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Sprouting up through the pale grey cut-stone pavement at the junction of Cook Street and Oliver Plunkett Street is Boom Nouveau. With a total height of over five and a half metres – taller than a double decker bus – this artwork is a streetlamp, a cluster of three poles at varying heights rising together, with each glass lamp pointing off in different directions. They stand like a clump of budding daffodils in a lively pedestrianised area of the city.
The stems of these three streetlamps are made from C-shaped steel bars welded together, and painted a mossy, forest green. A thin steel tube is fixed to the centre of each upright, painted a lighter mint green, a conduit for the electrical wiring for the lamps above. The combination of these natural green colours are reminiscent of the Art Nouveau colouring of the original signs for the Paris Métro.
Above our heads, at heights of 3.2 metres, 4.8 metres and 5.6 metres, are the three glass-covered lamps. They are attached to the central stem with brass plating – a kind of joint that angles the lamps’ heads outwards to cast their light more widely across the junction. The surface of these brass plates has been burnished so that they appear rough, and not so reflective. The hand-blown glass covers for the lamps are amber-coloured, giving the light they cast a warm yellow glow. As they are handmade, their surfaces are slightly different from one another, one may have a more rippled surface, and another a smoother casing.
The collaborative art practice known as Forerunner is comprised of Tom Watt, Tanad Aaron and Andreas Kindler von Knobloch.
