Top five artworks
Five new artworks produced over the past year highlight the creativity and impact that can be achieved when businesses collaborate with artists. One of these artworks is ‘Lean’, a glass and steel sculptural work by Irish artist Caoimhe Kilfeather on the corner of Earlsfort Terrace in Dublin outside the new Arthur Cox headquarters.
Kilfeather was selected from a shortlist of four artists to complete the artwork. For Kilfeather, the commission represented the first opportunity for her to make permanently installed commissioned work in the public realm and led to another piece being commissioned for inside the building called ‘Wave’.
Wave and Lean were shortlisted for the Jim McNaughton Award for Best Commissioning Practice in the Allianz Business to Arts Awards.
Another piece of public art, the Hide Sculpture by artist Garrett Phelan commissioned by Fingal County Council, was also on the shortlist for the Jim McNaughton Perpetual Award for Best Commissioning Practice.
Phelan was selected in 2005 from a panel of nine artists formed after an open call.
The Hide Sculpture – a functioning bird hide cast in concrete located on a former landfill site in Lusk, Co Dublin – will start its first formal programme of events in October focused on contemplation and exploration into the worlds of art, nature and politics.
“We took the journey together on how the work would be realised. There was a lot of negotiation and research involved in identifying the site and an e-tender process was required as the monument fell into the realm of construction,” explains Caroline Cowley, public art co-ordinator at Fingal County Council.
“I had been working on different projects associated with birds since 2000 and was interested in biodiversity. Having grown up in the area, I wanted to create something that reflected the huge responsibility of citizens in Fingal to protect the environment,” says Phelan.
“It was unprecedented in terms of a commissioning process to service an artist for an 11-year period.
“Fingal County Council never faltered at any stage, even when we didn’t get planning permission. Its attitude to art is very open.”