As part of Trinity’s Green Week, College invited artists to submit sustainable sculptures to be exhibited around campus. Submissions were open to artists all over Ireland, and the sculptures had to be outdoor based. The sustainably crafted art installations could be viewed for the duration of the week on Front Square, inside the Hamilton, in the Physics garden, in the rose garden, in the Dining Hall entrance, by the Book of Kells, beside the cricket pitch, and outside the Pav. The exhibition centred around sustainability in art and featured 19 sculptures overall.
On Friday a panel of independent judges selected the winners. The first-place prize went to Dublin artist, Ann Ensor, for her Eco Shelter by the Cricket Pitch. This interactive sculpture encourages people to stand underneath to appreciate the ‘woven life found in our everyday living’. The sculpture is made of sustainable materials such as animal hair and seaweed, inviting people to acknowledge their shared space with other natural entities. Maria McSweeney won second place with ‘Submerged Mythos’, a body of work that highlighted the threats facing aqua ecosystems and waterways. Tara Keegan’s colourful ‘On the Inside’ won third place.
The exhibition was an exciting introduction to environmental art during Green Week and allowed artists to showcase their impactful sculptures to tourists, staff, and students. Each sculpture was evocative in its message, with some installed to blend into the environment and others designed to stand out. As an art practice, environmental art connects nature and the environment with social issues and climate activism. It often portrays the cohesiveness of our lives in nature and provokes thought on environmental harmony and collaboration. Many of the sculptures around the campus exemplified this and showed the potential of a future in sustainable art. One of the objectives of Green Week was to raise awareness for sustainability, and these sculptures succeeded in impacting students and raising concern for current climate issues.
In Trinity’s Sustainable Strategy, College aims to address climate change in a ‘holistic, integrated and health-focused way’. The exhibition of sustainable sculptures allowed important issues regarding biodiversity loss and the climate crisis to be expressed through art. As well as conveying significant issues, the sculptures also lit up the campus with colour and innovation, something that will hopefully reappear in future College initiatives.
