I usually use the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max rather than the iPhone XR but the 12 Pro failed to charge overnight for some unknown reason.
During the last ten days I made three visits to the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham as I wanted to video a multi-media installation located in the courtyard but unfortunately no matter what equipment I have used, to date, I had problems with wind noise and unstable video because the equipment was hand-held but I feel that the iPhone XR produced better results that my Sony A7RIV. Next visit I will bring a tripod and a camcorder.
When I first saw this a few years ago it was suggested to me that it was not an art installation and that it was in fact part of an expensive ventilation system. As I liked these dark blocks I began to believe that it was a modern sculpture and then one day I saw a notice nearby indicating that it was “8 Limestones” by Ulrich Rückriem.
Ulrich Rückriem completed an apprenticeship as a stone mason in Düren from 1957 to 1959 and spent the following two years working as journeyman for the stonemason’s lodge at Cologne cathedral. During these years he also spent two semesters studying at the Cologne Werkschulen under Ludwig Gies. Rückriem travelled extensively through southern Europe, Morocco and Tunisia in 1962. After his return he decided to become a sculptor and settled in Nörvenich near Düren in 1963. He had his first one-man exhibition one year later at the Leopold-Hoesch Museum in Düren.
Rückriem developed his own working method in 1968. The working material and the working process are made the subject of the work by duplicating, splitting, reducing and slightly changing the original material. The sculptor moved to Mönchengladbach in 1969, where he shared a studio with Blinky Palermo in an old factory. His first exhibition with the new stone sculptures took place in the same year at the Galerie Konrad Fischer in Düsseldorf.
Rückriem’s work was much praised in the following years with important exhibitions, such as at the Haus Lange in Krefeld in 1970. Rückriem exhibited works at the documenta 5, 7, 8 and 9 in Kassel between 1972 and 1992. He was a professor of sculpture at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg from 1974 to 1984. Rückriem expanded his range of working materials at the end of the 1970s and began experimenting with granite, dolomite, wood and iron. He exhibited four split dolomites at the biennal in Venice in 1978. Ulrich Rückriem became professor of sculpture at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf in 1984 and then at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Frankfurt am Main in 1988. Today, the artist lives in Ireland. His self-reflective works in stone, iron and wood are an important contribution to process art.
THE ROYAL HOSPITAL KILMAINHAM – EXPLORING THE GROUNDS
Today I noticed a tent like structure when I visited the Royal Hospital Kilmainham and I had to ask what it was and I was directed to the following online description:
People’s Pavilion: As we adjust to living with Covid, the introduction of our attractively lit and heated People’s Pavilion is a new outdoor feature. Situated to the front of the historic 17th Century Royal Hospital Kilmainham building, this venue is ideal for any celebration. With a connection to a power source within the structure and resident caterers on standby, the blank canvas is perfectly adaptable for your customised occasion. To enquire about booking the People’s Pavilion for your celebration, workshop or event contact info@rhk.ie.
The Royal Hospital Kilmainham is a former 17th-century hospital at Kilmainham in Ireland. The structure now houses the Irish Museum of Modern Art.
A priory, founded in 1174 by Strongbow, existed on the site until the Crown closed it down in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s. The hospital was built as a home for retired soldiers of the Irish Army by Sir William Robinson, Surveyor General for James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, between 1679 and 1687. Colonel John Jeffreys of Brecon, an old Welsh soldier who had served the Crown loyally during the English Civil War, was appointed the first Master, at a salary of £300 per annum. The hospital got off to a bad start financially: from a petition presented by Jeffreys to King James II in 1686, it seems that most of the original sources of funding had dried up. Architecturally, it was inspired by Les Invalides in Paris which also has a formal facade and a large courtyard. It served as the model for the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, begun the next year.[4]
The Richmond Tower at the end of the formal avenue leading to the Royal Hospital was designed by Francis Johnston, one of the leading architects of the day. This gateway originally stood beside the river Liffey at Bloody Bridge (now Rory O’More Bridge), but had to be moved after the arrival of the railway in 1844 increased traffic congestion. He had placed his personal coat of arms above the arch, concealed by a piece of wood painted to match the stone, his idea being that his arms would be revealed to future generations after the wood became rotten. However, his little trick was uncovered when the gateway was taken down for removal. The coat of arms at present on the gateway is that of the Royal Hospital.
The Royal Hospital Kilmainham graveyards, including Bully’s Acre, are 400 metres to the west. A cross-shaft in the former cemetery may be the remains of a boundary cross associated with a ninth-century monastery located at this site.
Following the creation of the Irish Free State the Royal Hospital was considered as a potential home for Oireachtas Éireann, the new Irish national parliament. Eventually it was decided to keep parliament in its temporary home in Leinster House. The Hospital remained the home of a dwindling number of soldiers until it closed in 1927. It was then variously used by the Garda Síochána and as a storage location for property belonging to the National Museum of Ireland. The large statue Queen Victoria which used to stand in the forecourt of Leinster House, before its removal in 1947, was stored in the main courtyard of the Hospital, as were various state carriages, including the famously spectacular State Coach of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland. The Royal Hospital in Kilmainham was finally restored by the Irish Government in 1984 and opened as the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA).
Every year on the National Day of Commemoration – the Sunday nearest 11 July – the anniversary of the Truce that ended the Irish War of Independence – the President of Ireland, in the presence of members of the Government of Ireland, members of Dáil Éireann and of Seanad Éireann, the Council of State, the Defence Forces, the Judiciary and the Diplomatic Corps, lays a wreath in the courtyard in memory of all Irishmen and Irishwomen who have died in past wars and on service with the United Nations.
In recent years, Royal Kilmainham Hospital has become a popular location for concerts during the summer months. Acts such as Blur, Damien Rice, Tame Impala, Kodaline and Patti Smith have played there in the past.
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