THIRD BRIDGE 2015

 

1983-2015

Responding to spaces of representation, Third Bridge Project presented notions of fictional spaces parodying the mythical Yellow Brick Road presented in the film adaptation of Baums’ The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The collective’s intervention into public space in the city manifested in a spectacular bridge, connecting two opposing flagstones sited on opposing banks of the Shannon River. The artists succeeded in suspending the bridge, constructed of Styrofoam and nylon rope, painted yellow, spanning 185 meters over the expanse of the river. The construction of the bridge exposed many complexities. How to temporarily navigate and interrupt public space, thereby raising questions regarding the challenges of physical constructing an art-object in the public sphere? The intended outcome not only proposed to challenged the failure of city governance on reaching a consensus on the new bridge in the timeline, 1983 (the Shannon Bridge was finally completed in 1989, fourteen years after the first Bridge Order was submitted in 1975), but it also amplified a call to action, a protest in relation to the community’s right to participate in local planning. The aim in connecting two specific spaces, crossing boundaries and highlighting the current spatial politics in 1983 also exemplified best practice in socially engaged art.