Art in State Buildings 1995 to 2005 - The Office of Public Works

NUMBER FIFTY TWO
La Touche is in his counting house, counting out
his money. He’s piling up the gold coin
in neat and shiny rows. A twinge of gout
but otherwise all well. The new house on the Green
is splendid, the plasterwork sublime, the furnishings divine
and Angelica Kaufmann turning up on a chance
visit. Such a boon. He’ll hurry to join
her for tea before dark. He can already sense
her copy of Guido’s Aurora is a work of immense
beauty. The way she’s found in the pearly light
of a Dublin dawn the exact tone for the dance
of all that mythic flesh across his ceiling. She might
well paint the grove’s tender green from those sycamores.
She’s worth her weight in snotty stuccodores!
(Number Fifty Two is an excerpt taken from Paula Meehan’s poem
Six Sycamores which can be read in full on the accompanying CD.)
Six Sycamores (2001)
This commission was placed to celebrate the occasion of the opening
of a new Link Building between No 51 (originally the Museum of
Industry) and No 52 St Stephen's Green, built in 1771 by the banker
David La Touche. The original leaseholders around St Stephen's
Green had to plant six sycamores and tend them for three years.
Marie Foley/Paula Meehan
Mixed media/poem installation
Variable dimensions
Commissioned in 2000
Location: OPW, St Stephen's Green, Dublin
Art 05119
Art in State Buildings 1995–2005 149