The Hybrid Loveseat (2004-2008) detail of Edel Salinger’s Dragon

Robert West with his sculpture

Situated at James’s Hospital Luas stop, Dublin 8. This permanent public sculpture features 16 bronze sculptures created by teenagers from the James Street area. These pieces sit atop a 40 meter long railing and curving wall structure, creating seats on either side of the boundary between Mary Aikenhead Flats and the Luas Stop.

The bronzes were created by local teenagers, participating in a four-year series of workshops and events run by Walsh in the three local schools and later in a dedicated studio in Donore Avenue. The young people took inspiration from Celtic Art, heraldry, local architectural features and gargoyles around Dublin City. This project functioned as a creative self-development process, exploring ideas of identity, community, environment and self-image. At the end of the workshop phase, the local teenagers had created 16 clay pieces, which were cast in bronze.

This artwork began as a ‘Percent for Art Commission’ for the Luas tramline within the site of Jame’s Hospital. Walsh extended the commission to include a participatory element for young people in what has often been labelled as a “disadvantaged area”, she fundraised for the costs of the workshops and the fabrication of the sculptures into bronze.

Walsh’s expansion of the project was supported by Luas, James Hospital and multiple partner organizations and local volunteers, including Diageo, Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Create (the national development agency for collaborative arts in social and community contexts), Dublin City Council, Wallace Construction and the Irish Youth Foundation. Many other organisations and individuals volunteered and funded the project throughout a 4 year process to completion.

Walsh instigated an innovative set of creative and educational processes to equip the young people with the skills and self-belief required to become ‘artists’. She devised a mentoring system between the young people and volunteer students at her place of employment, the Sculpture Dept in the National College of Art and Design, so that research, drawing and 3D making was explored in a fun, peer-led learning environment. In this way, art students participated in and led extended creative engagements with the surrounding community outside of the academy. 

Create awarded a grant for two postgraduate students, Jesse Jones and Emer O’ Boyle, to be employed as paid artist assistants. The involvement of local youth workers and residents was embedded into the art workshops and at every part of the process, ensuring that the project adhered to best practice models of inclusion and child protection.

A huge range of people participated throughout the many meetings and events during the 4 year project, ensuring the dialogue and participation required to secure local ownership of this intervention into the built environment that features the creative achievements of local teenagers.

The Timeline Document link captures and shares some of the stories and contributions of the many participants that advocated for and delivered The Hybrid Loveseat, a large architectural intervention for James Street Luas Stop.

The contributing young artists were; Mary Branagan, Jessie Brown, Dearbhaile Butler, Aislinn Commerford, Aaron Finlay, Erta Kalemi, Aisling Long, Lorna Macmillan, Adrianna Madajewski, Sarah Moriarty, Graham Ray, Edel Salinger, Mary Warren, Jenny Warren and Robert West.