Designer/Metalsmith/Sculptor
Kevin J. O'Dwyer
Sculpture in the Parklands Kevin O’Dwyer’s 60 Degrees offsets the natural lighting of this textured landscape with a series of three triangular forms, the two outer ones made from disused bog railway track wood from the 1950s, and the central one from railway track, railway sleepers and stainless steel plate. Two wood forms invoked the industrial activity of peat harvesting while the stainless steel referenced the new use of the cut-away bog for recreation and community.
Shadows cast from these forms, which have been scaled so their sizes decrease in size, build contrasts between these three-dimensional forms and the peat lands around them. Enigmatic, hard edge, Kevin O’Dwyer’s likewise allude to the past industrial history of the place, as the materials all derive from the railways that moved the peat to the Ferbane Power Station, an essential and life supporting source of heat and electricity for the Irish people in the post-war era. More recently O’Dwyer has recycled one of the tipplers used to unload peat. Tippler Bridge has a cylindrical form. O’Dwyer’s walking bridge uses a hybrid assortment of materials that included corrugated steel that references the Nissan huts that housed over 400 men who worked the bogs in the 1950s. Both shelter and bridge, the Tippler Bridge’s view areas inside offer a cropped view of the surrounding lands, that contrasts the pervasive sky and arc of the horizon that predominates over this landscape. A cachet of local history, an industrial aesthetic, and a collaging of these elements with the landscape panorama all come together in O’Dwyer’s Tippler Bridge for passers by and visitors alike to experience.
John Grande Art/Nature Dialogues
While walking in Boora on a winter's afternoon I was fascinated by the strong directional light and the shadows it cast on this unemcumbered landscape. I decided to use a series of equilateral triangles of decreasing size that would cast shadows on the landscape and interact with each other as the sun moved during the morning and evening hours.
The sculpture was fabricated from materials long associated with the industrial heritage of the cutaway bog - railway track, railway sleepers and steel plate. Two of the triangular forms were made from oak sleepers bolted to a steel armature: the sleepers were removed from a disused bog train railway line laid in the 1950's. The wood triangles represent the industrial use of the bog as a source of fuel and electricity production. The centre triangle form was made of stainless steel and symbolises the new use of the Parklands as a community resource. The triangular icons are held in place using railway track, which once facilitated the movement of peat to the Ferbane power station by the bog train.
60 Degrees (2002)
Railway sleepers, stainless steel, steel, rail
Height: 5 metres
Location: Sculpture in the Parklands
Co. Offaly , Ireland