A NEW publication reflecting a collaboration between artist
Chris Reid and the local community in Dublin 8 was launched by Dublin City
Council last week.
‘Heirlooms and Hand-Me-Downs’ is described as a
“public history of community and place made up of private voices
? and has been
published as part of the Public Art Commission.
Funded by the Per Cent for Art Scheme by the
Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government the publication
is part of a larger DCC Public Art commission where the stories of residents
within the Dublin 8 area were recorded and immortalized in the form of 20
heritage plaques.
The plaques were cast in bronze and affixed to the
external walls of flat complexes on Nicholas Street, Bride Street, Bride Road
and the Ross Road as a lasting legacy to the lives and stories of all the
people who have lived there.
Launched by local councillor, John Gallagher, the book
is a distillation of the rich oral history of the last 100 years as expressed
through the memories of people who live or who have lived in a small corner of
the Liberties in Dublin 8.
This residential area centres around the distinctive
red brick Victorian flats on Nicholas Street, Bride Street, Bride Road and the
Ross Road.
The content of the book is informed primarily by audio
recordings made by Chris Reid with over 40 people who agreed to participate by
sharing their memories and collaborating on aspects of the book’s content.
The resulting work is an open-ended, insightful
history based on a process of engagement with the residents past and present,
as Reid himself puts it
‘a public history of community and place made up of
private voices.’
Heirlooms and Hand-Me-Downs celebrates the resilience
of communities across decades and the publication provides a vivid
demonstration of how collaborative arts practices makes and shapes civil
society.
‘Heirlooms and Hand-Me-Downs’ will be available
through libraries across Dublin and also directly from the artist through his
website at www.chrisreidartist.com