Island with colourful homes on a wire scaffold front
Island with colourful homes on a wire scaffold pier from above
Island with colourful homes on a wire scaffold pier from above
Island with colourful homes on a wire scaffold top close-up
Island with colourful homes on a wire scaffold purple home close-up
Island with colourful homes on a wire scaffold pier close-up
Island with colourful homes on a wire scaffold triple roof close-up
Island with colourful homes on a wire scaffold from above
Island with colourful homes on a wire scaffold back
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Front side aspect
Transom
Transom
Angled Side Aspect
Side Aspect
Right Front Side Aspect
Right Front Side Aspect
Right Front Side Aspect
Front Aspect

my lighthouse

Materials: walnut, copper, enamelled wire, brass rods, stone.

Dimensions: (h)41.5cm x (w)53cm x (d)28.5cm

Weight: 6kg


I came to this piece without a plan. I didn't know what I was building, what it might look like, or even why I was building it. All I had was a little roof, a potent zeitgeist (Irish housing crisis), and a willingness to evolve.

Which is a nice way of saying that this piece is a catalogue of failure scars. Apart from the little homes (I found three versions, I found all) every visible millimetre is different from when it started. The rock was whole, until a seam suggested otherwise. The houses were to go on stilts but that was ridiculously fragile. I patinated the copper wire green but it was a mess (and not the gorgeous kind). The list goes on.

Now, I did build this with a collection of pieces under the theme of creativity: the process, and what helps and hinders. I thought the series could be an aid, at the very least to me anyway. So, my lighthouse, it turns out, is quite a bit about being comfortable with failure, about developing the grit and resilience to feel it, recognise it, and act quickly on it in the awareness that it gets you to the next point. That not only is it ok to fail, it's actually a marvellous sign you do have an idea of where you are and what is necessary right now after all.


€800

Part of the Royal Ulster Academy of Art Open Exhibition at the Ulster Museum, Belfast 2019-2020

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