Institute of Obsolescence // 2006

Institute of Obsolescence // 2006

Failure // Kilkenny Arts Week // 2006



Replica of The Memorial to Kilkenny Design Workshop R.I.P.* (Rest in Purgatory*)


I had the work installed and ready to go an hour before the opening of the show. I went home to get a shower and a clean set of clothes. The launch of the arts festival was taking place in the crescent were my work was been shown. Microphones and a PA Systems were set up on a stage. I was having a drink, showing my mother the various elements of my work. The speech was going on when I realised that I was standing on the spot where one of my works should have been. ‘Fuck it’, I said to myself, ‘they have robbed one of my works’, I was raging and approached Mike Fitzpatrick, the curator of the show. I was spouting something along the lines of ‘them fuckers, if they want a show about failure I’ll give them one and take the work down and trash it. Mike brought me back down to ground and around to the idea that it was a real reaction to my work and take it like a compliment, be it good or bad and that I should remake it and put it back in place. I liked that idea of working it further; the space was a bit unbalanced and required another work or two to fill it out more. I also liked the idea of getting an official police report on the theft of my sculpture. The replica was installed with a simple anti-theft device, a stake in the ground, supplied courtesy of John Mulhall.