THE LONE ASH PROJECT
Drumhillagh
County Cavan
Ireland
The Lone Ash (2024) Brendan Jamison,
wax over bamboo, 120 x 600 x 800 cm
Installed at Drumhillagh,
County Cavan, Ireland
Photography © Brendan Jamison 2024
The Lone Ash (2024) Brendan Jamison,
wax over bamboo, 120 x 600 x 800 cm
Installed at Drumhillagh,
County Cavan, Ireland
Photography © Brendan Jamison 2024
The Lone Ash (2024) Brendan Jamison,
wax over bamboo, 120 x 600 x 800 cm
Installed at Drumhillagh,
County Cavan, Ireland
Photography © Brendan Jamison 2024
On May 27, 2024, the Unites States Memorial Day, Brendan Jamison created an outdoor sculpture at Drumhillagh in County Cavan, Ireland. The artwork is in memory of the children who have died in school shootings across America. Made with 1,500 bamboo sticks, they are individually dipped in candle wax over three weeks. The wax is melted in large stock pots, then oil paint is poured in, mixed thoroughly, an intensity of color is absorbed by the liquid wax, strengthening the material, before 30 layers of wax coating is applied to each length of bamboo. The undulating sculpture begins at the base of the ash tree with elements at 4 feet high (120 cm) and meanders down the slope to smaller rods at 1 feet high (30 cm).
Jamison states,
"Following an invitation in August 2023 to tackle the heavy subject matter of mass shootings in the USA, the Lone Ash Project is the first in a series of memorial sculptures for children, aimed at raising awareness as a 'call to action' to do everything in our power to try to prevent such horrific events continuing to traumatize local communities across America.
Each wax element can symbolize the vibrant energetic spirit of a young victim, once full of the joys of Spring, embracing the wonders of the world, before the act of brutal barbaric bloodshed. Now each little spirit flows like a river of souls from a weeping ash tree".
Chosen for its spiritual associations, the material of wax is used in many different religions throughout the world, often as an aid to prayer. In the context of this sculpture, the intensity of color can also reference childhood play through bright-colored toys and candy.
The artist chose the Ash for its ancient symbolism as a sheltering tree for healing and regeneration. It features in Norse mythology as 'Yggdrasil', an evergreen tree that drinks from three magical springs. It also appears in Italian folklore and was used in magic rituals in Britain during pagan times. In the Summer months, grazing cows rest in the shade of the tree, protected from the heat of the midday Sun. Outstretched like protective arms, the branches envelop anyone who sits beneath it. The tree produces 'helicopter seeds' or 'keys' which are popular with children as they throw the seeds in the air and watch the rotations float to the ground.
The artist extends his sincere gratitude to the owner of the land, who not only granted permission at the site, but also offered wonderful insight into the history and geography of the area. On the set-up day, he volunteered enormous energy and enthusiasm for all the tasks, making the entire project run so smoothly. The Cavan landscape is beautiful, and this particular hill, distinctive with its gentle ash, captivates the imagination as it radiates a magic aura.
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Please note, the first wave of this project in Ireland has been completely self-funded by the artist. It is 100% not-for-profit, non-commercial and no items are for sale. |
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The Lone Ash (2024) Brendan Jamison,
wax over bamboo, 120 x 600 x 800 cm
Installed at Drumhillagh,
County Cavan, Ireland
Photography © Brendan Jamison 2024
The Lone Ash (2024) Brendan Jamison,
wax over bamboo, 120 x 600 x 800 cm
Installed at Drumhillagh,
County Cavan, Ireland
Photography © Brendan Jamison 2024
Video still of the artist installing
The Lone Ash (2024) Brendan Jamison,
wax over bamboo, 120 x 600 x 800 cm
Installed at Drumhillagh,
County Cavan, Ireland
Photography © Brendan Jamison 2024
artist installing
The Lone Ash (2024) Brendan Jamison,
wax over bamboo, 120 x 600 x 800 cm
Installed at Drumhillagh,
County Cavan, Ireland
Photography © Brendan Jamison 2024
The Lone Ash (2024) Brendan Jamison,
wax over bamboo, 120 x 600 x 800 cm
Installed at Drumhillagh,
County Cavan, Ireland
Photography © Brendan Jamison 2024
The Lone Ash (2024) Brendan Jamison,
wax over bamboo, 120 x 600 x 800 cm
Installed at Drumhillagh,
County Cavan, Ireland
Photography © Brendan Jamison 2024
The Lone Ash (2024) Brendan Jamison,
wax over bamboo, 120 x 600 x 800 cm
Installed at Drumhillagh,
County Cavan, Ireland
Photography © Brendan Jamison 2024
The Lone Ash (2024) Brendan Jamison,
wax over bamboo, 120 x 600 x 800 cm
Installed at Drumhillagh,
County Cavan, Ireland
Photography © Brendan Jamison 2024
The Lone Ash (2024) Brendan Jamison,
wax over bamboo, 120 x 600 x 800 cm
Installed at Drumhillagh,
County Cavan, Ireland
Photography © Brendan Jamison 2024
May 28, 2024:
Reflections on the sculpture from an art lover at the site:
The South Ulster drumlin belt is what geographers used to call 'a basket of eggs landscape', a pile-up of tiny hills nowhere denser than in East Cavan where they are also interspersed with small lakes (loughs).
Add to this the time of year which the artist seized on, when the landscape erupts in the white May blossom of the hawthorn hedges, when a natural phenomenon attains cultural significance in its continual suggestion of renewal and rebirth. This is the starting point in the artist’s thinking towards a larger artwork, the Lone Ash sculpture begins a project to commemorate children who are victims of gun crime. The intervention of Jamison’s wax components adds permanence to the ephemeral nature of landscape. Although wax has been a favored medium in many of Jamison’s sculptures, here we are reminded of its use since time immemorial as an aid to prayer in cultures worldwide. Similarly the artist’s characteristic employment of bright color suggests the unsullied eye of children for all that is bright, immediate and life-enhancing, the intuitive grasp for the sunlit colors of toys or candy which by age and experience and received taste is tamed and attenuated in adulthood.
But the photographs of the installation still draw on artists’, and particularly poets’, traditional use of Maytime to ameliorate our confrontation with mortality. This is when Shakespeare in Sonnet 18, finds that ‘rough winds do shake the darling buds of May’, and concludes that ‘thy eternal summer shall not fade, Nor shall Death brag thou wanders’t in thy shade, When in eternal lines in time thou growest'.
In this primary deployment of the mythic Tree of Life we are reminded of the recent worldwide dismay caused by the criminal felling of another lone tree, the Sycamore Gap Tree on Hadrian’s Wall, on the same latitude as these hills. By coincidence, on the same day as the installation of the Lone Ash sculpture, the first seeding raised from the Sycamore was presented to King Charles III. Nature continually mirrors our anxieties and offers repose, while the experience of life reinforces the veracity of myth.
Jamison offers no direction to comfort in grief but draws on cultural responses from the pantheistic to the spiritual and religious and the nuances between. He has long offered in his work a seeming playfulness taken with extreme seriousness. His approach to a very heavy subject, the forced and unsolicited taking of life from those in the springtime of their lives, is with a very light touch. This is fitting. The lightest touch in life is afterall the breath of life itself.
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