Rowan Fergus Meredith Gillespie (born 1953) is an Irish

bronze casting Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) ...

sculptor of international renown. Born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

to Irish parents, Gillespie spent his formative years in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

. From conception to creation, he works alone in his purpose-built

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

Clonlea Clonlea or Clonleigh () is a civil parish in County Clare, Ireland. The main settlement is the village of Kilkishen. It is part of the Catholic parish of O'Callaghans Mills. Location Clonlea is in the barony of Tullagh. It is to the north o ...

, in

Blackrock BlackRock, Inc. is an American multi-national investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with trill ...

. This is one of the things that make him unique among the bronze casting community. Influenced by the sculptor

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Mo ...

and the painter

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, '' The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the d ...

,Kohn (2007), pp. 13 and 95 Gillespie uses the

lost wax casting Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is ...

process to portray human emotions. Having worked almost exclusively on site specific art since 1996, Gillespie's public works can be found in his native Ireland,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, the United States, and Canada.

Background

His father, Jack Gillespie, was a medical doctor and his mother, Moira, was the daughter of

James Creed Meredith James Creed Meredith, KC (28 November 1875 – 14 August 1942) was an Irish judge who served as a Judge of the Supreme Court from 1937 to 1942 and a Judge of the High Court from 1924 to 1937. He was best known as a nationalist of the early ...

, the translator of

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

Critique of Judgement The ''Critique of Judgment'' (german: Kritik der Urteilskraft), also translated as the ''Critique of the Power of Judgment'', is a 1790 book by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Sometimes referred to as the "third critique," the ''Critique o ...

Supreme Court of Ireland , image = Coat of arms of Ireland.svg , imagesize = 120px , alt = , caption = Coat of Arms of Ireland , image2 = Four Courts, Dublin 2014-09-13.jpg , imagesize2 = , alt2 ...

Judge, and member of the

Irish Volunteers The Irish Volunteers ( ga, Óglaigh na hÉireann), sometimes called the Irish Volunteer Force or Irish Volunteer Army, was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists and republicans. It was ostensibly formed in respon ...

movement. According to Gillespie's official biographer Roger Kohn, the sculptor's work, ''Proclamation'', situated across the road from

Kilmainham Gaol Kilmainham Gaol ( ga, Príosún Chill Mhaighneann) is a former prison in Kilmainham, Dublin, Ireland. It is now a museum run by the Office of Public Works, an agency of the Government of Ireland. Many Irish revolutionaries, including the l ...

in Dublin, was created in memory of both the

Proclamation of the Irish Republic A proclamation (Lat. ''proclamare'', to make public by announcement) is an official declaration issued by a person of authority to make certain announcements known. Proclamations are currently used within the governing framework of some nations ...

and of his grandfather's dream of a Utopian society.Kohn (2007), p. 152

Education and career

At age seven, he was sent to boarding school in England, although the family remained in Cyprus until he was ten. In 1969, he attended York School of Art where he was first introduced to the

lost-wax casting Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is ...

process by the bronze sculptor Sally Arnup. Here he also met his wife to be, Hanne, who runs the Clonlea Yoga Studio in Blackrock. In 1970, he attended Kingston College of Art where he was tutored by woodcarver John Robson and through whom he met, and was encouraged by,

. Following his studies at York and Kingston, he completed his studies at the Statens Kunstole in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

. He lectured for three years at the

Munch Museum Munch Museum ( no, Munch-museet), marketed as Munch (stylised as MUNCH) since 2020, is an art museum in Bjørvika, Oslo, Norway dedicated to the life and works of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. The museum was originally located at Tøyen, w ...

, the Norwegian painter having a profound influence on him. Munch remains the great artistic influence on him up to the present day. At the age of 21 he married Hanne, they had their first child Alexander, and he held his first solo exhibition in Norway. In 1977 he returned to Dublin where he set up his

/workshop and established himself in the years between 1977 and 1995 with Solo exhibitions at the Solomon Gallery in Dublin, arts fairs, and numerous group shows throughout Europe and the United States. He then decided to concentrate on site specific art, notably ''The Cycle of Life'', Colorado (1991); ''The Famine Series'', Dublin (1996/7); and ''Ripples of Ulysses'' 2000/1. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Fine Art by

Regis University Regis University is a private Jesuit university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1877 by the Society of Jesus, the university offers more than 120 degrees through 5 colleges in a variety of subjects, including education, liberal arts, business, nu ...

in Denver, Colorado.

Recent developments

Sculpting life

In 2007, Shane Brennan and Tom Burke of Moondance Productions released a film biography on Gillespie's life and work, called ''Sculpting Life''. The film received critical acclaim following its first broadcast on the Irish channel,

RTÉ (RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, whil ...

