I USED A SONY A7RII
I CANNOT RESIST PHOTOGRAPHING RED METAL YOKES BUT I OFTEN FORGET TO PUBLISH THEM
Title: I Cannot Resist Photographing Red Metal Yokes, but I Often Forget to Publish Them
This upright, angular red column has a fascinating and remarkably specific pedigree: it is a surviving legacy piece from the 1983 Arklow Steel Symposium, organised by the Sculptors’ Society of Ireland (now Visual Artists Ireland). I was originally told it was by Joe Moran, but the attribution never quite rang true—not least because another red metal sculpture stands nearby, which is definitely Moran's work.
The Context of the Sculpture
The Exhibition: In 1983, the newly established Sculptors’ Society of Ireland held an intensive steel symposium hosted by Tyrrell’s of Arklow Engineering. Fourteen sculptors—twelve Irish artists and two international guests from Scotland and the United States—were granted access to heavy industrial steel plate, cutting equipment, and welding yards to fabricate monumental contemporary works.
The Siting: Following the completion of the East-Link Bridge (now the Tom Clarke Bridge) in the mid-1980s, the symposium sculptures were transported to the docks. They were installed as an ambitious open-air exhibition along the new approach roads, later documented in the Society’s 1985 catalogue, Sculpture at the East Link: Sculpture from the Arklow Steel Symposium.
Over Time: While most symposium pieces were temporary loans eventually sold, dispersed, or returned to private collections, a handful remained in situ along the verge of Pigeon House Road, opposite the Stella Maris Rowing Club. Over the decades, original exhibition plaques vanished, road layouts shifted, and Dublin Port underwent extensive redevelopment, quietly leaving this sculpture to slip into municipal anonymity.
Potential Attribution
The Sculpture at the East Link catalogue records all 14 participating sculptors. The sharp, constructivist profile of this column—a hollow rectilinear shaft crowned with folded, geometric diamond planes—strongly evokes the symposium work of three key figures:
Vincent Browne: Renowned for formal constructivist steel assemblies in the early 1980s, long before his whimsical bronze figures like Mr Screen outside the Screen Cinema or the O’Connell Street Cabbage. Browne was a core symposium participant exploring planar sheet steel at Arklow.
Eamonn O’Doherty: An architect-sculptor celebrated for clean vertical shafts, dynamic geometric intersections, and bold primary finishes (creator of Crann an Óir and Anna Livia).
Michael Bulfin: A pioneering figure of Irish geometric abstraction in public spaces throughout the 1970s and 1980s, whose signature work often incorporated stark sheet metal terminations and bolted planes.
Because this piece has stood unlabelled on-site for decades, the definitive attribution and title rest in the Visual Artists Ireland (SSI) archive entries for Sculpture at the East Link.
Title: I Cannot Resist Photographing Red Metal Yokes, but I Often Forget to Publish Them
This upright, angular red column has a fascinating and remarkably specific pedigree: it is a surviving legacy piece from the 1983 Arklow Steel Symposium, organised by the Sculptors’ Society of Ireland (now Visual Artists Ireland). I was originally told it was by Joe Moran, but the attribution never quite rang true—not least because another red metal sculpture stands nearby, which is definitely Moran's work.
The Context of the Sculpture
The Exhibition: In 1983, the newly established Sculptors’ Society of Ireland held an intensive steel symposium hosted by Tyrrell’s of Arklow Engineering. Fourteen sculptors—twelve Irish artists and two international guests from Scotland and the United States—were granted access to heavy industrial steel plate, cutting equipment, and welding yards to fabricate monumental contemporary works.
The Siting: Following the completion of the East-Link Bridge (now the Tom Clarke Bridge) in the mid-1980s, the symposium sculptures were transported to the docks. They were installed as an ambitious open-air exhibition along the new approach roads, later documented in the Society’s 1985 catalogue, Sculpture at the East Link: Sculpture from the Arklow Steel Symposium.
Over Time: While most symposium pieces were temporary loans eventually sold, dispersed, or returned to private collections, a handful remained in situ along the verge of Pigeon House Road, opposite the Stella Maris Rowing Club. Over the decades, original exhibition plaques vanished, road layouts shifted, and Dublin Port underwent extensive redevelopment, quietly leaving this sculpture to slip into municipal anonymity.
Potential Attribution
The Sculpture at the East Link catalogue records all 14 participating sculptors. The sharp, constructivist profile of this column—a hollow rectilinear shaft crowned with folded, geometric diamond planes—strongly evokes the symposium work of three key figures:
Vincent Browne: Renowned for formal constructivist steel assemblies in the early 1980s, long before his whimsical bronze figures like Mr Screen outside the Screen Cinema or the O’Connell Street Cabbage. Browne was a core symposium participant exploring planar sheet steel at Arklow.
Eamonn O’Doherty: An architect-sculptor celebrated for clean vertical shafts, dynamic geometric intersections, and bold primary finishes (creator of Crann an Óir and Anna Livia).
Michael Bulfin: A pioneering figure of Irish geometric abstraction in public spaces throughout the 1970s and 1980s, whose signature work often incorporated stark sheet metal terminations and bolted planes.
Because this piece has stood unlabelled on-site for decades, the definitive attribution and title rest in the Visual Artists Ireland (SSI) archive entries for Sculpture at the East Link.
RED METAL SCULPTURE