Art and infrastructure - could the twain meet? The answer is they could and now six proposals have been shortlisted in a public art competition in Cork to decide on an art work that will grace the exterior of the Lee Tunnel, which is due to open in six months.
As one of the final parts of the Cork Land Use and Transportation Study (LUTS), the tunnel under the river Lee is nearing completion. It is one of the most significant infrastructural projects undertaken in the history of the State. It will cost more than £90 million and will have taken almost three years to construct.
The planners say that as the final piece in a jigsaw involving new ring roads around the city, the tunnel will once and for all end traffic chaos in Cork. Whether that's true or not remains to be seen.
Because the tunnel will be such a dominant part of Cork's life as the millennium approaches, the planners also felt that something aesthetic should be added to the project. They decided to involve artists.
The National Sculpture Factory in Cork was given the task of handling the competition, which was open to people in any country, working in collaboration or on their own. Through a competition in two phases, it was proposed that the artists behind the six shortlisted works would receive a fee of £1,500 to develop their ideas. These have now been chosen and the winner will receive a cheque for £150,000 when selected. So what might we expect to see near the entrance to the new tunnel, which will link the Blackrock area to Dunkettle on the opposite side of the Lee? Even the artists are at the conception stage, with only embryonic ideas about what eventually will emerge.
James Scanlon, who lives in Cork but comes from Kerry, is thinking along the lines of the area's natural shoreline. His creation, despite the fact that this will be a traffic tunnel, will be dedicated to walkers. His piece, he insists, will favour pedestrians, not motorists. His plan is to build a 40-45ft tower in red sandstone and limestone - "the stuff on which Cork was built" - and to top the conical structure with a sphere inset with stained glass, reflecting natural and artificial light.
Mary Fitzgerald, from Monkstown in Dublin, and normally a painter, said she was honoured and excited at being shortlisted. Her plan is to work with the existing landscape and roadworks. If she wins, people using the tunnel might see a continuous piece of artwork using water as its main theme, before they drive under the Lee.
Eilis O'Connell, originally from Cork, now living in London, plans a two-part piece. Her idea is that a coastal walk should be developed leading to a cantilevered jetty in woven steel and an upright piece, also in woven stainless steel, both of which would still allow views of the surrounding landscape. At night, it would be light reflective and a force on the horizon from all angles.
Jo Fairfax, a Nottingham-based sculptor, is working as part of a team on the project with architects Matthew Letts and Andrew Whelan. They are working on the idea of a series of objects that would be related to the seafaring tradition in Cork, using toughened glass and metal structures. They would be set in the estuary and illuminated by the flow of the tide. At the highest tide point, the lights would come into play. The objects would also be brought to life by natural light and wind conditions.
Louise Walsh is no stranger to the area where she hopes her work, together with that of her colleague, Pauline Cummins, will be shown. Her father came from Blackrock, rowed on the Lee, and her family is still in the area. The artists' collaborative plan is to use navigation and a sense of place to inform the entire project, bringing sky and sea together. Their thinking is that the project should reflect Cork's rich maritime history.
The sixth shortlisted proposal comes from Vivienne Roche from Cork, who proposes to introduce lines of light looping in arcs over the water near the entrance to the tunnel. She would use fiber-optic cables on steel supports that would be "a celebration of engineering".
On the Blackrock side of the tunnel the lights would dance at night and from the opposite side of the Lee motorists coming from Dublin to cross over using the tunnel would see lights moving in the wind.
Now all these ideas are to be fleshed out . It's expected the winner will be announced just after Christmas or early in the New Year.