Ronan McCrea

A sculpture for the exterior of apartment building, Dublin. 2005
The Twentieth Century consists of two bronze plaques. A circular plaque that is blank, but identical in material and form to commemorative plaques used on the exterior of buildings in Dublin City.
The second bronze plaque is etched with all the years of the twentieth century arranged in random order fits on the exterior wall of an residential building with supported housing for single men with a history of homelessness.

The work is the most recent in a series of date works. These include sculptures such as Everything and Decadism, Years, Decade-ism (early & late) exhibited as part of the project general-specific

The context of the site is central to this piece. An established residential area of Dublin dominated by red brick Edwardian and Victorian architecture, the area has many commemorative plaques to various famous residents including Bernard Shaw and including my favourite, fictional personage Leopold Bloom.

This context also relates to the fuction of the building as a supported housing project for men with a history of homelessness. Respect for the the privacy of residents was required of the brief, the work relates to ideas of home, private space, public profile.

A public art commission for Dublin City Council
2005

Fabrication by Palmer Etching, Dublin.