PLACING ADDITIONAL LIGHTING at Guild St.’s Luke Kelly statue in Dublin will make the Dubliners singer “look like the Blair Witch Project at night”, according to internal Dublin City Council emails.
Vandalised five times since January, Council Officials have been working to come up with solutions to prevent further damage to artist Vera Klute’s sculpture on Dublin’s Northside.
Two weeks ago, both Luke Kelly statues were vandalised in what Dublin’s Public Arts Officer Ruairí Ó’Cuív described as “a moment of summer madness”, prompting calls for increased security and protection. Sculptor John Coll’s Luke Kelly statue is located on South King Street on the other side of the Liffey to Klute’s work.
Measures considered by Council Officials in recent weeks include increased lighting and CCTV, erecting fencing around the sculpture to deter vandals and placing Luke Kelly atop a two-metre high plinth, emails show.
A number of these solutions, however, were rejected by Ó’Cuív and artist Klute.
An uplighter, said Klute in an email, could make Kelly look like a scene from 1999 horror film The Blair Witch Project after dark. Ó’Cuív suggested instead a spotlight on a nearby lamppost.
Fencing, meanwhile, could impact people’s view of Klute’s sculpture, unveiled last year to mark 35 years since the folk singer’s death, Ó’Cuív said.
Artist Klute was asked in May to submit a mock-up design of Kelly on top of a plinth to protect it from vandals but this, too, was rejected by Ó’Cuív in late June, after a member of the public suggested a similar solution.
O’Cuív argued the impact of Klute’s sculpture at ground level on Guild St. would be “completely lost” if it were raised at a height.
“All I can sincerely hope is that Tuesday’s vandalism was a moment of summer madness,” said Ó’Cuív after late June’s double vandalisation.
Klute’s Luke Kelly has now been vandalised six times since it was installed whereas Coll’s has been damaged once. On one occasion, glasses were spray painted on Klute’s work while most recently white paint was thrown on both sculptures.
Between May and June, several members of the public wrote to Ó’Cuív to express their frustration at recent acts of vandalism.
One person requested Dublin City Council move Klute’s Luke Kelly sculpture to their own neighbourhood in Kilbarrack. “I am 100% sure residents of Kilbarrack would only be too happy to adopt this amazing piece of art,” they wrote in late April.
According to an internal report, Ó’Cuív stressed that the Luke Kelly sculpture on Guild St. was not the only public artwork vandalised in Dublin City in recent times.
The Viking Boat sculpture on Wood Quay is awaiting repair after being damaged. It is likely that will cost €5,000, Ó’Cuív said.
In 2017, Henry Grattan’s bust on Merrion Square had its nose broken off. Four year previous, the Phil Lynott statue on Harry St. was “knocked over” said Ó’Cuív.
For now, the Council is still considering increased lighting and CCTV for Klute’s Luke Kelly statue, even if it’s no longer considering fencing or elevating the Dubliner above ground level.
Artist Klute also suggested a community engagement programme in the Sheriff St. area to develop an appreciation of the sculpture amongst the area’s young people. “However, it is not thought that the primary threat to the sculpture comes from this group,” according to a Council report.
An Garda Síochána, meanwhile, has said it is pursuing a “definite line of inquiry” regarding two instances of vandalisation on the statue over the past six months. It said charges before the courts were “imminent”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say