Dublin City Council in partnership with the Dublin Port Company and Dublin Docklands Development Authority present Dublin Ships a public artwork by Cliona Harmey
30 January 2015
Dublin Ships – a public artwork by Cliona Harmey from Feb – July 2015
Dublin Ships is a temporary public artwork commissioned as part of the Dublin City Public Art Programme. The work by Cliona Harmey is located on the Scherzer Bridges at North Wall Quay. The artwork is generated from live electronic signals which track the arrival and departure of each ship in Dublin Port. The name of the ship is then transmitted in real-time to two large LED screens facing towards the city, and remains illuminated in black and white until the next ship either arrives in or leaves the port.
Dublin Ships brings to life the movements of ships in Dublin Port daily,creating a strong visual and cultural link between the port and the city in full view of Dublin’s citizens, commuters and pedestrians. The work juxtaposes the speed of instantaneous data with the speed of movement of real entities in space. Dublin Ships highlights the meanings and poetic qualities of ship names, which include allusions to maritime trade, cargoes, historical figures and distant places.
Harmey’s work combines sculpture, with live data from transport and communication infrastructure. Recent work has harvested both open satellite and real-time airline information to create works that engage with notions of time and information space. Her sculptural works are concerned with spatial, broadcast and environmental phenomena (flight data, light, atmospheric pressure).
Artist’s Biography
Cliona Harmey’s practice is often inspired by accounts, histories and artefacts of early technological inventions and communication technologies. Recent sculptural work often references the near obsolete apparatus of analogue photography as well as other forms of inscription and organisation (files, folders, lenses, mirrors, windows, screens). Her work sometimes involves basic electronics/programming or live camera feeds attempting to turn technologies back on themselves and to slow instantaneous technologies to a more phenomenal or slower human pace.
Cliona Harmey has been active as an artist since the mid ‘90s. Recent Exhibitions/Projects include: ‘Phoenix Rising, Art and Civic Imagination’Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane(2014), ‘Into The Light’ Model Arts Centre, Sligo (2012), ‘Last’ Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, ‘Quantified Self’ at The Lab, Dublin (2011), ‘The Material Consequence’ at The Bluewall Gallery, Cavan (2010), ‘The Idea of Distance’ solo work commisioned as part of Unbuilding at Mermaid (2010), ‘Moody’ at Trajektor Art Fair Brussels. In 2011 she co-curated ‘Transference’ at Monster Truck and Broadstone Studios for Blackchurch Studio. International projects include a collaborative project at The Thessaloniki Biennale and a sound installation with composer Barry L.Roshto at Tonspur, Museums Quartier, Vienna. She studied Sculpture at NCAD, Computer Science at UCD and has an MA in Visual Art Practices from IADT. She works in the Fine Art – Media Department at NCAD and is based at Pallas Projects/Studios, Dublin.
Dublin City Public Art
Dublin City Council’s Public Art Programme offers opportunities for artists to engage with the city, making new work that responds to the context of Dublin as the capital of Ireland, both an international city and one of communities and localities. The Programme intends to create connections and collaborations between different areas of Dublin City Council’s work as well as interconnections between art, city and the public.
For more information see the website www.dublinships.ie or email us at info@dublinships.ie. Follow us on Twitter @dubships