A Monument for Two Communities by Maurice O'Connell

Context Background:

In July 1997, South Dublin County Council and its consultants, Artworking, invited three directors of national visual art organisations to propose artists for two Per Cent for Art commissions. A new park under construction between Rathcoole and Saggart and St. Finians Park, Lucan would provide sites for these works. The Council intended these as a pilot project that might lead to longer term public art programming. Creative engagement with the site and an ability to effectively engage with recipient communities were the main critieria. A shortlisting and presentation process led to the selection of Patricia McKenna and Maurice O’Connell.

Description:

Maurice O'Connell compiled a record of the two communities of Rathcoole and Saggart. This process was spread over two years culminating in A Monument for Two Communities. Maurice performed a variety of functions engaging with the community, workshops with local schools, collecting recordings and surveying progress in the Park. He subsequently buried elements of this record in a time capsule under a earth mound in Rathcoole Park.

“Through this project, I set out to meet and encounter two communities to get a sense of contemporary life in Saggart and Rathcoole. The monument sets out to mark and acknowledge the social and other developments of those villages. The new Park , in which the monument is built, is one of these developments The monument takes the form of a mound, and is discreet physical acknowledgement of that development. Photographs, video and audio-tapes become the tangible evidence of my journeys through two villages. Once completed, the monumental mound will be in the form of a mock burial chamber, in which a limited amount of the documentation and work carried out in the lead up to the completion of the mound will be interred. The monument becomes a quiet way of processing the layers of difficulties that arise from attempting to represent contemporary life; the desires of the artist, the needs of two different communitiesw, the statutory actions of local government.” Maurice O’Connell

Mediation:

3 Commissions - a catalogue produced by South Dublin County Council features work from the public art programmes from 1997 – 1999 including A Monument for Two Communities

Burying Time - An article and photograph in The Echo newspaper, Thursday April 6, 2000 on the occasion of the burying of the capsule.

Commissioner Type:

Local Authority

Commissioner:

South Dublin County Council SDCC

Programme:

In Context 1

PerCent for Art:

yes

Commissioning Process:

Limited Competition

Funding:

Dept. of Environment Heritage and Local Government

Budget Range:

10,000 - 30,000

Project Start Date:

11/05/1998

Project End Date:

04/04/2000

Public Engagement:

Maurice worked with the Residents Association in Rathcoole and ran workshops in local schools.

Associated Professionals:

Project Manager: Artworking - Jenny Haughton & Aisling Prior