Public Art

 Martina Coyle has centred her commission research on the Smyth & Co textile Factory in Balbriggan. This industry was central to the Balbriggan economy for almost 250 years, famous for its silk stockings which were exported all over the world and counted royalty as a client. In later years the factory made a variety of cotton goods and special knitwear to a very high standard using traditional craftsmanship. A special feature of the factory was its skill in stitching and embroidery. The factory is no longer in use and has since been transformed for commercial retail use. While the opportunity for creating something within the space was limited, following conversations with local photographer and ex factory employee, Martina was taken with an image of a bridge, now gone which linked two parts of the building from one side of the street to the other. Martina has been conducting conversations with former workers and researching of decorative stockings from the factory as seen in Collins Barracks. Martina wanted to reflect aspects of the buildings former presence in the town by recreating this bridge using materials and manufacturing techniques associated with the factory to form a temporary sculptural installation small sewing factory still exists in the Smyth & Co building, the machinists there are collobarorating on the making of this full scale, embroidered fabric bridge. The footbridge is to be constructed with plastic inflatable and clad with cotton, silk, nylon and glass beads then illuminated with ultraviolet light showing the construction while creating an impressive spectacle for Balbriggan

Press Release By Rachel Doherty, St Finians LCVP Work placement

Public Art- Martina Coyle, Efflorescence, Balbriggan, March 2010

This is an old photograph of the factory featuring the former bridge.

Brian Duggan has taken the CRH Roadstone quarry in Huntstown as a site to begin an exploration of society,starting literally with its building blocks.Taking a short text by E. M Forster called The Machine Stops which was written in 1909, the text is an amazing snapshot of an imagined future. The Machine Stops is about a mother and son who live at opposite ends of the globe and who now live underground with the rest of the earth population communicating only via an internet precurser.The story foretells inventions and norms which exist in todays contemporary society.The quarry as site refers to the quarry as the birthplace for the physical development of urban Fingal. Tarmac for its roads, concrete bricks and blocks for houses and amenities all come from this unique landscape. The quarry reflects not only the physical but the depth of the layers which are central to the make up of society. The quarry landscape in itself has a remote, other worldly topographical appearance, perhaps, moon like, with an almost sci fi style cinematic quality i.e The Man Who Fell to Earth from 1976 which starred David Bowie.The project will begin with a film created in the quarry and may include a sculptural, permenant entity as the project progresses.

Sending letters to the Sea is a collaborative music project by the visual artist and Musician Mark Garry .This unique project is part of Fingal County Councils series of  public art commissions, funded through the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government’s Per Cent for Art Scheme
In 2007 a number of artists were selected to be part of Fingal County Council’s Public Art Panel. The selected artists were invited to respond to a brief which reflected, either physically or theoretically, aspects of Fingal’s society, culture, heritage, and geography, with the aim of expanding the notion of public art and  further strengthening the role of  the local authority as  a commissioner of new practices.
When selected to be part of this panel Mark tried to find a mechanism, that would both engage in a local context but have the scope to reach a diverse and far reaching audience. Mark is interested in Ireland’s culturally Christian status and the broader cultural impact of Christianity. Mark researched the connections between music and religious celebration from both technical and philosophical perspectives, and how religion and religious instances throughout history influenced and shaped the many forms of music we hear today.
The project evolved to become a collaborative musical project, Mark brought together a range of musicians working with a broad range of classical and contemporary musical techniques. The outcome from this collaboration is a Vinyl and CD release that was developed over a two year period and recorded in Studio East in Berlin and St. Columba's Church , Swords, Fingal.
For this project Mark brought together a talented and diverse group of musical talents. Electro/acoustic  musician and composer Karl Burke (AKA Karl Him), The Irish female musician Nina Hynes , young jazz percussionist Sean Carpio .Chora/ electronic musician Eileen Carpio .French classically trained pianist Fabien Leseure and Paris based Jazz Violin player Benoit Leseure. These group enlisted the talents of Geaspar Warfield on Cello and John Egan on Violin and Viola and The Fingal chamber choir.
This recording will be performed live at 8pm on the 19th of November in St St. Columba's Church , Swords.
For more information please see www.myspace.com/sendingletterstothesea

 A worker. A categoriser of information. An automated process becomes a craft.

Dennis McNulty is working to create a experimental film which uses Fingal as a set, drawing lines between flows of information and recently generated suburban spatial situations.