Winston Churchill never said it but the “quotation” has grown legs over the last few years and I’m sure he would have been happy to have spoken the words. The story (the false story!) is that at some stage during the second world war, it was suggested to Churchill that funding for the arts should be cut and diverted to the war effort and that he replied, “Then, what are we fighting for?”
My “is it worth it?” came this morning as I was preparing a large number of photographs for this post, adding captions to each so that they would be more informative to readers, and I wondered if it was worth the bother. The connection with Churchill was that the photographs were of art pieces, a collection of sculpture exhibits in the grounds of the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin. We go up each year to the exhibition as we enjoy it very much and the sculptures add another dimension to the gardens. So, I do consider it worth the effort, the effort of going to see the works and also that little bother of captioning the photographs to show them here. These sculptures give us pleasure, they amuse us, they astound us with their beauty, their imagination and their workmanship, and they surprise us with their lack of beauty at times but they are worthwhile and worth the effort.
Some views of the gardens:
“Sculpture in Context 2021” hosted works from 140 artists, a total of 164 pieces with most of these placed in the grounds – a number are indoors and it was necessary to book a slot to visit these because of Covid 19 restrictions. We stayed outdoors and, while I don’t think we saw every piece, I believe we saw a good number of what was on view – one has to stop and admire the plants also or have a chat when we bump into a friend.
I have organised my photographs into a slideshow for ease of viewing and should explain that I photographed every work that I came on but haven’t included all here and that omission is because I wasn’t happy with my photography and felt it didn’t do justice to the artist. I hope you enjoy them and if you wish to visit you must you must do so before the 15th of this month.
A selection from Sculpture in Context 2021:
Paddy Tobin, An Irish Gardener 
I had forgotten about this – I usually try to go. And thank you for all your hard work captioning them! It was worth it. As usual a rather mixed bag but great to see them and some are thought-provoking.
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Yes, I always feel there is a very mixed bag and wonder how the exhibits are chosen. I wondered if it some were an end-of-year project for some college students as there is a huge disparity between the quality, some obviously very expensive to produce and others made from found items, cheaper materials etc.
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Hope to get there and now inspired!
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Thank you for the virtual visit! Cant decide if my favourite is the Souls of Trees or the wonderful badger 😊
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Contemplation, Cone, Coxea, Polished Growth and Girl with Cat really appealed to me, especially Contemplation – made with copper plumping pipe!
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Thanks for the photographs and captions a virtual tour, sitting on the sofa !!
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Thanks, I think it was worth it. What an interesting visit and a beautiful setting!
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Thanks Paddy, well worth all the hard work with the photos and annotating. A great selection, though not sure how many one would be tempted to shoehorn into one’s own garden. Finances permitting! But definitely Contemplation a superb work, all the better for using recycled materials,
Best wishes
Julian
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Yes, very few would be welcomed home!
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Wonderful, I could happily spend a whole day wandering between these sculptures. If only…
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It adds greatly to the gardens and was a very pleasant way to spend the day. We haven’t gone back to having lunch as part of our days out but hope we will reach this stage soon.
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There is nothing more frustrating to me than seeing a piece of art with no name attached. So I appreciate all you work. And I especially enjoyed the fact that you included materials. Many of them were not what I expected.
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It’s always an interesting exhibition and we go every years. Some are not to my taste but there are always a few which are very beautiful.
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That should be “all of your work.”
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A great virtual visit to a lovely sculpture exhibition. We went to one earlier this year but it wasn’t a patch on this one. Thanks Paddy.
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Much appreciated. Gardens and sculptures can complement each other as seen at Little Sparta, YSP, Jupiter Artland, and Barbara Hepworth’s studio in St Ives.
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This is an annual event at the botanic gardens and certainly adds wonderfully to the gardens at that time.
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