above: Linen "bleachgreens", circa 1870
   
The twin gantry cranes Sampson and Goliath are functional icons of Belfast’s once-dominant shipbuilding industry.  They stand over thirty stories tall, looming over the Harland and Wolff shipyard and one of the world’s largest dry-docks. They a
The gantry cranes are rarely commissioned to work on a large vessel, rather they can spend months, sometimes years, sitting unused.  The dormant cranes frame a unique, massive void. 
“Loom” reworks that void with a hanging lattice, descending to the surface below in a half-catenary curve that is moored to the earth by a living garden.  The lattice is designed to be easily removed and reinstalled in the event of a commission
The lattice is composed of strips of woven, jute, erosion-control fabric. These are anchored by mounds of earth seeded in alternating rows with yellow-flowering rape-seed and blue-flowering flax, two crops that evoke Northern Ireland’s transformatio
Belfast is a city in rebirth after decades of sectarian strife. In recent years, the city has worked to reconstitute urban spaces, soften barriers that once separated antagonists, and create a new civic iconography.  Some of these efforts have
HWTRIO1.png
prev / next