. The film, also aired on the Arts Channel in New Zealand, portrays the sculptor as he creates a series of famine sculptures from research, through to unveiling in Ireland Park, Toronto. Partly based on his reading of

Joseph O'Connor Joseph Victor O'Connor (born 20 September 1963) is an Irish novelist. His 2002 historical novel '' Star of the Sea'' was an international number one bestseller. Before success as an author, he was a journalist with the ''Sunday Tribune'' newspa ...

's novel, '' Star of the Sea'', Gillespie enters the world of its central character, the murderous Pius Mulvey as he haunts the decks of a

coffin ship A coffin ship () was any of the ships that carried Irish immigrants escaping the Great Irish Famine and Highlanders displaced by the Highland Clearances. Coffin ships carrying emigrants, crowded and disease-ridden, with poor access to food ...

and becomes an emaciated ghost, living among the hundreds of Irish emigrants crammed into

steerage Steerage is a term for the lowest category of passenger accommodation in a ship. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century considerable numbers of persons travelled from their homeland to seek a new life elsewhere, in many cases North America ...

. The documentary follows the sculptor as he brings the character to life in bronze.

Looking for Orion

More recently, an artistic biography ''Looking for Orion'' by Gillespie's lifelong friend, the artist and publisher Roger Kohn, provides an insider's view of Gillespie. The biography documents his contributions to his art over the last 36 years, and explores the influences of

and

on the artist. Gillespie is unique among the

fraternity in being able to claim that all moulding,

casting Casting is a manufacturing process in which a liquid material is usually poured into a mold, which contains a hollow cavity of the desired shape, and then allowed to solidify. The solidified part is also known as a ''casting'', which is ejecte ...

and finishing is done entirely by himself in his Dublin studio/

. In addition, all installations are either carried out or supervised by him.

Themes

The

Irish Famine The Great Famine ( ga, an Gorta Mór ), also known within Ireland as the Great Hunger or simply the Famine and outside Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of starvation and disease in Ireland from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a h ...

and subsequent catastrophic migration has motivated two of Gillespie's works. In several of his site specific pieces, such as ''

Famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompan ...

'' (1997) on the Custom House Quay in Dublin, his life-sized human figures are emaciated and haunting. In June 2007, a series of statues by Gillespie was unveiled by President

Mary McAleese Mary Patricia McAleese ( ; ga, Máire Pádraigín Mhic Ghiolla Íosa; ; born 27 June 1951) is an Irish activist lawyer and former politician who served as the eighth president of Ireland from November 1997 to November 2011. She is an academic ...

on the quayside in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

's Ireland Park. The work commemorates the arrival of

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

from the Great Famine. The Hamilton Spectator described the work as follows: Famin Sculpture

"''The early immigrants are now honoured at the Toronto waterfront park by five haunting bronze statues created by Irish sculptor Rowan Gillespie.'' ''One figure depicts a man lying on the ground, emaciated; another shows a pregnant woman clutching her bulging stomach, while behind her a meek child stands wide-eyed. One frail figure is bent over with hands clasped in prayer, contrasted by a man whose arms are extended to the sky in salvation.''"

In lesser known, archived works such as ''Ambition'' and ''Aspiration'', which climbs the wall of the Dublin Treasury Building, the artist reveals his sense of humour and somewhat different preoccupations. In his recent biography, an altogether different picture emerges. In his portrayals of

James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the Modernism, modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important ...

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and Tragicomedy, tr ...

Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerard Manley Hopkins (28 July 1844 – 8 June 1889) was an English poet and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous fame placed him among leading Victorian poets. His prosody – notably his concept of sprung rhythm – established him as an innova ...

, and

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

, Gillespie has undertaken his own spiritual and literary journey. His more conceptual and abstract pieces such as ''Looking at the Moon'', ''The Kiss'' and the more recent, ''Proclamation'', span the whole gamut of human emotions, from love and awe, to hate and self-destruction. As his biographer writes:

"''Rowan's passionate and often draining encounters with his subjects, and his willingness to undergo personal transformation and rebirth in light of them, takes shape in the gnarled and volcanic textures of his later pieces. They stand before us as a mature, fully fledged portrait of an essentially rough-hewn and raw witness to the emotional turmoil of our time.''"

Proclamation

The original model for ''Proclamation'' was called ''Imagine'' and according to Gillespie's biographer:

"it alluded not only to the
John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
peace anthem, but also to the dreams for a utopian society in Ireland espoused by Rowan's grandfather,
James Creed Meredith James Creed Meredith, KC (28 November 1875 – 14 August 1942) was an Irish judge who served as a Judge of the Supreme Court from 1937 to 1942 and a Judge of the High Court from 1924 to 1937. He was best known as a nationalist of the early ...
(1874-1942)".

''Proclamation'' has, as its backdrop, the courthouse in which Meredith presided when he was a Circuit Court Judge.Kohn (2007), p 155 Fourteen figures stand in a megalithic circle, at the centre of which is a plaque containing a copy of the Proclamation of Independence, engraved in bronze. Each figure has at its base a small plaque, engraved with the name and the British military tribunal's verdict and sentence of death. The figures are perforated with bullet holes. Since the original commission was for the seven signatories of the Proclamation, Gillespie has donated the other seven martyrs to the site himself.

