The Age of Christ

An Award winning Ceramic installation at
Sculpture in Context 2004 

The National Botanic Gardens & Farmleigh House



(Dimensions - 200cm L x 200cm D x 40cm H.)
“…for they are not made whole that reach the age of Christ.” (Thomas Kinsella)
The Age of Christ was an award winning installation that was shown in 2004 as part of the Sculpture in Context exhibition in the Botanic Gardens.  The Award for a Work of Distinction was presented to me at the opening ceremony on 8th September 2004.  Sculpture in Context over its twenty-year history has established itself as the largest outdoor sculpture exhibition in Ireland. Each year a different panel of selectors is invited to adjudicate this open submission event.  The selectors in 2004 were Anna MacLeod, Fidelma Massey and Niall O’Neill. 95 sculptors from throughout Ireland and abroad presented over 120 works in a wide range of materials, this was the first year that the organisers introduced a number of awards for outdoor pieces which were recognised for their originality and artistic excellence.

I have had a long fascination with the Thomas Kinsella poem Mirror in February.  When I first read it in my teens I remember thinking thirty-three – now that’s old! Now as I too approach the age of Christ at his death I know that I have not “…looked my last on youth…”

The Age of Christ seeks to express Kinsella’s sentiments about the aging process through the medium of clay.  The installation was constructed in stoneware clay and consists of thirty-three cubes of varying sizes each containing an opening giving another dimension to each piece.

Weighing over half a tonne it was sited on the surface of the pond in the Botanic Gardens.  The cubes seemed to float on the water and yet existing in the same space as more organic forms, their stark geometric shape at times clashed with their environment, but at times so too they blended easily.  Each cube represents a year of our lives and as such are all different, yet in some ways are all the same.  And so it is in life, for we are “…not young and not renewable, but man.”

The exhibition, which ran until October  in the Botanic Gardens, then moved to Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park until November 2004.


Internal supports for the largest cube. The cubes were allowed to dry naturally before firing. The support frame is lifted into the water.
The frame is lowered into the pond. Final adjustments to the frame. A well deserved break!
The cubes are placed in position. Up to my waist in water! The Age of Christ after installation.
The Age of Christ reflected
amongst the water lillies . 		The Age of Christ.
 The Age of Christ after installation
in Farmleigh House.


 
I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the following for their help with the installation in the Botanic Gardens and Farmleigh House - Eric and Annette Dowdall, Paul O'Sullivan, Cathy and Mike Phillis, Sarah, Tom and John Maher, but most of all thanks to Simon O’Dwyer, without his support I couldn’t have completed the project. My thanks also to the staff at the Botanic’s and to Noel at Farmleigh House. I am as always, indebted to Paul Martin of NCAD for his expertise in all things ceramic.



 

 Castleknock Dublin 15
01-6405614 and 087-2047695
michelle@ceramicforms.com

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