​​​​​Sculpture in the Parklands

​2002-2010

Raised Line

2002

Maurice MacDonagh’s Raised Circle of recycled steel recalls the hundreds of miles of narrow gauge railway lines, line of life for industry that enabled the peat wagons to be brought through to the power stations, thus enabling an essential and new energy supply for the Irish people in the post-war era.  Painted a Bord na Mona yellow on its exterior, a colour associated with all manner of machinery, from the turf harvesters, to locomotives, MacDonagh’s Raised Circle hovers above the landscape, and the heather, brush, almost illusionistic. Like a Celtic circle of steel, it brilliantly contrast the natural with the man-made, the industrial, with the post-industrial natural aesthetic that is emergent in our times. 

John Grande  Art/Nature Dialogues

Maurice MacDonagh (Ireland) 

Hundreds of miles of rails traverse Ireland's bogs as narrow-gauge locomotives go to and fro, pulling long trains of turf wagons to power stations. Maurice MacDonagh’s Raised Circle, fabricated from this narrow-gauge rail, floats one metre above the landscape. The rail is painted “Bord na Mona yellow”, which is found on everything from locomotives to turf harvesting machinery. This yellow circle floats above the ever-changing plant-life of the cut away bog, often disappearing during the summer season and re-appearing during autumn.