site specificity tend to eschew, gravitating toward
the discrete and anonymous. This was certainly a feature of Julie
McGowan's Drawing the tide. Using the river itself
as a medium, the rise and ebbing of the tide was marked against
two white boards suspended from the river wall. The subtle staining
by the water marked the passage of time and had a rather contemplative,
noninvasive feel to it. Una Quigley also utilised the river but
in a much more public way as her performance/installation Inforescence
involved collecting river water and placing it into two large
glass tanks situated on the quayside. These tanks supported (or
killed) oxygenating plants, while hand-sized LCD TVs ran sequences
of grass billowing in the wind and people washing and playing next
to a body of water, highlighting its social significance.
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Julie Mc Gowan: Drawing
the Tide, June 2002, colour photograph;
photo Dara Mc Grath; courtesy National Sculpture Factory
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The final event of Daylighting the City
was Peregrinity by Cindy Cummings. This performance piece
appropriately led members of the public from the GPO to Lapp's Quay
behind a cast of dancers, musicians and Youth Theatre groups. The
central motif of golden shoes, used by dancers and scattered throughout
the city during the week, was a simple yet effective symbol for
underscoring the communal nature of urban development - which hopefully
will be a priority for the powers that be.
Mark Ewart is a part-time Education
Lecturer at the Crawford College of Art and Design; he is also an
art teacher and writer based in Cork.
Daylighting the City - Artists Engage
as the City Changes, Lapp's Quay area, Cork City, 17-23 June
2002
