Alex Pentek

Title: Tigh Molaga

Year of Installation: 2000
Dimensions: 1m x 2m
Medium: Oak
Location: Timoleague, Co. Cork
Details of Commission: Commissioned by Cork County Council in 1999 with funding from the Per Cent for Art Scheme and erected in 2000 in the coastal village of Timoleague.  Tigh Molaga continues the theme established by sculptor Alex Pentek with 'An Caiteach', sited the previous year at nearby Rathbarry.  The piece is sited at the junction of Mill Street and Main Street, in a little square known as 'The Cross'.  Both Tigh Molaga and An Caiteach contain direct references to the growing of wheat, an important part of the agriculture of the area.  Tigh Molaga (the house of Molaga) also refers to the founding of Timoleague Monastery in the 7th century.  The artist has incorporated three elements into the work:  a lighted candle, a sheaf of wheat and a wave.  According to legend, St. Molaga, a much-travelled disciple of David of Wales and a noted bee-keeper, was unable to find a suitable site on which to build a church.  Eventually, he placed a candle on a sheaf of wheat and let it float down the Argidin River.  The sheaf of wheat was carried ashore at present day Timoleague, marking the place he was to found his church.  By the 14th century a large franciscan monastery had grown around the early monastic settlement.  This was destroyed in the 17th century and is now a ruin.  St. Molaga is also associated with Kildorrery and Labbamolaga, both near Mithelstown, and Lann Beachaire, near Balbriggan in North Co. Dublin.

The elements in the sculpture refer also to the local tradition of divining by lighting a candle and placing it on floating straw.  According to the artist, in his research prior to making the  work he found that this method of divining had been used locally in recent years to locate the body of a man on Driminidy Lake outside Drimoleague, through floating a lighted torch on a bale of hay.

The sculpture, carved from a large piece of oak, is emblematic.  The artist has deliberately adopted a simple style of carving so as to highlight the three motifs incorporated into the work: the candle, with its boldly carved flames, set on a sheaf of wheat, which in turn is carried on the crest of a wave, symbolised by three carved scrolls. 

Title: Fern

Year of Installation:
Dimensions:
Medium: Bronze
Location: , Co Cork
Details of Commission: Commissioned by Cork County Council with funding from the Per Cent for Art Scheme.

Title: Hand

Year of Installation:
Dimensions:
Medium:
Location: Co Cork
Details of Commission: Commissioned by Cork County Council with funding from the Per Cent for Art Scheme.

Title: An Caiteach

Year of Installation: 1999
Dimensions: 250 x 200cms
Medium: Steel and bronze
Location: Rathbarry, Co Cork
Details of Commission: Commissioned by Cork County Council with funding from the Per Cent for Art Scheme and sited in a grassy area at the centre of the road junction, this sculpture was unveiled on May 1st 1999.  An inscribed stone set into the cobbles which form the base for the sculpture describes how this was a 'winnowing place'.  Before the invention of winnowing machines or combine harvesters, people gathered at this crossroads at harvest time to separate, by hand, the grain from the chaff.  The artist, Alex Pentek, responded to the history of the area, andd also sensed the pride that is felt locally in its agricultural history.  As he put it: "Keeping this piece of local hostory alive seemed important to me, as did my talking to people in the village.  This way I have made something significant for the residents of Rathbarry.'

Unlike most of the other Per Cent for Art sculptures in the county, his work is an integration of a functional design with an aesthetic concept.  The sculpture takes the form of three scythes, standing upside down, with the three blades pointing outwards in different directions.  These black-painted blades form signposts.  One blade is a signpost to Clonakilty,  another to Galley Head and Red Strand, and the third points towards Ownahincha and Rosscarbery. Beneath the black-painted reapers are three stylised sheaves of corn, cast in bronze.  Rather in the style of an 18th-century vignette, the sculpture serves both as a functional marker and also embodies a vision of plenty.  The sheaves of corn symbolise the fertility of the soil, the scythes the abundance created through agriculture.  This sculpture is entirely appropriate to West cork and also surprisingly practical as a road sign. 

Artist Bio:  Alex Pentek was born in Bantry, Co. Cork in 1973. He graduated from Crawford College of Art and Design as Cork Arts Society Student of the Year in 1996.  Since then he has been creating sculpture for public and private commission at his studio at Rathpeacon in Co. Cork and on a numberof artists residencies.  He also has extensive experience in teaching and facilitating workshops.

Alex Pentek's work has featured in solo exhibitions and group shows including"Happy Accidents" at the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork (As featured in Circa, The Irish Arts Magazine), "Hush Hush Hush" at the Engine Room gallery, Belfast and "C2" at the Crawford Municicpal Gallery, an exhibition celebrating the opening of Cork's tenure as European Capital of Culture for 2005.

Artist Email: vbap@eircom.net