Seagulls in new sculpture are 'guardians' of Carey's Lane

From Cork to Washington DC, Crawford graduate Niamh McCann is winning public art commissions for her three dimensional work including the first sculpture to be introduced to Cork city as part of ‘Island City.’

This urban sculpture trail is the biggest ever investment in public art in Cork city.

As part of the Cork City Council project funded to the tune of €670,000 by Fáilte Ireland, four more sculptures will be installed in the city over the coming months.

Niamh, a Dubliner who chose to study art in Cork as she wanted to get away from the capital city, considers the second city as “my home away from home.”

Her sculpture, recently unveiled on Carey’s Lane is entitled ‘Sentinels.’ It is above head height. It’s largely made out of cedar wood as well as bronze and jesmonite, all sustainable materials.

The piece is a long jagged strip of wood “that snakes its way from one end of Carey’s Lane to the other.” It is arranged in such a way that its angles point at features on the lane such as the Huguenot graveyard.

At night, it is neon lit by multi-coloured light bulbs. There are two realistic seagulls (apart from their colour) perched on either end of the wooden installation. Painted in a dark slate colour instead of white, Niamh says the seagulls are “guardians of the lane. I’m also thinking of ancient histories calling in animals, beasts and birds to the land from the sea and from the coast of Ireland. They are somehow welcoming to travellers and have a complex relationship with how the urban landscape shifts and shapes over time.”

Niamh says the seagulls are dark coloured because she wanted them to be “monument-like which suggests timelessness. There’s also a melding together of different cultures and ideas with the Huguenot graveyard such as crafting and skills, and the mercantile nature of Cork and how that has changed the city and also leads to connections with other global networks.”

The sculpture, says Niamh, “is a good fit with the street architecture and looks different at night.”

She received a call out via the National Sculpture Factory in Cork inviting her to put forward a proposal for designing a city sculpture.

“I was one of six to ten people asked to make a proposal for the site. I had to carry out a feasibility study.”

Once awarded the project, Niamh says that expediting it was a complex and involved process.

“It involves planning, subcontracting and producing. There are lots of different elements that you learn on the fly. You have to become au fait with the process.”

Niamh feels that a central resource of experts would make the process easier. “Even lawyers could advise as well as fabricators and engineers. You have to get all those elements signed off. It’s a bit like making a small building because it needs to be safe and considered.”

‘Sentinels’ and the other four forthcoming sculptures will be in place for five years. “That may be reviewed. I’m not privy to that process. It’s a case of how the sculptures fit with the public.”

Reaction from businesses on Carey’s Lane to ‘Sentinels’ is positive. Jeff Safar Hamidi from Koto said: “We are thrilled to be involved with Cork City Council and Fáilte Ireland in this exciting art installation on Carey’s Lane...This art piece will attract locals and tourists alike to pause, look up and appreciate the beauty and heritage of our streets.”

Aidan Dukes from Dukes Coffee Company said: 

“It’s a very clever piece with a connection to the Huguenot Quarter and I believe it will have a huge positive visual impact...suspended over Carey’s Lane.”

It used to be said of this country that it doesn’t have a strong visual culture. Niamh thinks we are getting better at appreciating art in the public space. “Things can sit around us that are not necessarily immediately recognisable as a fellow on top of a monument or a plinth. The nature of sculptures is changing.”

She thinks it’s a good thing and notes that the “larger public is comfortable with art within the landscape.”

Niamh is represented in the collections of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Arts Council of Ireland, Limerick City Gallery, Swansea City Council, the London Institute, Hiscox in London and the Hugh Lane Gallery in Dublin.

She has also been doing some research in Washington DC as part of an award she won. Niamh has been selected for Solas Nua’s inaugural Norman Houston multidisciplinary commissioning award. The award is a bi-annual commission for a new work open to artists working in any discipline on the island of Ireland. Part of the overall Norman Houston Project, it’s dedicated to the memory of Norman Houston, the former director of the Northern Ireland Bureau in the US.

The commission comprises a six-week research and development residency at STABLE Arts in Washington DC. Niamh has done the research in the American capital and will return there later this year for an exhibition.

Support for art in Washington DC “is more or less all private. There are certain bodies that get money but it is largely raised internally by institutions.”

The system of state support for visual artists here is better, says Niamh. “It produces different results. There is more scope for taking risks. When talking about public art here, you get to test your creative muscles in a way that wouldn’t necessarily fit with the more commercial arena.”

The remaining four sculptures for the Cork city project will be installed on the Exchange building on Princes Street, Cook Street, the Coal Quay and Triskel Christchurch before the end of the year.