Declan Breen

Title: His Master's Voice

Year of Installation: 1998
Dimensions: Man - 180cms, Dog - 65cms, Pipes - 180x200cms
Medium: Man and Dog, cast silicon bronze. Pipes, standard concrete drainage pipes
Location: Belgooly, Co. Cork
Details of Commission:  Commissioned by Cork County Council with funding from the Per Cent for Art scheme as part of the rebuilding of the two bridges on the R600 road to Kinsale where it passes over the Belgooly river.  The form of the sculpture is very simple.  The artist has utilised four sections of very large diameter concrete pipe, and has placed these sections side by side, facing the road.  On top of one of the pipes stands the bronze figure of a man.  Inside one of the pipes is the bronze figure of a dog.  Both bronze figures have been patinated so that they are white, and thus blend in with the white concrete of the pipes.  The artist explains how he came to conceive the work: 'At the site meeting I was very taken with the large concrete pipes, five feet in diameter, used to create temporary bridges.  I was keen to use them for a number of reasons.  It was a way of raising the figure off the ground, using them as a plinth.  They also have a strong formal shape and rhythm, and they have a found-object quality to them, being the sort of thing one sees at the side of the road, and I thought to use this in an unusual and amusing way.' Of the four sites that were availablwe to place his sculpture, Breen chose the old quarry site because he felt that it formed a natural amphitheatre, and he felt also that the trees behind the quarry would serve to highlight the sculpture in the foreground.

Artist Bio: As a student, Declan Breen alternated between academic and practical subjects, studying law for three years at University College Dublin and then enrolling in a welding and metal-fabrication course run by Anco.  As a result of his interest in art, he attended night classes at the National College of Art and Design, before studying sculpture full-time at NCAD between 1975 and 1979.  He is a founder and director of the Wexford Sculpture Workshops, and is also on the board of  Wexford Arts Centre.  He has participated in many exhibitions in Ireland.  Most of his commissions have been in the Wexford area; the public sculpture in Belgooly is his only public work in Cork.

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