New Sculpture For Grafton Street Temporary Public Art Space

A major large-scale sculpture created by the leading British sculptor Angela Conner was installed on Grafton Street in Dublin on Friday 3 April 2009.  Organised by Solomon Fine Art, this is the latest sculpture to appear as part of the street’s popular temporary public art space programme, organised in conjunction with Dublin City Council.   

The work, entitled ‘Patefaction’, is approximately 24ft high and is made of four silver fibre glass  units suspended on a galvanised steel frame.  Each individual panel will gently swing in the wind.  ‘Patefaction’ will be installed on Grafton Street for a period of 12 months. 

Angela Conner (74) is one of Britain’s most successful and celebrated sculptors.  Her work spans both intimate and vast sculptures, and is held in numerous private and public collections around the world. In the UK her work is on display at the Arts Council of Great Britain, the National Portrait Gallery, 10 Downing Street, City Centrepiece in Horsham, and in the grounds of Chatsworth.  Internationally, she has work at the Carnegie Museum of Modern Art in Pittsburgh, The Jewish Museum of Modern Art in New York and Heinz Plaza in Pittsburgh, USA.  This is not the first time that Conner’s work has been seen in Ireland - her wind mobile entitled ‘Irish Wave’ situated at Park West in Dublin stands at 116 ft tall and is regarded as one of the tallest sculptures in Europe.  

Angela Conner’s main body of work centres on the creation of sculptures that harness natural forces in a unique and subtle way.  Her work is environmentally based, and she uses natural forces such as gravity, wind, water, sun and shadow to add movement, which is central to her sculptural forms.

Solomon Fine Art approached Dublin City Council in 2005 with the idea of creating a temporary exhibition space for sculpture at the top Grafton Street, one of Ireland's best known streets.  To date, Solomon Fine Art has temporarily installed major public works by Sophie Ryder, Orla de Bri,  Patrick O'Reilly and Leo Higgins.