IT looks like a buoy; it lights like a buoy; it even floats like one, Iou tin Dublin Bay. However, the new navigational mark, laid recently by Irish Lights, is in fact, a work of art ...

Aren't they all, you might say. And indeed, the automated lighthouses around this 2,700 mile coastline are an integral part of our architectural heritage. But the waterborne aids to navigation are not generally known for their aesthetic value - though the bay's diving gannets and other birdlife may think otherwise.

"Swords to ploughshares" is the concept in this particular case. "Buoy", as artist Stefan Gec calls it, has been made out of scrap from eight former Soviet nuclear submarines which were broken up in the Northumbrian port of Blyth. The Huddersfield born artist of Ukrainian descent says that he was inspired by his father's refugee status in Britain after the second World War. The material symbolises a political climate synonymous with exile, he says.

His plan is to return the recycled object to Murmansk, unofficial graveyard of the antiquated Soviet nuclear fleet. Dublin is one of 10 coastal locations it will visit for a time en route. Its voyage will be monitored, using satellite navigation and the Internet.

Admission to this particular exhibit is, naturally, free but you've got to provide your own transport. For a closer look at a 1:10 scale maquette, you could do worse than visit Arthouse in Curved Street, Temple Bar, Dublin, anytime between now and February 23rd. Opening hours are 9.30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday to Friday, and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday and Sunday.