"Again, thinking of Gulliver's Travels, I think of scale. Disparities of scale. Contrasts of scale. I think of Le Corbusier's Modulor. His anthropometric scale of proportions created some 220 years later linking the human body dimensions with architecture. 

Swifts 1726 satirical prose novel concerns the intrepid traveller, Lemuel Gulliver. In Lilliput, he encountered tiny people concerned with petty political disputes. In Brobdingnag, he himself is a tiny man surrounded by giants who criticise European customs. In Laputa, he encounters impractical intellectuals disconnected from reality. In Houyhnhnms he encounters rational horses living amongst savage human-like creatures called Yahoos. 

One of the most iconic Dublin emblems in terms of scale. A heroic scale indeed is The Poolbeg Chimneys. I didn’t want to simply represent them as they stand. I decided upon a certain abstraction of the elements which would be layered reflecting the many multifaceted relationships and memories Dubliners and those of us who came to live in or visit Dublin have with these wonderful idiosyncratic chimneys. 

My chosen title, ‘Is it over yet?’, refers to the uncertain fate the chimneys suffered for years. Slated for demolition by the Electricity Supply Board, much to the chagrin of many, so they could ‘decontaminate’ and sell as an ‘unencumbered’ site for development the Poolbeg Chimneys were eventually placed on the Record of Protected Structures, (making them listed buildings – or structures!) in July 2014! ‘Is it over yet?’. No! Thankfully ‘It’s only the beginning’, of a whole new lease of life for the iconic chimneys.

 The buildings around the chimneys and their shadows are abstracted somewhat. I applied some pages of words and images taken from old Irish text books. Evoking memories of past times. Of pastimes. Of memories walking along East Wall. Of associations with the chimneys and their omnipresence.

Ostensibly static and orthogonal, on further investigation the chimneys and their relationship to their surroundings display a spatial dynamism with a positive tension between the still and the kinetic, filtering volumes and imparting corresponding spatial and emotive experiences.

 There is a certain stillness to the chimneys. A permanence. While all around clouds move. The wind and rain encircles them. Birds dance around these striped totemic emblems. I wanted to convey a sense of that movement so towards the top of the chimneys I created a cacophony. Birds circling. It could also be flashes of the warning lights. The words within describing their fate – and future. There is a further avian, (albeit in nomenclature) connection because, Poolbeg is situated adjacent to the now-decommissioned Pigeon House generating station, where electricity was first generated in 1903 also with the distinction of being the first in the world to generate three phase power. The Pigeon House was previously a military barracks and the officers accommodation building still exists. It was used for power generation until it was decommissioned in 1976, and the Poolbeg plant is still known locally as the Pigeon House

.In their physicality and monumentality they are certainly long lasting, particularly now given their listed status. But also in the memory.

The chimneys, being a metaphor for life. ‘I think it’s over he said - it’s the beginning’. Is that a statement or a question? I think it’s over. He said it’s the beginning. A statement. Of hope in a time of uncertainty. 

Are we in Lilliput?, where the tiny people are concerned with petty political disputes and Gulliver looms large. Are we in Brobdingnag?, where Gulliver himself is a tiny man surrounded by giants. The contrasts in scale are undeniable."

Colin Eaton