Floating Joyce

Along the Liffey

Who else but an artist would have devised such a clever project? Limerick's own Fergal McCarthy is going to power wash the words of James Joyce into the grime of the quay walls along the Liffey.

Just random words from Dubliners.

Mr. McCarthy will create stencils and the words will appear on the banks of the river, to be read by all who walk along the quays or cruise through Dublin by boat. In time, the clean areas will revert to their original patina, as the grime is being called, and the words will disappear.

Tourists will have something else to look at besides the Guinness Brewery, something that will not last because it is not designed to be a permanent art installation.

The cost is approximately Eu8000, a tidy sum that will no doubt elicit howls of protest. With so much talk of austerity budgets, there are many who will question the sense of spending that much money on something that isn't going to last. If it brings in an extra load of tourists, of course, and more than earns back the investment, it would be money well spent.

But there is also the question of feeding the soul as well as the body. Life would be grim indeed if it was all about social welfare and national health in a world without color or whimsy. Sometimes you have to take your last few pennies and buy something frivolous to feel better about yourself or your dire situation.

"Word River" is in keeping with Dublin's status as a Unesco City of Literature, and the use of James Joyce's words is key to drawing tourists to see what an artist can do with words as objects, 1.5 kilometers of objects arranged in a visually intriguing way. What other author can draw people to his home town, where they dress up in period costume and follow a route laid out in a work of fiction?

It's not as if the entire text of the novel is being inscribed. This is not about reading a book but looking at literature from a new perspective. It is, in large part, about having a little fun.