Solo exhibitions

Famine memorial sculpture, man with arms up high in Ireland Park, Toronto

* 1974 Moss Kunst Foreningen, Norway * 1975 Galleri Cassandra, Norway * 1976 Galleri Cassandra, Norway * Lad Lane Gallery, Dublin * 1977 Galleri 71 Tromso, Norway * Bodo Kunst Foreningen, Norway * Austin Hayes Gallery, York * Lad Lane Gallery, Dublin * 1978 Galleri Cassandra, Norway * 1979 Alwin Gallery, London * 1980 Lad Lane Gallery, Dublin * 1981 Galerie Hüsstege, 's-Hertogenbosch * 1982 The Solomon Gallery, Dublin * Galleri Cassandra, Norway * 1983 Puck Inaugural Exhibition, New York * 1983 Poole Wills Gallery, New York * 1984 The Solomon Gallery, Dublin * 1986-88 Solomon Gallery, Dublin * Galerie Hüsstege, 's-Hertogenbosch * Jonathan Poole Gallery, London * 1989 - 1994 Concentrated on site specific work * 1994 - 95 Solomon Gallery, Dublin * Galerie Hüsstege, 's-Hertogenbosch * 1996 Decision to stop exhibition work in order to concentrate on site specific work.

References and sources

;Notes ;Sources *

External links

Artist's website

The Migrants, Toronto

Artistic Biography and Catalogue of Work, Looking for Orion

Gallery

File:Dilemma, Rowan Gillespie.jpg, ''Dilemma'' (alloy and plexiglass), 1978. This sculpture is 53 cm tall. (Courtesy of Roger Kohn) File:Yeats by Rowan Gillespie.jpg, ''

Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

'' (bronze) 1990. 240 cm. File:The Eternal question, Rowan Gillespie.jpg, ''The Eternal Question'', (bronze), 1991. 37 cm File:Birdy Rowan Gillespie.jpg, ''Birdy'' (bronze), 1997. Height 122 cm. Perched on the windowsill of 3, Crescent Hall, Mount Street, Dublin. File:The Pregnant Woman.jpg, Rowan Gillespie's Great Famine memorial ''The Pregnant Woman' in Ireland Park on Toronto's Harbourfront File:Famine memorial.jpg, Great Famine memorial in Ireland Park, Toronto Harbourfront File:The Migrants, Rowan Gillespie.jpg, ''Migrants'' (bronze), 2007, Ireland Park, Toronto Harbourfront. The ''Jubilant Man'' stands 320 cm tall. File:Ireland Park Statue 1.JPG, Rowan Gillespie's Great Famine memorial in Ireland Park, Toronto Harbourfront File:Famine_memorial_sculpture,_man_with_arms_up_high_in_Ireland_Park,_Toronto.jpg, Detail of Rowan Gillespie's Great Famine memorial in Ireland Park, Toronto, Harbourfront File:Joyce Merrion RG.jpg, ''Ripples of Ulysses'' (bronze), 2000.

Merrion Hotel Merrion Hotel is a hotel in Dublin, Ireland, which comprises a block of four terraced houses on Upper Merrion Street, built in the 1760s by Charles Monck, 1st Viscount Monck, for wealthy Irish merchants and nobility. He lived in No. 22, which b ...

. 200 cm File:Gerard Manley Hopkins, Rowan Gillespie.jpg, ''Gerard Manley Hopkins'', (poet in bronze), 2005. Slightly larger than life-size.

, Denver, Colorado. File:Lazy Lady, Rowan Gillespie.jpg, ''Lazy lady'' (bronze), 2005, 29 cm. File:Looking at the moon, Gouda RK.jpg, Rowan Gillespie's ''Looking at the Moon'' (bronze), 2001, Gouda, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Stands 335 cm tall. File:Helmut Kindle and Rowan, Triesen Jan 2006.jpg, ''Looking Together'' with Helmut Kindle and the artist Rowan Gillespie, taken in

Triesen Triesen () is the third largest of Liechtenstein's municipalities. It contains several historic churches dating from the fifteenth century. It also has a weaving mill from 1863 that is considered a historical monument. The population is around 5, ...

2006 File:Lazy Lady1.jpg, ''Lazy Lady'' with her creator in

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German language, German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constit ...

, June 2008 File:L'Eta 2-1.jpg, ''L'Eta Della Donna'',

Veneto Banca Veneto Banca S.p.A. is a former Italian bank headquartered in Montebelluna, Italy and currently a wind-down unit. The bank changed from a cooperative society to a limited company in December 2015. Following a failed stock market listing in June ...

, Montebelluna-Treviso, Italy, 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gillespie, Rowan Living people Irish sculptors People from Blackrock, Dublin 1953 births