Lavery Ring

Gaelscoil an Ghoirt Álainn, is an Irish speaking primary school with lots of open spaces. We created “Ardán Banna Ceol”, a bold multi-coloured canopy resembling an emerging rainbow casting dramatic shadows onto this circular performance space with seating for 30 pupils.

“The figures with their arms outstretched are reminiscent of cut-out paper dolls. Hands morph into birds and butterflies that morph into books. These are all metaphors for the power of knowledge and learning.”

The aerodynamic structure, is made from polyester coated hot-dipped galvanised steel combined with Accoya wood seating and bolted together to give the piece strength, durability and stability to deal with the exposed weather conditions that the school experiences. The use of galvanised steel was also financialone, enabling us to realise our ambitions on a relatively small budget. The piece measures 3.4m x 3.4m x 2.4m high.

Photographs © Liam Lavery & Eithne Ring