Earlier in the year I was commissioned under the Per Cent for Art scheme to create a sculpture for a secondary school in Drogheda Co. Louth.
The brief was to create a piece to commemorate the transition of the school from its humble
beginnings into the new extensive
extension, the sculpture is based on the subject of the movement of time.
Our history traced through stone.
The permanence of stone means that much of what we know
about our past has been discovered through examining the stone structures left
behind by our ancestors, from structures and sites of worship to the dry stone
walls that map out the history of the vernacular landscape of our
countryside. In the Drogheda area alone,
more than 5000 years of history can be read through the many stone
structures that cover the landscape
here, spanning from the Neolithic site of Newgrange to the Norman beginnings of the town
itself. This Norman heritage is evident in the earliest monument in the town which is
the motte-and-bailey castle, now known as Millmount Fort.
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| Karl sits in the timekeeper's seat |
'The Timekeeper'
sculpture pays tribute to this movement of time, recorded through stone.
From a distance the large vertical blocks of sandstone take
on the appearance of a Neolithic structure. As you approach, the sundial
element of the sculpture becomes apparent.
The large angled stone in the centre (gnomon) is angled
parallel to the earth's axis, paying tribute to the first gnomon style sundials invented in the late
1300's. The bars of engineered limestone in the floor along with the relief
carvings of cogs and wheels in the standing stones represent modern time.
The precision of the
limestone markers highlights the slight fluctuation in the accuracy of the
shadows cast by the Neolithic gnomon as the seasons change. This in turn
highlights the contrast between the rudimentary time mapping of the neoliths
with the sophisticated precision of modern engineered time.
The stone seating area in the courtyard between the old and
new buildings is an extension of the sculpture, with the time capsule
placed under the stone mosaic in the
floor, a symbol of the school's confidence in its future.
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| The time capsule being placed under one of Sunny's mosaics |
The stone for this project is sandstone and comes from Drimkeelan
quarry in County Donegal. Drimkeelan
quarry is one of the oldest working quarries in the country. The Abbey of Assaroe
was built in 1180 using this stone, so it is known that quarrying started
around this time. A carved sandstone lamp found in the mines of the quarry
suggests mining could have already started in the middle ages, by Cistercian
monks who had abbeys to build.
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| Shopping for gnomons with quarry owner Brian Kerrigan at Drimkeelan quarry |
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| Inside the sandstone mines of Drimkeelan during the Tír Ċonaill Stone Festival in 2013. Read more about this here |
The quarry also supplied stone for famous buildings such as
The National Museum of Ireland, Leinster house(The Dail) and Stormont in
Northern Ireland .
The piece of white quartzite built into the base of the
gnomon links back to the white quartzite facade of the nearby prehistoric site
of Newgrange.
How Sundials Work.
Sundials indicate the time by casting a shadow or throwing
light onto a surface known as a dial face or dial plate.
The time is indicated where a shadow falls on the dial face,
which is usually inscribed with hour lines.
The entire object that casts a shadow or light onto the dial
face is known as the sundial's gnomon.
The gnomon is set parallel to the earth's axis. This angle
is horizontal at the equator and increases to vertical (90⁰) at the poles. The
angle of the earth's axis is dependent on your location and can be found by
checking the latitude on your GPS coordinates. The latitude of Drogheda is
53.717856⁰.
As well as being parallel to the earth's axis, the gnomon also
points to the pole (in this case the North Pole.) North, South, East and West
are marked on the sculpture on the back of the standing stones and behind the
seat stone.
The Sun is highest in the sky at midday and casts a short
shadow. In the afternoon, when the Sun is lower in the sky, the shadow is
longer.
The length of the shadow is also affected by the seasons.
Winter shadows are longer than Summer shadows. This is because the Sun is lower
in the sky in Winter.
The speed of the shadow depends on the length of the gnomon.
This gnomon, being almost 2 metres tall, means that the tip of the shadow will
move about a third of its height (60cm) in an hour - 1cm per minute. This
movement is due to the Earth's rotation.
Building the sculpture
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| Scaled model |
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| Ken Curran splitting stone for the gnomon using plugs and feathers |
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| Sunny places the gnomon |
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| Ken begins work in the first relief carving |
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| Ken and Sunny work on the carvings |
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| One of Sunny's carvings nearing completion |
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| One of standing stones carved by Ken |
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| Alex Panteleyenko works on cutting the letters for the time capsule seating area as well as the numbers for the sundial |
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| Time capsule seating area under construction |
The dry laid pitched stonework was a very slow process with about 60m2 to be laid in total. Fortunately I had Karl Kennedy and Mark Gregan with me for this stage of the build.
The majority of the stonework was laid in a radial orientation from the gnomon apart from one segment that connects the timekeeper's seat to the gnomon.
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| Karl and Nick work in the shadow of the gnomon |
Scottish master craftsman Nick Aitken also stopped by for a few days to pitch in while over visiting for one of our trips to work on The Gathering of Stones monument which a number of us are involved in.
As is often the case when building something unique, this project ended up taking longer than expected, so the pressure was on to get it completed on time. It was a little surreal at times to be building a giant clock when you're under pressure to finish a job.
Thanks again to the great group of guys who helped me realise this project. It is great to see the praise it is getting, and the process of its construction will hopefully give some of the students in the school an appreciation for the craft and for the work involved in applying those skills.
