roadworks
101 Holes
I was thrown out of my first art class for being a disruptive influence. I think this has something to do with why I stole Creative Ireland, the visual arts and drilled it with 101 holes.
240pp, 190 x 250mm, drilled with 101 holes. Edition of one. A roadwork, November 2012.
€1001
The Alchemist
A tinsmith in southern Morocco transformed a paint tin into a bucket. I melted and poured the lead and transmuted the tip into gold. Unlike the other book of the same title, this one has not been translated into 71 languages.
Concertina book, 95 x 116mm, inkjet print on Munken pure, with applied gold leaf. Edition of 21. Signed and numbered. A roadwork, November 2012
€4
Make Something
The idea is to make something, but the reality is always filled with false starts, plans, calculations, sketches and a lot of wasted time. On the table in my work space a large sheet of paper has slowly been filled with these marks. I cut the large sheet into smaller sheets and re-formed it as a book. Whether or not this has got anything to do with art you will have to ask John Baldessari.
10pp 226 x 204mm. Laser print. Edition of one. A roadwork, December 2011
€125
For all your hang-ups and great off-the-wall value
On the 29th December we walked to the garage to get milk. The roads were icy, with a light dusting of snow. On the way home I skidded and fell on my back, milk spilling out. I lay there laughing, and there beside me on the R618 Cork/Macroom road, I found a wallet of photographs and a business card: For all your hang-ups...
210 x 210mm unfolding to 2044mm. 10 colour photographs. Handmade hbk, marbled paper covers, ribbon tie. Edition of one, 2003
€650
From the Lakes of Killarney to the Golden Horn
Found in derelict cottage, west of Ireland, 2003. Open at Chapter II: Ireland -
its beauty and its sadness. 'There is never but one first impression; all else is
second in time and in degree. It is twenty-eight years since I first saw the shores
of England and of Ireland, and then they were to me like some celestial country.'
360pp, 112 x 200mm, hbk, tunnelled by woodworm and bookworm,
chewed by mice, reduced by damp and fatigue.
€750
Mongrel
The compost heap as artist and curator. Magazine bought in 2001, discarded in
2002, partly decomposed and retrieved in 2003. Considered a health hazard and
refused public exhibition in 2008. Mongrel it was and mongrel it remained until
2015 when it was exhibited at LIPS in Limerick.
300x200mm, number of pages now obscure, ragged edges, discarded 2002,
retrieved 2003.
€250
Ping
I was staying at the Hotel du Lac, in Northern Italy. It was a drizzling, misty day; across the lake a flag fluttered in the breeze. Later that day I walked towards the fluttering flag until I reached Switzerland. No sound rang out until I found PING.
185 x 185 mm unfolding to 1007mm. 4 b/w photographs 120 x 120mm. Handmade hbk, marbled paper covers, ribbon tie. Edition of one, 2001.
€400
Sketching in New Bethesda
Our friend Roland drove us to New Bethesda down forty miles of dirt road. The town nestles,
if you can nestle in the desert, in the Karoo, in South Africa. As soon as the town came into
view, Roland stopped the car and cracked open a beer. The dump is great here, he said,
some great stuff. It was the first place we visited. We found this sketchbook pack,
lovingly warped, eaten by heat, painted with dust, and brought it home.
400x200mm, sketchbook with pocket for pencil, indeterminate number of pages, found in 1999 -
€250