The Landmarks
Artist(s): Elaine Griffin
Location: Lough Lannagh, Castlebar
Title: Landmarks - LANDMARK Public Art Programme
Medium: Sculpture
Date: April 2012
Materials: Bronze, Dimensions: various.
Mayo based artist Elaine Griffin has developed a sculpture trail of permanent bronze artworks, specifically related to the area which are positioned around the lake.
Elaine’s idea was selected because of it’s subtlety and sensitivity to the environment. The concept of the works being almost hidden, or having to actively search them out appealed to the panel and the clever way some may work with the natural landscape, such as a flower which will blend in with the natural flowers throughout spring and summer and be left standing alone and clearly visible during winter.
Elaine has reconstructed a miniature module of the type of housing that would have been constructed and inhabited at the time when the Black Fort would have been a living and working holding.
Having researched the matter, the artist went about reconstructing the dwelling using the appropriate materials of hazel and rushes. The idea of this piece is to draw the viewer’s attention to the fact that people did once actually live at Lough Lannagh, in the Black Fort.
A bronze disc details a plan overview of a typical working layout of the interior and functioning of a ring fort. Included in this disc would be layouts for internal cobbled pathways, the central house, a smaller outbuilding and a fire pit as well as an exterior circular moat or trench. The purpose of this piece is to alert the walker to the existence of the Blackfort.
Another piece is based on the traditional shoes worn by crannóg and ringfort dwellers of the period present at Lough Lannagh. The research and production of these shoes has been assisted by the National Museum of Ireland, Kildare street, Dublin and the template has been taken from a single shoe in their collection found in Ireland from that period. On completion these shoes will be located on one of the large boulders adjacent to the new footbridge.
The bronze flag iris cluster have been cast whilst the plants were fresh and in full bloom. The piece is located across from the main car park on the far side of the small stream, within an existing grouping of wild flag iris. The artwork acknowledges the native flora of the site and is a reminder of the cyclical nature of the seasons, the bronze ones remaining in bloom while the natural ones have died off in the winter months.
http://www.landmarkpublicart.com/permanent-commission---elaine-griffin.html
The Landmark public art programme was launched in April 2012. Percent for Art funds were carefully pooled to create a collection of commissions for a wide range of artists working in a number of art forms. Key to the thinking behind the programme was a desire to strategically commission works that would complement each other in the same environment, add value to each project and attract artists working at all levels, from emerging to well established.