It weighs over 20 tons and stands, brutish and massive, inside an isolated and obsolete space in the village of Thomastown, Co Kilkenny.
Catherine Delaney's huge cast-iron sculpture, Enclose, suggests the framework of a bridge, but only in a symbolic sense. It has taken her three years to create, and it is one artwork that is unlikely to be stolen or copied.
The sculpture is based on her earlier idea of building a bridge on the Border at Strabane-Lifford linking the two parts of Ireland - a bridge-building concept that she developed before the term became politically fashionable. Her proposal for a giant metal sculpture straddling the Border and depicting the post-ceasefire atmosphere of hope in 1995 was pursued initially by Strabane District Council, but was later put on hold.
The Dublin-born artist and sculptor went ahead anyway and built her own "bridge", the monstrous structure which is now on display in the old Grennan Water Mill in Thomastown. The structure is 10 feet high and consists of 22 industrially-cast columns supporting a further 34 horizontal beams, giving an overall impression of immense weight and purpose but ultimately mystifying the viewer, who can walk around it and through it.
It has been installed and put on display in the disused water mill with help from Kilkenny County Council and the Arts Council. The county council's arts officer, Margaret Cosgrave, remarks on the artist's tenacity, both in making the piece and managing to erect it.
Catherine cast the piece from foam mouldings with the co-operation of the Leinster Foundry in Athy, one of the last great iron foundries in the country. A powerful forklift machine was used to assemble it inside the mill. She is now interested in finding a more permanent location, and a purchaser, for the conceptual piece, which is "not literally a bridge - more a big land sculptural piece." It is, however, designed for indoor display, which limits the options.
The maquette or small model for the piece has been bought by the Office of Public Works for display in one of its buildings in Kilkenny, but "the brute" itself, as the artist calls it, has yet to find a suitable home.
Meanwhile, another bridge, once functional but now also obsolete, is the subject of an exhibition by Waterford-born artist, Carmel Cleary, at the South Tipperary Arts Centre, Clonmel, until July 18th. It features stark black-and-white photographs and a video of the old Red Iron Bridge, a disused railway bridge across the River Suir about three miles from Waterford city.