Lost and Found at Sea

 When I moved to the coastal town of Skerries in 2006, I became very involved in Kayaking and more recently, traditional Currach rowing. The involvement in such sea activities has made me aware of the abundance of creatures and objects the sea holds.  

On my regular island clean up trips, I have discovered many fascinating finds along this rugged coastline. Most of these are fishing waste, domestic rubbish, plastic bottles and flotsam but sometimes  within all of these sea finds, there are rare hidden gems, for example, the almost complete Porpoise skeleton, which I discovered at the back of Shenick Island. On the second trip, I looked again carefully and found the missing pieces to complete the vertebrae of this skeleton. Subsequently, I pieced the remains together to become, ‘Porpoise Hibernicus,’ a sculpture with lighting elements, which has been exhibited in Galway and Frankfurt.  

Curious items which I have not been able to use are a headless bullock, which fell off cliffs or even an archeologically important human burial site. On another coastal walk all within a few hundred metres of each other, I found a large collection of soles of shoes, all of the uppers were gone, removed by the sea and I was inspired to make 'Soles of the Sea'. Similarly, off the Donegal coast, finding twisted metals, rusted steel from oil drums or cookers become objects of art, with some interventions from me, as an artist, but trying to do as little as possible, to highlight the force of the sea and its effects on materials.  

‘Ecrasé’ and ‘Balor’ are pieces that may have been saucepans or pots originally. The force of the sea crushing their authentic aluminium form to gain a personality of their own as objects. ‘Magheroarty’ is made from a piece of an oil drum, found on the Donegal coast, as was, ‘Inish’, an enamelled steel piece with great patterns and corosion.

I hope appreciators enjoy these pieces for their rawness and truth.