Value for Taxprayers Money
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| Artist Name(s) | Nevan Lahart |
| Artwork title | Value for Taxprayers Money |
| Context/Background | The work Value for Taxprayers Money consists of 49 temporary sign paintings and two temporary sculptures in various public sites around Sligo town. Street railings, signposts fences and hoardings were used to hang the paintings. |
| Description | The artist set up studio in a vacant pub in the centre of town. The paintings took the form of street signage. The subject matter was based on the artist’s response to the previous decade of prosperity and the very recent, 2008, economic downturn and financial crisis. One of the sculpture’s was a 3D line drawing of a skip, firstly located on a memorial plinth mounted on roof of the artist’s car and latterly ‘de-plinthed’ and placed on a weir in the river. The second sculpture, Debt Raft was made from common building materials such as plastic pipe, a wheelbarrow and faux building bricks. The Raft was moored in the river. All works are documented here. |
| Mediation | The artist opened his studio to young people on the Young Model programme and made a number of temporary sculptures with them. The local press featured a number of the sign paintings. |
| Biographies | |
| Commission Type | Local Authority |
| Commissioner Name | Sligo Borough Council |
| Commissioning process | Selected to join a panel and invited to submit a proposal for an unspecified site. |
| Project commission dates | June 30, 2008 - August 31, 2008 |
| Public Presentation dates | July 31, 2008 - January 1, 1970 |
| Artform | Visual Arts |
| Percent for art | Yes |
| Budget Range | 10000 - 30000 euro |
| Project commission start date | 30/06/2008 |
| Project commission end date | 31/08/2008 |
| Location | Garavogue River and multi-site Sligo Town |
| County | Sligo |
| Website | nevanlahart.com/taxprayersmoney/sligo0.html |
| Content contributor(s) | Mary McDonagh |
| Relationship to project | Public Art Office, Sligo County Council |
| Public engagement | Members of the Young Model programme and the general public |
| Associated professionals / Specialists involved | Artists, Terry Blake and Thomas Marcus Schumann |