Garrett Phelan has installed an arcing mantra in industrial steel on the roof of Temple Bar Gallery and Studios. The new work is highly visible from Temple Bar Square and the surrounding streets.

As part of its 30th anniversary celebrations, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios commissioned Phelan to make this large-scale public artwork, which was funded entirely on-line by public donations through Fund:it, the crowd-funding platform.

Phelan’s artistic background harnesses the power of communication; pulling apart the discourse of religious and political institutions and reconfiguring them to create something new. This work is no different. For three years from 2013, this new sculptural work, which is made in painted mild steel and measures 560 cms by 280 cms, is set to become a new, and temporary, landmark for the city, broadcasting its ambivalent message: OUR UNION ONLY IN TRUTH.

The text ‘Our Union Only in Truth’ appears in Phelan’s work since 2003 with the idea of the arch occurring to him while driving his son to school over the Rathmines Bridge and passing other arches at St Mary’s School and throughout Dublin’s urban geography. In a tongue-in-cheek way, the slogan plays upon the kind of structures and religious orders prevalent in Garrett’s youth growing up in Dublin, with the motto of ‘Our Union Only in Truth’ having a preacher-type ring to it.

www.garrettphelan.com