Collapse 2 Sculpture

I was born in Dublin in 1947 and received my primary and secondary education there. I studied architecture at DIT and attended the National College of Art and Design as a mature student. Before my retirement in 2012 I held the position of State Architect. I began creating sculptures in 2007 when invited by a fellow artist to exhibit a couple of pieces to compliment her first significant paintings exhibition. My current work arises from an earlier exploration of the concept of collapse. Two verticals and a cross member (a trabeation) constitute our prime understanding of structural strength and stability. Using distortions of this simple structure to express ideas of instability, I found the juxtaposition of two or more such distortions could create engaging visual “dialogues”. Many of these would echo identifiable human traits. Further deconstruction of the trabeation has widened the scope for these and other traits and these have formed the basis of my work to date. My choice of material is stainless steel and this owes much to my architectural background and training. This is very much a material of our time. Its neutrality of colour and appearance heightens the innate characteristics that arise when the material is precision cut, shaped, surface textured and polished and is a perfect medium for the play of light. My work can be found in the State Art Collection and in a number of private collections.