Dublin’s new Spire of Light can mean everything or nothing—which is perhaps its principal attraction in this age of uncertainty. It is certainly unusual in having, by design, no practical function or commemorative purpose but Raymund Ryan hopes that it will, perhaps, act as metaphor for energy
Public monuments today must engage notions of democracy as well as of artistic excellence. With the dissolution of communal beliefs in political, religious and scientific hierarchies and with the concomitant, often discordant multiplicity of approach to all art forms, it is very rare indeed for one singular object to harness respect, affection or awe from a general populace. But such, in essence, is the task facing The Spire of Light now finally installed with considerable civic splendour in the middle of Dublin’s O’Connell Street (Figs 1 & 3)
