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Owner: Lisburn Borough Council

Location: Lisburn Borough Council’s Civic Headquarters and Arts Centre, Lagan Valley Island

Title: The Island and the Elements

Artist: Ned Jackson Smyth

Material: Granite and Bronze

Size: (H)180cms x (L) 350cms x (W) 160cms

Funded by: Co-funded by Lisburn Borough Council and Lottery funded through the Arts Council of Northern Ireland

Background: 5 artist’s proposals were chosen during Lisburn Borough Council’s "Natural Forces" Public Art Competition. The programme illustrates the council’s proactive approach to the development of an integrated schedule of public art incentive schemes and commissions to enhance the visitor profile of the area.

This piece by Smyth references a number of contextual strands – the making of the island itself and the canal. It symbolises the elements, placed outside in the open air, fire is suggested through the casting of the bronze, granite signifies the earth and the water flows from this. It is intended to be a very physical piece, even the stone has been dominated, fashioned and constructed by the artist.

Artists Details: Ned Jackson Smyth is a sculptor situated in Newtownards, Co Down. He was born and educated in Belfast, and completed an apprenticeship in light engineering. He attended University of Ulster, where he achieved a BA (Hons) in Fine and Applied Art. Since leaving University he has been practising as a professional artist, through exhibitions, commissions both private and public, workshops and lecturing.

He has exhibited throughout Ireland, and internationally with group exhibitions in the UK, Europe, Russia and Brazil. His public commissions have been a mixture of community-based projects; public authority commissions; and a number of private commissions in Ireland, Europe and the USA.

In 1999 he was awarded the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s visual arts bursary, also the Tyrone Guthrie Centre bursary, and was the winner of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board bursary award in 1994.