Various times in August
My first two weeks in Dublin were focused pretty intensely on finding a new apartment… but that didn’t mean I neglected my exercise or adventures!
I wandered quite a bit – not nearly as much as I had throughout my Grand Adventure, but still a good deal more than I did back in Portland. Something I’m really appreciating about Dublin is that it’s quite walkable, and I made as good use of that as I could through the first few days in town.
Wednesday, 26-June-2024
Continuing on the theme of art – After the art museum, and walking through the park, I headed South along the Western bank of the river toward an interesting sculpture installation that I’d earmarked for myself some months before. I can’t quite recall where I saw it, or why, but… you know what? Past me thought it would be interesting to check out, so present me is gonna roll with it.
And roll with it I did – It was a lovely walk down the slopes of the garden to my destination – Wandering through the trees and along the river was nice and cool, with some pretty good people watching thanks to a concert venue nearby that was just starting sound checks.
Soon enough, though, I found David Černý’s installation – A set of three rather large, and quite faceless, babies crawling around.
They were neat – worth noting down in the blog, and rather photogenic, but frankly there isn’t too much to tell about them. They’re centrally located, in a pretty area by the river, but nothing about it really stands out… they’re just a neat sculpture that I’m glad I took a few minutes to check out.
From the babies, I continued my adventures and explorations, finding another (far more haunting) installation. This one was a memorial, instead of an artistic installation, specifically to those who’s lives were ruined by the Communist State. I came across it unexpectedly, so it took me a moment to really recognize what I was looking at… but once I did, I really appreciated the sculptor’s work.
Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_to_the_Victims_of_Communism
Sunday, 16-June-2024
I’ve mentioned, once or twice, how beautiful Vilnius is.
Literatu street is a great example of that – simply put, it’s a street with a ton of neat pieces of art put up on the sidewalls. Simple, elegant, and clean. An outdoor art gallery created in 2009, with 150 artists contributing their work (mainly small items, about 1ft x 1ft) that now hangs permanently around the street.
It’s a neat way to expand art, and to beautify a city… Similar to something I remember from Caracas, Venezuela, in 2011 where the government had hired artists to paint the construction barriers that were being put up around the city. A way to change the landscape from grey concrete to vibrant colors.
Little things like this, in my mind, make a really big difference to life in cities. I’ve seen it around a fair bit (think the electric boxes with paintings on them), but Literatu street is one of the only actual “gallery” styles that I’ve seen.
