The Spike
- This topic has 979 replies, 111 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 1 month ago by
.
- Posts
Originally posted by shadow
Also was there a news item on eircom.net yesterday regarding the instability of the spire in high winds?The Indo group stung twice by fraudsters in one year.
From ‘the taking of Christ’ by Carravagio to the taking of the piss by Morlan.
Originally posted by Diaspora
The Indo group stung twice by fraudsters in one year.
From ‘the taking of Christ’ by Carravagio to the taking of the piss by Morlan.
😎 More to come…
Hmm.. this thread is 59 pages long – I wonder why.
If this is the place for people to say what they think of the spike, I just want to say I don’t really think it deserves the amount of money they spent on it. It’s meaningless, unless it is meant to be a guide for lost people. Too bad it didn’t exist when I first came to Dublin and got lost in that area and nearly cried.
its meaning is that we no longer need our monuments with meaning; it symbolizes our liberation from symbolism. it is also useful for giving directions and not really so expensive and, if it stops people crying, it was money well spent.
The white lights are back on ….and it shines like diamonds in the sky (with lucy maaan!)
That orange sodium street light looked shite.It’s now brighter than it’s ever been.
Also, if you stand directly underneath it now when it’s dark, it appears that there are dozens and dozens of little lights shining out.
That’s the first time that I’ve seen that effect, which was obviously the original intention of the perforated tip.The Spire is “meaningless”: what a tired old saw that has become. Why the hell does it have to mean anything or do you, BulldozerGirl, need to have a plaque at the bottom of every monument to explain what it’s all about?
I’ve seen the full FOI file on the Spire. There were hot and heavy exchanges between Dublin-London, architects-contractors over how things were being done. Nothing to do with the design, though. They were minor rows about where to put slabs and why engineers weren’t turning up on time.;)
Please elaborate Sue!
The base is still so so disappointing, I hate it even more than I did at the time of unveiling.
It’s so rubbish, so messy, so lazy.And as for the stupid stupid line of discolouration just over the peeled Sellotape effect – why, why, why? It’s as if Ritchie decided that he had to acknowledge where it reaches street level, and so drew a straight line around three storeys up.
It’s so crass, so inappropriate, disruptiing the entire flow of the sculpture to the ground.
It’s the equivilant of bricking up the bottom 10 storeys of the Eiffel Tower to acknowledge the city’s skyline, and the fact that people on the ground can see that part of it up close.Why go to the effort of building such a massive structure, only to make the only part of the surface clearly visible from street level so crude and hugely disappointing.
It would be 100 times better to simply have continued the shot-peening down to the ground, creating a clasically elegant, simple design.Sue – I have the right to think and say that the spike is meaningless just as you have the right to think and say that I shouldn’t think and say the spike is meaningless.
Graham Hickey – I agree that the bottom part of the spike looks very bad. When I first saw it I thought it was damaged – then I thought it might be an engraving sort of thing of the map of the world or something, but I saw it was just a strange-looking thing.
Graham Hickey, i have always liked the design at the bottom, but agree that the line of discoloration is a huge problem, it detracts alot from the spike when you are close to it. is it always going to be like that, or, when the whole thing is cleaned, will it look better, without the obvious line?
Wasn’t it that people first thought that the discolouration was the result pollution affecting the top part while the bottom part was still wrapped up – but then it was confirmed that the line was in fact a deliberate design feature?
Considering it’s been up for over a year, somehow I think if it was pollution causing it, it would have mellowed by now as the bottom part was only wrapped up for a few weeks!Graham, the Spike should not be observed so
closely, it looks very cool and the designs at the bottom part are nice.Are we to cast our eyes away from it then as we near it, or worse, when we actually pass right past it?
As always it’s about opinion and taste etc, but still – havn’t met a single person who likes it yet…
I remember the first time I was with someone who was seeing it for the first time, he laughed and laughed and laughed.
I just cried.On a lighter note, the tip lighting looks great – at last! The 5 or 6 joins that were evident previously in the light are much less noticable now, it looks really good against a darkening deep blue sky.
They should just admit whatever effect they were going for at ground level didn’t work and give the base the same finish as the rest. I wonder can it be ‘shot-peened’ in place?
I agree fully – Surely theres bound to be some way to “fix” what was so obviously a poor idea executed incredibly badly. I’m quite fond of the spire as a whole and I’m sure it’ll look fantastic for years to come when all the lighting issues are finally resolved, particularly the general floodlighting. However the base section is a failure that has soured the entire scheme for many. The “patterning” is vile, the change in colour even worse. There MUST be some way to re-do it.
In the last few days I have read two newspaper articles where Frank McDonald refers to the essay about the Spire by Aaron Betsky which was linked to the AAI exhibition. Is this essay in the annual AAI publication or does anyone know where I could read it?
Thanks
Phil
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
