‘Obedientia Civium Urbis Felicitas’
700 x 500mm
High quality digital print by Hang Tough, with hand-pulled gold screen print overlay.
Edition of 20
Signed by the artist
The heraldic motto of Dublin is about as wide of the mark as you can get. Dublin citizens were never inclined towards obedience, even at their happiest. The burning castles’ meaning are debated. Including the metaphorical suggestion that the flames represent the zeal of Dubliners. I opted to lean into the idiosyncratic branding of the city, but formally guided by the proportions of the canvas. I’m old enough to remember the skyline of the city without the chimneys. That they are now redundant heritage artefacts, and popular contemporary brand of the city just reinforces that the city is an ever-evolving reflection’s of the people who live here, and their unmediated engagement with their city
A reproduction of the one-off original on wooden artist’s panel, commissioned for the group exhibition ‘Dublin is’ in the Teelings distillery in December 2022. Limited edition digital print versions of each exhibit were produced, and I added a further screen printed gold layer to more accurately capture the gilding in the original.
