Announcing: A New Public Art Commission by Aideen Barry

Today, the 100^th anniversary of Bloomsday, sees the launch of Aideen Barry’s new public art commission for Szombathely, Hungary. 

The mural is inspired by the third chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses and based on a 17th Century etching of the Greek god Proteus by Erasmus Finx . Proteus is chosen as a multiform, trans / non-binary protagonist. The figure references the in-between state of a being – transforming and yet simultaneously being both, many and one thing, on a journey of self-discovery. 

The Augmented Reality element has gone live today for the 100^th anniversary of Bloomsday.

A few words from artist Aideen Barry
I have taken inspiration from the stream of consciousness text of Stephen Dedalus: both the form of his narration of thought, and also the manifestation of Stephen as a nod to Telemachus (The Odyssey), and James Joyce’s alter ego. The mural, too, takes multiple-forms, transforming and mutating, through experimental and cutting-edge moving image and Augmented Reality (AR) technology. It is both visible as one form or modality and yet invisible and revealed in an another.

A few words from Sara Greavu, Curator of Visual Arts
We are thrilled to have been involved in this commissioning process – along with the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy in Hungary and the city of Szombathely – and to have worked with Aideen Barry to support her to realise this ambitious artwork. This Bloomsday, we have an opportunity to celebrate the powerful social and cultural connections that can be made through art and artists.

Supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Embassy of Hungary and the City of Szombathely