The Family, Duleek

Irland

Meath County Council has recently commissioned a sculpture for Duleek Business park by the internationally renowned artist Maurice Harron following a public consultation and tender process. The Irish sculptor has created many public artworks since he set up his own studio in 1998 producing public and private large scale works in bronze, stainless steel, aluminium, stone and fiberglass. Many of his other famous pieces, such as The Gaelic Chieftain in Roscommon, have become a sought-after tourist destination, featuring in various tourist guidebooks. Called to create a work for the community of Duleek, Maurice Harron wanted something simple and direct, with no ambiguity or doubt as to its meaning. Therefore, his obvious choice was the family as a symbol that everyone can relate to at some level.

Year

2017

Lighting design

Enlighten, part of the Fantasy Lights Group

Project partner

Al Read, Al Read Electrical

This piece of roadside art, created by the Irish artist for Duleek village, is a 4.5 metre high sculpture featuring a family of two parents and three children, happily walking hand in hand in a green meadow. "The Family”, as this statue is called, is a group of 5 stainless steel figures built according to a technique very familiar to the artist. Owing to its peculiar structure made up of hundreds of rectangular and square pieces of stainless steel put together in an irregular way, "The Family” glitters and shimmers in the sunlight and now even at night, owing to a dedicated LED lighting system embedded around the basement of the artwork.

Warmly welcomed by the population, this eye-catching piece of art, erected on the mound at the entrance of Duleek village and funded by money donated by Indaver Ireland, now looks even more spectacular. The lighting was installed and commissioned by Al Read Electrical and designed by Fantasy Lights in cooperation with GRIVEN’s design department. Inserted in a specifically developed cement board located in front of and behind the statues, a series of DUNE MK2 in cold white colour configuration with wide optics, deliver a well distributed cool shade to the five figures. Now, they stand out magnificently in the dark, shining in a pleasant contrast with the warm street lighting of the precinct.

DUNE MK2 W is a super compact white LEDs fixture, engineered for exterior recessed applications. Fitted with the highest precision technology, the 20 LEDs utilized have been coupled with the most effective optics to give an extremely homogeneous white light output. The unit can be customized with a wide choice of lenses to suit additional requirements of alternative beam creations, always preserving the highest luminous efficacy. DUNE W MK2 is available in both cold and warm colour temperature white light versions to meet any design specification. Featuring an IP67 weather protection rating and a 2000 kg deadweight load capacity, DUNE W MK2 is suitable for ground mounting applications even in vehicled areas.