Louise Walsh

The Hybrid Love Seat

Luas, St. James's Sculpture Project

In July 2004 Louise Walsh won a Percent for Art Commission jointly funded by the Roads Procurement Agency (RPA responsible for the Luas, Dublin’s light rail network) and James‘s Hospital, the Irish Museum of Modern Art administered the competition.

The brief asked for the production of a boundary feature along a walled area 40 meters in length, to be sited along the border between Mary Ailkenhead flats and the Luas Stop at James’s Hospital Dublin 8, the budget was €28,000.

Rather than build a barrier cutting off the adjacent flats from the stop, Louise designed a curved railing piece that creates a series of seats on both sides. The railed seating bisects the space but provides an equality of consideration and usage for both sides, winding its way over and back as it trespasses through the boundary, defining each semicircle as a kind of ‘love seat.’

However, in addition to the brief and to enable the local community to experience real ownership, she proposed a participatory art project to allow local teenagers the opportunity to develop their artistic skills and create bronze sculptures that feature significantly and permanently in the artwork.

Workshop Learning Component

In August 2004, Walsh went about researching, consulting and getting support from the local community around the site for the sculpture. She sourced young people directly from the flats and housing estates around the LUAS stop, as there was no one grouping that had ownership of the area.

These workshops developed into a huge project, which engaged extensively with a range of communities to facilitate working with the teenagers from the area attending three local schools: Christian Brothers School on Basin Lane, the Loreto Convent on Crumlin Road and Warrenmount Presentation Convent in Blackpits.

60 young people attended in the beginning engaging in sessions of drawing. The students who commited to attend the workshops ended up creating the seventeen sculptures which are situated atop the railings.

Students posing with their sculptures before the pieces were casted at the Foundry (2004)

Louise was given a space in Donore Avenue which became the 'Sculpture Studio' from Christmas to Easter (2004-2005).

Two workshops a week were held after school working with a range of materials and subjects. The commitment of turning up after school every week for a 3-hour session for 13 weeks in the winter was a huge one, but the craic was mighty and kept students coming back for more.

Walsh also arranged two field trips for the young participating artists to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the National History Museum and various other sites which showcased architectural sculpture pieces.

Most of the volunteers were art students, and counting the youth workers, the two paid workers (Jesse Jones and Emer O'Boyle) and Walsh, each young person got one-to-one attention and expert tuition.

Foróige provided training for the volunteers in facilitation and child protection as well as locating cheap insurance for the group. Diageo was the main funder for the workshops.

Walsh managed the project, but had a volunteer steering group consisting of: Helen O'Donoghue, Senior Curator Head of Education and Community Programmes Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA); Catherine Marshall, Senior Curator IMMA's Collection; Sheila Grace, Arts officer, St. James's Hospital and Tony Williams, Senior Landscape architect, Railway Procurement Agency (RPA).

Artists' Thoughts

Each piece the young artists created is a wonderful testimony to the creative potential of its teenage creator and constitutes a massive contribution to improving the public space of James’s Street, the experience of tram travelers, tourists, James’s Hospital and Dublin's identity as a cultural city. This piece of public sculpture is truly a collaboration between an artist and a local community and stands proudly as a marker for the people of the James’s street area.

"I wanted to be on the art project because I wanted to do something. I always liked drawing and when Louise came to school talking about it and looking for people to go, it sounded like something I could try out.
I came 2 nights a week to do the workshops because I had nothing else to do- it was good crack and I kept thinking about the sculpture I was doing and how I could fix it." --Aaron Finlay

"Working on the Luas Sculpture project was different from being in a club and anything else I’ve ever done before.
It meant a lot to me and to all of the other people involved in the project because we were doing something for our own neighbourhood. I remember Helen and Christine- the women from the James's Street flats thanking us for getting involved in the project because no one had ever done anything like this for the area before." --Aisling Long

"My animal was half mermaid, half horse with wings. I love horses and I love mermaids so I designed my animal to look like a cross between the two creatures. I feel really proud of the fact that it will be there forever and that my kids will be able to see it when they are growing up." --Edel Salinger

Sponsors' Contributions

The original grant Walsh received from RPA, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) and St. James's Hospital totaled €28,000 but was not enough to cover the expenses of the workshop component and the cost of wax shelling, casting and bronzing the artists' sculpture pieces for the posts.

Walsh went out into the community to seek outside funders for these extra costs.

Diageo helped fund the workshops and costs of casting for the sculptures. Dublin City Council also helped cover the costs of casting as this process can become very pricey since every sculpture was taken through a lenghty process. Irish Youth Foundation helped cover expenses for the workshop materials including field trips the group went on for their learning excursions.

CREATE covered the costs of hiring the two assistants from NCAD, Jesse Jones and Emer O'Boyle. A personal donation came from Eric Kinsella from Jones Engineering Group which helped cover the rest of the costs associated with the workshops.

More private donations were received from Belinda Moller, P Elliot Developers, Bill Black and Edward McLone (builders). All of these donations went to cover additional costs of casting as well as the creation of plaques acknowleding the artists and sponsors associated with this project.

Wallace Construction, Irish Fencing and Cast Limited supported this project by completing the following jobs at a reduced cost. Wallace Construction oversaw the demolition of the previous wall and built the love seats and foundation for this project. Irish Fencing provided the railings and posts which will hold the young artists' sculptures. Cast Limited completed the casting process for each of the 16 pieces of sculpture created by the young artists and created plinths for each piece to stand on. These plinths were then assembled to the posts.

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