The Timekeeper

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.

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.

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.

Shopping for gnomons with quarry owner Brian Kerrigan at Drimkeelan quarry 

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

Like may stonemason's I usually work alone, however with large projects like this I am lucky to have a great group of friends from the DSWAI who I can call on.

Scaled model 

Ken Curran splitting stone for the gnomon using plugs and feathers 

Sunny places the gnomon 

Ken begins work in the first relief carving

Ken and Sunny work on the carvings

One of Sunny's carvings nearing completion

One of standing stones carved by Ken

Alex Panteleyenko works on cutting the letters for the time capsule seating area as well as the numbers for the sundial

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. 

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.   

Building a courtyard classroom

Here is a look at my latest outdoor classroom project I completed recently. 

In early 2015 Scoil Mhuire National School in Lucan, Co. Dublin put out a tender to commission a creative outdoor space for the students to utilise for years to come. It was commissioned under the government's 'Percent for Art Scheme' which allocates 1% of the building cost of any public building to the installation of an art project.

 

The school prides itself on its commitment to sport and creativity. Drama and music are very important in the school, and the school wished for this to be reflected in the submission. It was also essential that the children were to be involved in some aspect of the work. 

Having consulted with the children they had recommended that the project have something uniquely Irish. The design must be site specific, and be sympathetic to the local geographical and historic context, with reference to local heritage.

Taking all this on board, my design was based on a space that is both functional as well as sculptural, a structure that is visually inspiring from both the outside and the inside, a place for children to get excited about being in the great outdoors as well as learning about it.

Uniquely Irish.

Two ancient and iconic features of the Irish landscape are the dry stone walls that knit much of the landscape together and the ring forts that perch on many of its hilltops.

This outdoor classroom pays homage to both.

Structure Description

The main structure consists of a 6 meter wide circle with two entrances with curved timber seating lining the walls. The walls are constructed of dry stone walls that slope in height from 0.5 meters up to 1.2 meters. A second two tiers of seating protrude out from one half of the circle creating additional seating for larger classes as well as creating tiered amphitheatre style seating for events like class plays and class photos. The walls of the outer tiers descend in the opposite direction to the inner walls creating flowing sculptural shapes.

Building the courtyard classroom

Built during the spring of 2015 almost every weather condition imaginable was experienced. Fortunately one of the many benefits of building walls dry (free of any mortar) is that you can still work even when it's raining. 

 One major challenge in this project was the fact that it is a internal courtyard in the school, meaning that everything coming in and out had to be transported by wheelbarrow through the school corridors.

An estimated 60 ton of material had to be wheelbarrowed into the courtyard through the school. About half of this was the limestone used for the walls.  The walls were built with the help of Ken Curran, a fellow dry stone waller from Co. Tipperary. 

Another challenge was building the walls themselves due to their shape. Putting a 'batter' (tapering the wall in) on a curved wall is a challenge in itself, but this project had the added dimension in that the wall was also tapering down from a height of 1.2meters down to 0.5 meters. As a result of this the foundation of the wall gets narrower as it goes along. 

The dry stone walls of this project are limestone and come from Mike Kelly's quarry near Knockcrockery in County Roscommon. All the stone was handpicked and bagged at the quarry. Most of the rounded cope stones were shaped in the quarry to reduce the amount of waste material being shipped to the school. Approximately 32 tons of stone was used in the construction of the walls.     

'Leamhcán' A river runs through it.

 The river Liffey plays a vital role to the creation of the Lucan village as many of its early settlers would have arrived here travelling up the river. In the Irish language, 'leamhcán' means 'place of the elm trees'.

The name probably comes from people that travelled by river, as Lucan is the first place that elm trees are encountered if travelling inland from the Liffey.

The paths that lead up from the double doors at either end of the courtyard are inspired by this, made up of leaf shaped patterns that are laid in a flowing pattern to give the effect of elm leaves flowing down the river Liffey. 

This pattern flows from either end of the courtyard, swirling around in the centre of the circle where the two streams meet. The leaves that make up the floor of the classroom are a combination of mosaics made by the students and hand cut leaf shaped stone engravings.  

The brief required that the children were to be involved in some aspect of the work. This provided a wonderful opportunity for the students to have their own stamp on the classroom.   

The leaves that make up the floor of the classroom are a combination of mosaics made by the students and hand cut leaf shaped stone engravings. All 414 students in the school got to make their very own leaf tile. 

The inclusion of a number of large metal flowers by Irish artist Jack Harte bring additional colour and interest into the space throughout the year.

The beautifully crafted curved timber seats were made by West Cork master carpenter Noel Burke  

Click on the video below to see the making of the project from start to finish.

It was wonderful to get to build another outdoor classroom project for students to enjoy. You can see some of the other public projects I have worked on in the "Commissions" section of my website here