'History Table - Elevation'

History Table – Elevation’, Bronze Sculpture to commemorate the Year of 1916-2016 Celebrations, sited in The Diamond, Lifford, County Donegal. Commissioned by Donegal County Council. “This artwork takes a recognisable item of domestic furniture and re-conceptualizes it as a symbolic form. The kitchen table is the centre of the home, where many ideas come from and plans are made; it is the centre of family life and familiar in the Irish consciousness”. (Quoted from the artist) The concept for the public artwork was informed by a performance artwork the artist delivered as part of the Centenary Programme, in Kilmainham Jail, Dublin, The performance artwork was part of the Future Histories event, which also formed part of the 1916-2016 celebrations throughout Ireland. At the end of that performance the artist raised a small kitchen table up on extended legs, which had been created during the performance by taping hazel branches to the table legs. He developed this symbolic gesture further in the permanent commemorative artwork for Lifford. The sculpture is essentially a traditional kitchen table raised up and placed on branches of coppiced hazel. All elements are cast in bronze. The tabletop is pierced with an extract of text from the 1916 Proclamation. The text can be viewed from below the table. The artwork represents an archway, a threshold and a link between past, present and future. The artwork is located in the Diamond in Lifford, the administrative capital of the county and the seat of Donegal County Council. Within the Diamond area of Lifford the offices of Donegal County Council are located and opposite this building is the historic Lifford Courthouse designed by Michael Priestley in 1746. The Commission process was run by Marianne O’Kane-Boal.