Sheebeen Apocalypto, 2008.

Outdoor work for 'Art@Work', Roscommon, Ireland.

Roscommon Arts Offices Art@Work programme sees artists take on residential placements within businesses throughout the county. In 2008 Carl Giffney spent four weeks working in the Arigna Fuels coal plant. The factory produces smokeless coal from imported slack and recycled timber.

In an effort to talk with the all male work force of the coal factory, building was begun in an unfinished concrete shed that acted like a stage or platform. The undirected construction used materials salvaged from the industrial plant. The conversations that this building soon drew was used to inform the form and function of the construction.

The many talks that began around wood work techniques moved into topics including religion, the Irish economy, Egyptian pyramids, mining, sports, motor madness syndrome and mythology. The outcome of this process were many predictions. A Sheebeen is an illegal make shift bar that originated in Ireland. They sold illicit alcohol and provided an alternative place for social meetings.

Sheebeen Apocalypto pictures a collapse in Irish industry and a return to unlisensced and home made economies. Eighteen gallons of Meade were brewed from local Hawthorn and Elderflowers over the course of the residency using fast acting yeasts. This was then given away without charge at the bar allowing further meetings to take place that were coloured by its material form.

For more please see:
PublicArt.ie
Art@Work

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