Louise Walsh

Close-up of the monument.

Carving the styrofoam core to then apply and model the wax shell coating which is used in the "lost wax" bronze casting process.

 Sculpture as it stands today.

Originally commissioned by the Dept. of the Environment, Belfast for a new square behind the Crown Bar. The commission brief was to figuratively reflect the social history of the locality, described only in terms of prostitution. Walsh was not willing to represent women’s experience only in those terms.

This proposal involved an alternative take on commemorative figurative public sculpture; in particular monuments to the unknown soldier. Focusing the experience of women in the labor force and in particular issues like the lack of equal pay for women and the fact that workers in the home receive no wages, she embedded statistics, text and symbolic objects into the surface of the bronze figures, highlighting the contribution of women’s work to society which is often unpaid or badly paid.

This became the underlying context regarding women and prostitution; However, the sculpture became the subject of a bizarre media and political controversy and was banned from public property by Belfast City Council. The work was subsequently re-commissioned by a private developer and finally sited in Great Victoria Street, outside the Train Station, 1992.

Close-up with Louise's hand on the piece.