Sqaure Moon, another fine Sligo piece of work!

rizzodun

From fb

This is 'Square Moon', the art installation with an award value of €30,000.00. It was 'conceived to be a Headline event for Yeats 2015' The winning entrant is a Korean architect. The project was to be a 'gift to W.B. Yeats on his 150th birthday'.
More information on the competition and brief for same can be found here

http://yeats2015-architecture-competition.com/competition-overview.html

The winning design was to be installed on the island on or before today, 12.06.2015. Yesterday, there were numerous Sligo County Council employees and engineers on site from early morning. Later, the Air Sea Rescue Helicopter from Strandhill was deployed with view to it lifting the 900kg welded together piece to the island. I understand the Irish Army were also requested to assist with its installation on the island. I am not aware if these costs are contained within the €30k budget.
In the technical section of the brief it states it "must be easily assembled, disassembled, stored, transported and reassembled" and that it must "have practical regard to the site's accessibility".
It is now bolted to the public pier in Killerry on the mainland. The images posted were taken today from the Island itself and from the water. In its current location it completely blocks all access to the pier. The only way to gain access to the pier is by walking through the piece (Yeats birthday present) and is hazardous for all and prohibitive to wheelchair users.
The sponsors of this project are Sligo County Council, The Model Sligo, IT Sligo and Hazelwood House, Sligo.
Meanwhile the toilets remain locked.

How it's supposed to look, on the island



It's supposed to be an art installation made from aluminium and designed to be assembled at the point where it was to be installed, instead, it was made from steel, weighs 900kg and bolted to the pier in a way to restrict any access for tourists to view the island made famous by Yeats in his poem.


Why oh why can't the powers that be in Sligo just do something right for a change?

Can we just meet up later tonight and remove this from the pier altogether?

EmptyTree

rizzodun wrote: »

Can we just meet up later tonight and remove this from the pier altogether?

I've no doubt some enterprising group of people will confirm that it can be "easily disassembled, stored and transported" when they decide to take it off for scrap metal....

TireeTerror

Is that the little pier looking towards Innisfreen Island? I drove there a week ago to see what all the fuss was about. I was thinking to myself "oh this would be a decent enough place to launch a kayak" but maybe not quite so much so now. The toilets were locked then too, which I thought very odd.

Im not quite sure what I think of this kind of artwork, an awful lot of modern art tries to be clever for the sake of being clever.

wayoutwest

It looks like a section of an unfinished out- of- town retail unit.....however it is a light installation, and might look interesting at night.Does anyone know how long it's there, before it's moved to the I.T? and what are the lighting up times?.

il gatto

TireeTerror wrote: »

Is that the little pier looking towards Innisfreen Island? I drove there a week ago to see what all the fuss was about. I was thinking to myself "oh this would be a decent enough place to launch a kayak" but maybe not quite so much so now. The toilets were locked then too, which I thought very odd.

Im not quite sure what I think of this kind of artwork, an awful lot of modern art tries to be clever for the sake of being clever.

You thought the toilets being locked was odd? Not from around i take it. They've been locked for years. Just like the ones beside the Cathedral. It's the Sligo way. Build toilets, lock them, knock them. The circle of life. They've locked and then knocked toilets at Strandhill, Quay Street, Union Street and Market Yard that I can think of off hand. If the economy hadn't collapsed, the ones at the Cathedral would've been flogged off to a developer as well.

il gatto

And that piece of "art" could've been knocked up by the evening welding class in Fás for a fraction of the cost. But sure the public purse is a bottomless pit. And won't the thousands of poetry tourists (they're a thing, right?) will more than make up for it with their free spending ways. Every time I like a book I feel the urge to visit the author's stomping ground and spend, spend...........actually, no. No I don't.
If Yeats is the only redeeming feature of Sligo for whoever is in charge of this cr@p, they should probably move. The Dead Poets Society is wearing thin as a marketing strategy.

TireeTerror

Im not into poetry at all, but I was reading the poem on the wall across from the bus station the other day while I was sitting in traffic.

What on earth is the fuss about? Its really not very good at all, as in it was rubbish.

rizzodun

Poetry is like art, in that it's subjective, Yeats poems are probably a bit more difficult to decipher and understand than some others too, but I quite like them. Not sure whacking a great big lump of steel over the pier leading to the view of the inspiration of one of his most famous poems will leave many with a subjective opinion though.

Great art by yer man from Blow Designs I might add.

fillefatale

Wait, I didn't realise that this was a pernament fixture, I thought they'd dumped it there til they moved it elsewhere. It looks like its been dumped there. Talk about buying something from a catalogue and the made in china copy turns up....

promethius

that's embarrassing. 30 grand is an absolute joke for that ugly frame awkwardly mounted in a totally unsuitable location.
to put it in some context it would pretty much employ a care assistant for the year. you really couldn't make this stuff up.
off the point, was reading a book of yeats poetry recently and it's just wonderful stuff, cheapens it with crap like this.
add the closed toilets at mullaghmore to this list of closed facilities.

il gatto

The "thing" outside Velvet was also public (financed) "art". Cost €200,000 I think. It's galvanised pipes set in concrete. Was supposed to be for swans to nest in. Think one swan tried it and lost it's nest and eggs. They're supposed to float if the water rises. The pipes stopped it floating.
Still, at least it looks good. Am I right? Anyone?
We are ruled over by people I wouldn't have on my table quiz team. People I wouldn't trust to pick up my dry cleaning get to decide how huge amounts of public money is spent. Reassuring, isn't it?

redarmyblues

il gatto wrote: »

You thought the toilets being locked was odd? Not from around i take it. They've been locked for years.

