Reclaiming the Names

A site-specific work commissioned for the new La Salle College, Belfast, (2007/8)

Noel Connor was one of the first pupils to enter the original La Salle School when it opened on the 5th of September, 1966. He produced this work using part of the library floor from the old school, which he reclaimed shortly before its demolition in 2006.

The names of his former classmates and friends are carved on individual blocks in the handwriting of Mrs. Pat Lundy, the schools first secretary, who patiently produced every original register. In the early years, all boys had to remove their shoes on entering the school and put on a pair of ‘gutties,’ to ensure that the new floors would remain in pristine condition. The beautifully vanished wood block floor in the library was particularly protected and it would have been a serious offence to mark it.

In this work, the artist confirms each past pupils’ presence within the school and celebrates a time when their lives inter-locked. He has ensured that they all leave their mark.

‘A matter of days before its demolition, I was able to return to the old school. I spent the morning walking along through the cold and empty classrooms and corridors. It was an emotional time because my memory began to fill the place again with friends and family and old teachers. My period at the school coincided with an extraordinary period of upheaval for the area, from the optimism and innocence of the mid sixties to the very dark days of the early seventies, and for many of us it was a place of refuge, a genuine community that believed in us and expected of us. I made my way to the top of the building and the now derelict library. The few remaining books were scattered and damp and the once beautiful wood block parquet floor was fractured and lifting. In this space more than any other I could see and hear close friends, Gerry Malone, Gerry Kelly, Francis Casey, Mickey Macklin, Davy McBride and Jay Connolly. Back at home I remembered the library and the extraordinary significance of that room and with the help of Davy McBride had a section of the old parque floor rescued and transported to my studio. I laboriously stripped each wood block of its sticky tar base and layers and layers of old cracked varnish. I slowly sanded and restored each block back to perfection. In the early years at the school Mrs Lundey, the first secretary, had laboriously and beautifully hand written each class register. I copied one of these to have my friends and classmates’ names carved onto the individual blocks before reconstructing the beautiful herringbone pattern of the floor. Working with each block and each name was a very intense and intimate reminder of every individual classmate and how for that period all our young lives crossed and interlocked. I have literally carved them all into my personal history and that of the school. It was actually very sad to see the finished piece leave my studio but I’m delighted that it has been placed outside the new library for the present and future pupils to see and consider. It’s important to celebrate a new school and a new era but I am content to have captured a moment in time and some very personal histories.’

LEAVE A COMMENT

Please wait......