Contemporary Irish based artists were invited to respond to Buffett’s quotation with a work on paper of approximately standard A3 size (420cm x297cm).  I responded with a collage and drawing based work. You can see my work below and read my statement  to find out more about the theme of my piece. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Statement

“Not long ago, comparisons were being made between Iceland and Ireland, the joke being, the only difference between the two was a letter in the name.

In this piece a couple of piebalds eating old Irish punts roam about on a ghost estate made out of Icelandic krona. Set against the backdrop of a sky made out of German marks, the work draws comparisons to our economic situation and Iceland's bankrupt state.

Both Iceland and Ireland underwent spectacular economic growth dependent on inflated financial and construction sectors. We now have more than 2800 ghosts estates in Ireland and some 23000 unoccupied houses. One in every five houses in Ireland is now unoccupied.

The issue of ghost estates in Ireland is more than empty houses. It's a symbol of the country's descent from the Celtic Tiger leading the European charge of prosperity to a broken state, crippled by what most would agree was a universal greed: greed of consumers, developers and those who Irish people blame the most, the banks.”