Magnus Modus
Magnus Modus was the winning proposal in a competition to create a site-specific artwork for the new courtyard of the National Gallery of Ireland. Designed to alter the visitors’ experience of the narrow triple-height space, Magnus Modus shapes new spaces within it, tracing shadows and delicate lines of movement across the courtyard. Drawing the viewer to move around and within the piece, the sculpture itself is not completely static, responding subtly to the flow of air and the movement of people.
Magnus Modus is the first continuous closed form in the Magnus series and moves between the controlled elements of the form which are massive and sculpted and the free-form elements that become delicate and light as the material starts to dictate the path and form. The sculpture reaches upwards and outwards in a continuous flowing motion, changing with the light as it ascends towards the sky.
- Year designed: 2017
- Materials: Olive ash
- Finish: White oil
- Dimensions: 7450 x 260.5 x 17750mm
- Edition of: Unique
About the Magnus series
"Magnus is a drawing in air, an idea – an emotion expressed through form that is serene or complex, created to engage with us in a physical and intuitive way." Joseph Walsh
The title Magnus, from the Latin for large or great, reflects the scale and presence of these sculptures which encircle the viewer and redefine the architecture of the spaces for which they are designed.
The series represents a challenge in innovation to transpose Joseph Walsh’s approach to material and form from the intimate scale of an object to hold in the hand to the monumental scale of an object to stand within. The grace and flow of the finished forms belies the complex process from sketch models to design development, prototyping and engineering through which they have been realised.
