Dreamtime Ireland, Visual, Carlow. 2025
Dreamtime Ireland, curated by Sean Lynch.
“Tina O’Connell‘s investigations in sculpture seep over, in and under the cracks of urban existence. Based in London since the late 1980s, her work informs Dreamtime Ireland as a lucid and ever-curious series of tactile encounters with industrial materials and infrastructure. 2004’s Peckham Pothole is a cast from a South London roadside puddle, its negative shape turned into a shimmering impression, almost jewel-like, within a transparent acrylic block, seemingly preserved for eternity. A series of accompanying etchings of more potholes of London appear like portals or gateways in and out of the urban experience.
In Dublin was presented at The Barley Mow, a disused pub mooted for demolition on Francis Street in 1999, commissioned by Project Arts Centre as part of a citywide programme of public art curated by Val Connor. Having reinforced the ceiling of the bar and cut a hole through to the room above, O’Connell and her team assembled from Dublins art scene of the time heroically manoeuvred one tonne of bitumen upstairs. The bitumen, a sticky black material and byproduct of the petroleum industry, solid in composition“
Sean Lynch. taken from the accompanying Guide.
New work included:
Unseen, In Dublin (1999), 2025. Dual video projection, duration 164 minutes – Vimeo link
Retelling, In Dublin (1999), 2025. Aural recording of a text written by Michael McWilliams – Audio link
A Horse’s Tale, 2025. Victorian granite horse trough repurposed into a broken street bollard, suspended tin of bitumen
Peckham Potholes – 5 Photographic Etchings on Archival Paper
Previous works
Peckham Pothole, 2004 – Acrylic block on mirrored steel with plinth
