Artist Corban Walker selected to create new sculpture for Bushy Park

ARTIST Corban Walker has been selected to create a new sculpture for Bushy Park by the Dublin City Council initiative, Sculpture Dublin.

This is one of 6 new sculptures which are being commissioned by Sculpture Dublin for communities around Dublin.

As part of a two-stage, open competition, artists were invited by Sculpture Dublin to explore Bushy Park, its assorted terrains, and contemporary uses, and to identify a space within the park that resonated with them and provoked a sensitive and considered aesthetic response.

Proposals of any medium were welcomed, and submissions were assessed on the quality and originality of the artistic idea, the experience of the artist, the technical and financial feasibility of the proposal, and the concept and relevance to the commissioning context and choice of site.

A local public engagement programme will be developed around the artwork with the participation of the selected artist.

The successful proposal by Corban Walker is an elegant, large-scale work based on many configurations of a cellular grid. The interplay between projecting and recessed sections of the sculpture will create a lively, joyful vision of simplicity that belies the complexity of its making.

Standing at 8 metres high, the minimalist work will enhance the reflective and meditative environment of the duck pond and assert itself as a distinctive new feature of the park.

Speaking following the announcement of his selection, Corban Walker said: “I’m delighted and honoured to be awarded the Bushy Park Sculpture Dublin commission.

“For a long time, I have wanted to create an artwork in a public park and I am very excited to be working with Sculpture Dublin and Dublin City Council Parks & Landscape Services on such a great project.

“The sculpture will engage with the public in its slender presence and reflect the remarkable environment of Bushy Park.”

Corban Walker was educated at NCAD, Dublin, and since the mid-1990s has gained recognition for his installations, sculptures and drawings using industrial materials to explore philosophies of architectural scale and spatial perception.

He has exhibited in museums and galleries – and realised important public art commissions – worldwide.

Walker’s work is part of numerous public and private collections, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York and IMMA, Dublin.

He represented Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 2011 and received the Pollock Krasner Award in 2015. A member of Aosdána, the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork will present an exhibition of his work in 2022.

Sculpture Dublin Programme Director, Karen Downey said:

“Corban Walker’s proposal represents a bold and confident artistic vision for Bushy Park; a large suburban park that currently has little in the way of public sculpture.

“The proposed work, while static and complex in its linear form and design, will be subtly and sensitively attuned to its surroundings.

“Through a constantly changing interplay of framed, filtered and reflected light, it will draw the eye into a kind of perceptual playground, a visual dance and, potentially, a deeper contemplation of the diversity and dynamism of nature.”