2025
I studied in Ljubljana, Slovenia last year and it was there that I noticed first-hand how important memorials and commemorative projects can be. Being a post-conflict society, there are impactful Yugo-brutalist, sculptural monuments across former-Yugoslavia.
When I returned to Dublin, I noticed that the city was in a state of flux and that many buildings I love might not be around for much longer. ‘Buildings on Borrowed Time’ aims to archive and memorialise these buildings in Dublin that are set to be demolished or have narrowly avoided demolition.
I've made sculptures of the buildings based on blind-drawings I did on location, essentially passing the buildings through the two-dimensional lens of blind drawing then back into three-dimensions in the form of plaster-cast sculptures. I hope that their abstract nature will allow the viewers to derive their own meanings from the works.
I published a book, 'Buildings on Borrowed Time' to accompany the physical archive. The book includes excerpts from my thesis, 'Why We Need(ed) Brutalism', as well as aesthetic and cultural analysis of the four featured buildings. It was important for me to document the stories these buildings have to tell before they're gone, not just their physical impression.
Buildings on Borrowed Time was exhibited at NCAD Works 2025 in June.