Seán Lynch: A blow-by-blow account of stone-carving in Oxford

Dublin City Gallery: The Hugh Lane

Seán Lynch has done more than any visual artist in living memory to engage with the socio-history of Ireland. He has a keen eye for the off-beat: previous exhibitions have dealt with subjects as diverse as the De Lorean sports car plant in Belfast, the visit of Bill Clinton to Ballybunion, and the possible reappearance of the mythical island of HyBrazil.

In his new installation at the Hugh Lane, ‘A blow-by-blow account of stone-carving in Oxford’, Lynch turns his attention to the O’Shea brothers, John and James, from Ballyhooley, Co Cork. The O’Sheas were 19th century stone-carvers, whose work may be seen at the Museum Building at Trinity College Dublin. They also worked at the Oxford Museum of Natural History, where they were embroiled in some controversy.

Lynch gives an account of this in the narration, voiced by the actress Gina Moxley, that runs over his slide-show of works by the O’Shea brothers. The O’Sheas often drew inspiration from the natural world. They may also have been inspired by Charles Darwin, whose book The Origin of the Species was a cause of scandal in Victorian England. A series of monkeys they carved at Oxford was interpreted as being in support of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, and the brothers were fired. James O’Shea retaliated by returning to the building and carving figures of owls and parrots, caricatures of the college authorities whose noses they had put out of joint.

Lynch commissioned the sculptor Stephen Burke to produce a stone carving of a monkey, in the style of the O’Sheas. This is a typically playful gesture, suggesting that the lines between craftsmanship and art are often more blurred than we imagine, ‘A blow-by-blow account of stone-carving in Oxford’ is quite unlike any other exhibition by an Irish artist this year. It is simple and direct, and makes its points clearly and without equivocation. Like the O’Shea brothers before him, Lynch is an artist who is sure of his convictions.