St Stephens Green Archives - SCULPTURE IN CONTEXT 2023 AND LATER

TRACE IS A SCULPTURE BY GRACE WEIR

This is a very old photograph dating from 6 August 2006. Unfortunately I do not know what camera was used but I suspect that it was a Canon IXUS [known as a Powershot in the USA].

From about 1988 until 2013 this large sculpture by sculptor Grace Weir stood across the street from St Stephen’s Green, near Merrion Row. I thought that the sculpture was “Portals” but I recently discovered that it was “Trace”.

Unfortunately this sculpture had to be removed to make room for traffic that had to be diverted because of the extension of the LUAS green line. It is now in storage but when it was “discovered” in 2017 four of the Portland-stone blocks were missing.

Trace had been commissioned in 1988 as part of Dublin’s millennium celebrations. It was made from limestone and Portland stone, with the latter taken from the Custom House and donated to the artist when the building was undergoing restoration works in the late 1980s.

Grace Weir studied at the National College of Art and Design and also at Trinity College Dublin, where she won an award for her Masters in Multi-Media graduation project. She co-represented Ireland at the 49th International Venice Biennale in 2001 with her video installation ‘around now’.

Grace Weir collaborated with an astrophysicist exploring aspects of Einstein’s relativity and was commissioned by Cornerhouse in Manchester UK to make two film works ‘Dust defying gravity’ and ‘Bending spacetime in the basement’ in regard to this. They were premiered at her solo show titled ‘a fine line’ at Cornerhouse, Manchester UK in September 2003. In May 2005 she was elected a member of Aosdána. Her work is held in many collections including that of the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

SCULPTURE BY HENRY MOORE

I am willing to bet that the majority of those who visit St Stephen’s Green are unaware that there is a Henry Moore sculpture within the popular city centre public park.

Published on 8 July 2020: “Today, the Office of Public Works is delighted to announce the reopening of the William Butler Yeats Memorial in St Stephens Green Park, following an extensive programme of conservation works including the rejuvenation of ‘Knife Edge’ a sculpture by the internationally renowned sculpture Henry Moore.”

The W.B. Yeats Memorial is situated in an area known as the “Mount”, being a series of irregular terraces, forming an amphitheatre within the park. The creation of the amphitheatre was intentional; to provide an area in the Green that can be used for quiet contemplation or theatre, in the round and oration, reflecting Yeats’ work as a poet & playwright, as much as an informal place for people to gather. It remains today a much loved place, regarded by many as their own shared secret place among the trees.

The sculpture was donated by the W.B. Yeats Memorial Committee and funded by Irish American Philanthropist Mr. J. Kelly and Córas Tráchtála Teoranta. The Committee, who made a formal application to the Office of Public Works to place the proposed memorial in St Stephens Green, as “it was one of Yeats’ favourite haunts.”

The location of the sculpture was specifically chosen for the attractive views of the lake and waterfall obtained from the setting, which was terraced and paved by the Office of Public Works at the time. It has been cited as one of the finest settings for Henry Moore’s ‘Knife Edge’ by such eminent bodies as the Henry Moore Foundation.

Set onto the terrace in front of the sculpture is a plaque giving the sculpture its context as part of the Memorial. This was created by esteemed Sculptor Michael Biggs, the prominent sculptor and graphic designer responsible for the Arbour Hill Memorial Wall and the Series B Irish Banknotes (circulation 1976-1992).

St Stephens Green

LOST WITHOUT TRACE THEN FOUND IN A DAMAGED CONDITION

A VIDEO OF THE WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS MEMORIAL IN ST STEPHEN’S GREEN