The Nissan Art Project for the Millennium was Bamboo Support, by Dan Shipsides,
. Bamboo Support, which was launched on 27th September 2000, comprises
a bamboo scaffolding structure attached to the facade of the
Carlton Cinema building in O'Connell Street, Dublin, is the
third Nissan Art Project, and follows the highly successful
GHOSTSHIP by Dorothy Cross (1999) and For
Dublin by Frances Hegarty and Andrew Stones (1997).
The project, organised and curated by the Irish
Museum of Modern Art, is sponsored by Nissan Ireland who increased
the budget from £40,000 to £100,000 for the millennium year.
Bamboo Support will remain in place until 2 December 2000. Over
12,000 metres of bamboo was shipped from Hong Kong for the structure,
which is 30m long x 20.5m high x 1.5m wide. A team of six professional
scaffolding workers from the Ever Need Company Ltd, Hong Kong,
supervised by company manager Albert Lai, erected the scaffolding
using simple hand tools over a five-day period, under the direction
of the artist and Museum staff with the assistance of Scafform,
Dublin.
In addition to the visual impact of such an unusual
structure in the capital's main thoroughfare, Bamboo Support
is intended to highlight the current redevelopment of Dublin
and its role as a gateway to Europe in attracting overseas investment.
The project also examines the cultural and economic parallels
between Ireland and the Far East; between their turbulent tiger
economies and our own much-talked-about Celtic Tiger. The artist's
choice of bamboo scaffolding, commonly used in many Asian countries,
provides an . . . aesthetically beautiful and contextually pertinent
counterpoint to the steel scaffolding used within urban developments
in Ireland. The project sets out to be an aesthetic experience
for the public as well as drawing attention to some of the social
and economic issues facing Dublin today. The choice of the Carlton
Cinema building - for its location, visual aspect and cultural
/ economic significance - is central to the work. The building's
current state of disuse represents a common phenomenon in the
O'Connell Street area, with many buildings now earmarked for
renovation under a major scheme for inner-city redevelopment.
Architecturally it represents an earlier period of redevelopment
by city architect H T Rourke in the 1930s, following the destruction
of much of the street during the 1916 Rising and the Civil War.
The Carlton Cinema is owned by the Carlton Group, who have kindly
given permission for the project, and is due to be redeveloped
as a shopping mall shortly after the end of the project.
See BAMBOO SUPPORT
in context with our 360° panorama and photo gallery
See the 1999 project Dorothy
Cross' GHOSTSHIP
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