Not like the toilets at Glencar which have been improved in recent years, ditto the carpark there, which in turn has led to the opening/reopening of the Glencar Tearoom/shed. I was out there yesterday and the place was buzzing. The Cafe which has been developed by the Siberry family looks amazing, there is also a children's play area funded by Leitrim CoCo on land that I think was provided by the Siberry's. The whole waterfall area is a credit to all involved. Sligo people always like to claim Glencar for their own, thanks be to God that it isn't in Sligo, the CoCo would have concreted it in years ago.

mountainy man

Sligo's motto should be "Sphincters of Steel"

il gatto

redarmyblues wrote: »

Not like the toilets at Glencar which have been improved in recent years, ditto the carpark there, which in turn has led to the opening/reopening of the Glencar Tearoom/shed. I was out there yesterday and the place was buzzing. The Cafe which has been developed by the Siberry family looks amazing, there is also a children's play area funded by Leitrim CoCo on land that I think was provided by the Siberry's. The whole waterfall area is a credit to all involved. Sligo people always like to claim Glencar for their own, thanks be to God that it isn't in Sligo, the CoCo would have concreted it in years ago.

There's no shame though. That's what gets me. They know that their "Gateway City" has no public toilets. And they don't give a f@ck. If they did, they'd have done something (other than knock what they'd already locked) in the last decade. Seems such a small thing and a fundamental facility for a county council/borugh council to provide. Every town a village in the north has clean toilets which are open until a reasonable time. It's beyond a town which blew €30,000 on piece of scrap metal because it's "art".
I use the courthouse toilets. They're open until 5 or 6. If the court isn't sitting, the side door beside the antique shop is open. Usually toilet roll but never seen soap in it.

Buford T Justice

il gatto wrote: »

There's no shame though. That's what gets me. They know that their "Gateway City" has no public toilets. And they don't give a f@ck. If they did, they'd have done something (other than knock what they'd already locked) in the last decade. Seems such a small thing and a fundamental facility for a county council/borugh council to provide. Every town a village in the north has clean toilets which are open until a reasonable time. It's beyond a town which blew €30,000 on piece of scrap metal because it's "art".
I use the courthouse toilets. They're open until 5 or 6. If the court isn't sitting, the side door beside the antique shop is open. Usually toilet roll but never seen soap in it.

And how much did they spend on storage over the last god knows how many years for the modern toilets they have, because they couldn't and still cannot agree on a place to locate them?

redarmyblues

No shame is right, a mere 5000 people heading to Bundoran, not all of them by any means through Sligo, caused delays of up to an hour last Friday on the midblockroute/innerrelief/bypass thingy, while the powers that be left traffic management up to a flimsy piece of plastic with a flashing light. The thing is the CoCo and the CoC think they are currently doing and have always have been doing a marvelous job in Sligo, I suppose that is in part because there has never been any criticism in the local media. I am out of here next year with the help of god.

il gatto

redarmyblues wrote: »

No shame is right, a mere 5000 people heading to Bundoran, not all of them by any means through Sligo, caused delays of up to an hour last Friday on the midblockroute/innerrelief/bypass thingy, while the powers that be left traffic management up to a flimsy piece of plastic with a flashing light. The thing is the CoCo and the CoC think they are currently doing and have always have been doing a marvelous job in Sligo, I suppose that is in part because there has never been any criticism in the local media. I am out of here next year with the help of god.

In small towns and in Ireland in general, the media is much too close to politicians, high ranking public servants and big business people. It's their class of people in a small town. The type who cluster in Kevinsfort, Strandhill and Rosses Point. The type who meet at the golf club in the Point. Or the yacht club. Who eat in the same restaurants. The type who "consult" each other on matters that affect everyone else. Who "appoint" each other to boards and quangos. Who allocate public money on our behalf. The type who wouldn't rock the boat on each other. God forbid an "intrepid" go-getting journalist might write a scathing story of the "city" (so many inverted commas:() without a pot to p:ss in.

GG66

Local newspapers are just a series of Press releases. There is no journalism.

il gatto

GG66 wrote: »

Local newspapers are just a series of Press releases. There is no journalism.

Easier to prints quotes and the occasional puff piece than really examine decisions and performance when you move in the same circles and have to see them at a do next week. Means most people neither know not care what's happening and when someone does take issue, they get called a "bellyacher" as happened to me recently for lamenting the towns current malaise at the hands of the local high and mighty.