Ireland's crappiest public art.

Arghus wrote: »

The Spire is a complete waste of time.

Even the crappiest works of art can provide some food for thought or entertainment value due to their own uselessness. Look at that abomination "honouring" Sonia O' Sullivan, it's awful: ugly, grotesque, cheesy and looks nothing like the person it's supposed to depict. But it certainly isn't dull. If anything, it violently attacks the senses and in it's sheer bloody awfulness is kind of wonderful. Don't get me wrong, I'd prefer if it actually was good, but it is truly something; even if that something is truly horrifying.

The Spire on the other hand is void, nothing. A monument to precisely nothing, that means nothing and is nothing. A testement to the years that created it: utterly meaningless and vacuous. I feel embarassed whenever I see it. A nation of supposed Artists, Saints and Scholars and that absolute non-event is the best we could come up with. Fcking hell we're a dull nation sometimes.

Why should it mean anything? I see it more as engineering triumph than art. Beats most statues.

Also it's interesting how it basically reflects the mood if the weather - disappearing on grey days and reflecting the light on sunny ones.

ollaetta wrote: »

That one used to be not bad when it was first erected on the old single carriageway. The bull and your man were closer together. Now with the widening of the road they have them way too far apart and with the ugly concrete median in the way.

Oh, and someone has also painted the Tipp colours on the bull's arse!

Photo please!

Arghus wrote: »

I fully agree that it is an architectural feat for it's size, but I could equally say the same about an office block or a multistory car park. And it is simple and elegant, but to what end? Simplicity and grace in public art is wonderful, but I think it's equally important - more important, in fact - that those characteristics should be put to use in the pursuit of something with meaning. And what does The Spire mean, really? What is it trying to convey? What's it symbolic of? Nothing, as far as I'm concerned. It's there because it was built there and it's large, shiny and straightforward and lacks any imagination whatsoever. All I see when I look at it is the largest pin in the world that, ironically, doesn't actually have a point.

I also agree that The Spire is a good orientation point, but that's hardly an endorsement of it's success as a work of art. They could have built a giant two hundred foot high traffic cone there instead, which would have done that job quite well and wouldn't be nearly as dull. In fact that might have more symbolic meaning for a time when Dublin is riddled with roadworks and inertia.

I'll be basically repeating myself as you have repeated yourself. this is where some people get all flustered with abstract art as they can't comprehend something where the meaning is not spelled out for them so they rail against it. They interpret a simple work as lacking imagination when more likely it's the viewer who lacks it and then gets mad that they aren't given an easy explanation. In that case the viewer is best to just stop worrying about if it means anything and decide if they find it interesting to look at. If not, just move on. I was looking at an artist today who does 2 types of abstract sculptures, one kind (the coloured bags) I really like, the other type (the wire sculptures) do nothing for me.
http://www.motherstankstation.com/artist/maggie-madden/

Probably someone feels the same but the other way around. That's fine, you don't have to like or get everything.

The fact that the spire is not depicting a person or event or symbolic of a tangible thing leaves it's meaning open to interpretation and it can mean something different to everyone - which makes it more appropriate for a city with many cultures than say, a statue of a religious icon. It's more inclusive. Also, despite it's size, you can quite easily forget it's there sometimes, it's not intrusive or overbearing.