Dublin’s newest piece of public art has been unveiled on the North Wall Quay.
It is a sculpture in the form of a pair of benches made of recycled plastic that was recovered from the River Liffey.
Artist Rhona Byrne said the unusual shape of the benches is inspired by the river.
“I wanted them to have this dynamic movement and also they’re like the wave from a boat in action,” she said.
The official title of the piece is “Restless: Liffey Love” but Ms Byrne promises the benches do work for those wanting to rest their weary feet.
“They are actually really comfortable,” she said.
“There’s all different ways of perching and sitting,” she added.
The work was commissioned by Dublin City Council and funded through the Government’s Per Cent for Art scheme, where 1% of the budget for any publicly funded infrastructure project goes to art.
Ms Byrne hopes that her artwork will make the location, on the quays between the National Convention Centre and the 3Arena, a place where people can appreciate the river.
She hopes the benches “become part of daily life here in the city”.
“We’ll be hopefully programming events and talks on the sculpture, so creating some dialogue around issues like marine health and waste and how we are custodians of our own city,” she said.
The brightly coloured hard plastic used to make the benches was produced by the Paltech Polymer Engineering company and the structure produced by Billings Jackson Design and Steel Smith.
The raw material used to create the benches was one million pieces of plastic that was recovered from the River Liffey by the Liffey Sweeper, a boat run by the Irish Nautical Trust.
Irish Nautical Trust CEO Jimmy Murray said they use the boat and traps placed along the river to remove waste plastic from the water before it can get out into Dublln Bay.
He said: “We get a lot of plastic bags, plastic bottles.
“We get kids plastic toys, a wide range of other materials, not only plastic.
“We get tons of wood, tires, you name it.”
Not all the plastic is on the surface, some is floating underwater and is recovered by a bucket attached to the front of the boat.
The Trust is funded by Dublin Port, Dublin City Council and Dublin Waste to Energy.
Mr Murray said at the moment their operations recover just 40% of the plastic in the river and they have designed a new system which could recover 90%.
He is looking for funding to implement that.
The unveiling of the new sculpture was well attended and it seemed to pass the sitting test with many people leaning or perching on it too.
Now all that remains is for Dubliners to come up with their own name for the latest addition to their city.
Radiators from Space perhaps?
