The Prosperity Project

Irish artist Jesse Jones’ The Prosperity Project

(Office of Public Works (OPW) & The Convention Centre Dublin (The CCD) under Per Cent for Art Scheme; Supported by Create)

The Office of Public Works, The Convention Centre Dublin were delighted to support Irish artist Jesse Jones’ The Prosperity Project, a significant public art commission for The Convention Centre Dublin (CCD), a landmark building in Dublin’s Docklands area

Jones engaged with both The CCD site, the residents in surrounding Docklands area and with the broader urban community to interrogate meanings of prosperity and scarcity and the historical parallels and resonances which are interwoven into the narrative of Irish deprivation, past and present. Her work culminated in a permanent artwork in The Convention Centre Dublin.

In much of her work, Jones seeks to explore historical instances of communal culture that resonate with contemporary society and politics. In preparation for this commission, Jones conducted a nine month long durational ‘conference’ called The Prosperity Project. Curious to interrogate the assumptions about ‘prosperity’ that grew up during Ireland’s boom years, Jones initiated a number of projects in order to create platforms for collaboration and debate with a larger group of national and international artists, thinkers and communities. Artist Jesse Jones carefully conceived the work around ideas of social relations, interconnectedness and knowledge exchange. The multi layered collaborative work engaged with a broader audience and brought together a provisional elective community drawn from the Docklands and Dublin’s workers and urban dwellers. This community of interest acted as ‘research delegates’ in the nine-month program of lectures and performance events.

The final permanent artwork Prosperity by Jones was drawn from the collated research and collaboration process. The artwork was constructed by Jones and installed in The Convention Centre with a specialized installation team in January 2014; the final moment in the project.

The Prosperity Project  proposed new approaches to ‘public art’ – both in its intent to include the public as ‘an elective community’ and its playfulness in subverting the idea of the artist as solitary genius figure employed to leave a monolithic monumental legacy. It looks toward the creation of new models of public art for the 21st century.

The commission was jointly funded under the Irish Government’s Per Cent for Art Scheme and The Convention Centre Dublin and supported by Create the Irish National Development Agency for Collaborative Arts. Produced by Lynnette Moran.