The drapes have come off a rubbish new seat on the north side of the Liffey, close to point where the river meets the sea.
The brightly coloured spiralling love seat was designed by artist Rhona Byrne and made using millions of pieces of plastic pulled out of the river by the Liffey Sweeper.
Speaking about the installation on North Wall Quay, the artist said it had been born out on an “urge to take action, to make change, it’s an act of love and hope. It celebrates a community of care for the river Liffey, a river that divides, connects and invites us to reflect on the city we live in and the need for more civic pride and togetherness”.
She worked with the Irish Nautical Trust to collect plastic waste which was repurposed into coloured sheet material by polymer engineers Paltech to create two sculptures in the form of love-seats.
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She described as “unbelievable how much litter travels down the river” and hailed the work being done by the Liffey Sweeper team in “trying to catch it, fighting against wind, rain and tide. I want to celebrate this labour”.
The Liffey Sweeper vessel was the brainchild of Jimmy Murray of the Irish Nautical Trust and while it scoops tonnes of waste out of the water weekly, much more waste escape its clutches and flows out to sea.
“I grew up by the river so my research I started when I was a child,” he said. “We have plans to get as much as 98 per cent of the waste out of the Liffey and I hope we can get there.”
“Rhona and the wider team she has been working with on this project are to be admired for their commitment to using recycled materials to create this wonderful piece of sculpture that all Dubliners and visitors to our city will be able to enjoy,” said Dublin City Council’s arts officer Ray Yates.
Dubliners like rechristening public works of art with the Slime in the Chime and the Floozie in the Jacuzzi two of the more printable rhyming slang names given to the ill-fated digital clock in the Liffey and the almost as equally ill-fated Anna Livia sculpture that first found a resting place on O’Connell Street.
When asked what folk might come up with for the new bench by the stench Ms Byrne laughed nervously as Mr Murray said it would be better off not to give people any ideas.
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