What is this, you ask? Is this art? Well, as we have learned in class, anything can be art. This is called The Spire, and can be found in the center of O'Connell Street, which is the main street in the city center of Dublin. The Spire is very tall and very ugly, and is known to be a pointless piece of architecture. When I inquired about it's purpose to my friend David at the tourist office, he confided in me that the spire was a part of some sort of competition that was held in Ireland, and that it was the winning design. He said that yes, it may be ugly, but it is also pretty impressive, due to its height and the look of the metal when you see it up close. I agreed that yes, it is definitely impressive, but it also kind of freaks me out. David said that it's best purpose was a landmark for people trying to meet up, which we found to be true over the course of the weekend. "Meet me at the spire" was uttered more than twice between us and others, and we were given directions involving the spire from dozens of locals (we asked for a lot of directions). I still think it's ugly, but hey, it's art!
My friend Carly and I had the pleasure of visiting Trinity College on Sunday morning before we left Dublin (and got stranded in Brussels, haha!!!) This artwork was on the square right outside the library, and it was magnificent. The sun reflected off of the copper exterior, and the crack in the middle revealing the inside reminds me of a city skyline. As a native of Chicago, I truly am a fan of any city skyline - it reminds me of home. It looks to me like the skyline on the top half is reflecting into the water on the bottom half. It also kind of reminds me of the end of the world, but I'm not sure why. It looks very industrial, and a little futuristic, but it's still nice to look at. This was probably my favorite thing that I saw on the entirety of the campus.
This chest was discovered during our tour of the Mannheim Castle in Dublin on Saturday. The tour had tons of furniture and paintings from the period that the Mannheim family inhabited it, although not all of it was originally theirs. The eclectic mix inside the castle was interesting to see, although I really was not impressed with the arrangement of the pieces. I wish that they had arranged it in a nicer fashion, but alas! I am not in charge here. Anyway, I love woodwork. I think that it is one of the best forms of art because you can see the details and touch the grooves with your finger and just imagine how long it took to carve out every individual piece! This chest took my breath away. It has the Jewish star in the middle, which was very cool to see, as much of the remaining art in the castle was art that had survived the Second World War.