UP!UP!UP!

UP!UP!UP!, 2011

installation-performance
acrylic paint on canvas, 200×300 cm; canvas on wooden platform, acrylic paint, Ø 300 cm; fine art print, 13 pieces, each 20×30 cm; song, 1’58’’

After Nelson’s Pillar in Dublin was blown up in 1966, Go Lucky Four wrote a song called “Up Went Nelson” which was at the number one spot in Ireland for eight consecutive weeks. Forty-five years after the destruction of Nelson’s Pillar, Dublin’s Spire, which is officially known as the “Monument of Light,” was erected in the same spot. With this installation the artists repeat the act of Go Lucky Four and write a new song for the Spire, by using the construction and the melody of the song Up Went Nelson. The work consists of four parts: a one-to-one scale portrait of the Spire as a monochrome painting, a circle platform in the size of the bottom part of the Spire, a historical timeline and a new song.

Installation view; Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin
photos: Günyol & Kunt

UP!UP!UP!
-Chorus-
Up Up Spire in new Dublin
Up Up Spire in new Dublin
All along O’Connell Street I split the sky
And old Nelson passed on its place to spire.

One early morning in the year 2002,
Construction has started for the view of the future.
They thought O’Connell Street had gone into decline
So, they started to redesign it and erected the Spire.
-Chorus-
All people have come from miles around
To see the Irish spire splitting the sky
The Dublin Corporation had the fund to have me done
And I will watch over you like a God, God, God
-Chorus-
A crowd of lads and lassies from a dance nearby came out
To see the pieces of future erected all about
The TV man says the spire will rise all around
Take care in case it flies up up up!
-Chorus-
And old Nelson passed on its place to spire.