C103 Review

Daniel de Chenu: The Captured Moment

Sometimes public art can seem an afterthought. The 1% that salves a politician's cultural conscience gets shoved in the margins, cast in inappropriate concrete - where it can't do any harm... Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council have approached the issue a little differently with its annual Installation Programme, bringing fresh, site-specific commissions to the Concourse of County Hall.

Daniel de Chenu's The Captured Moment presented a big, blue, wooden three-dimensional 'NOW' to those who visited the space at the end of last year. Fifteen feet high, the letters filled the space with their insistent message. And yet de Chenu's 'NOW' was not a message of urgency and immediacy; rather a reminder to consider a moment's pause, a centring instant of calm in our constant rush between past and future.
This feeling was reinforced by the restful blue colour of the letters, and by the four bench seats placed at each corner of the space, inviting contemplation. Each of these seats was also a listening post for four intriguing soundworks - including a sample from the Eircom Speaking Clock, an excerpt from Shakespeare's King Lear, Buddhist Chant, and music with both tranquil and urgent tempos - which developed de Chenu's ideas around time and its flow.

De Chenu's work has moved through photography and film to multi-media installations; a multi layered approach which gave The Captured Moment a richness of associations, entry points and possible connotations to engage and arrest the viewer.

Gemma Tipton is a writer.

Daniel de Chenu: The Captured Moment Concourse, County Hall, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, November/December 2002

The Concourse Installation Programme 2002 ran October to December and also included Rose Petals and Other Sacred Spaces by Margaret Tuffy, and Private View by Sans facon.

Article reproduced from CIRCA 103, Spring 2003, pp.88-89