The Green Apocalypse: A Race Against Time

The Doomsday Clock was created by Scientists in 1947 to warn the public about how close we are to destroying our planet, at that time it was about getting atomic weapons under control but now it also considers climate change in its deliberations. This year it was set at 90 seconds to Midnight, the closest it’s ever been since its creation.

For Sculpture in Context 2023, I was drawn to considering the decline in Ireland’s wild floral species especially in my generation. I wanted to use the visual of The Doomsday Clock to show this decline in wildflower species from most prolific to most endangered. I spoke to Professor Trevor Hodkinson, Trinity College Dublin, Botany Dept and we discussed The Red Data list of Irish plants. This list is divided into categories to determine potential risk that a species could become extinct. These categories range from protected, vulnerable, endangered, critically endangered to extinct in the wild. I chose a plant from the category lists on each plate from 6pm protected in N.Ireland to midnight Extinct in the wild, with more common plants from 1-5 pm. I made all the clock pieces by hand in black porcelain clay with gold lustre glaze. The pieces where hand sculpted, dried, and fired three different times in my kiln in the Rathfarnham hills over the course of the summer and some of the work was also fired in The Fire Station studios, Dublin.

I would hope the work would highlight the plight of our natural indigenous plants and hopefully make people aware and consider changes they can make to reverse the hands, the “No Mow May” initiative and having a small wild area in your garden to encourage wild plants and create habitats for insects of all kinds.