Aisling O’Beirn
Ireland
This project consists of a series of street signs of Limerick nicknames. The signs take a similar form to the city’s official street signs, and are sited in their respective locations around the city for the duration of the exhibition. A map with a key to the signs and information on the background to the nicknames is located in the gallery. The map uses some of the same visual iconography found in official street signage and maps.
I am presenting the type of information that does not appear on official city maps or signage. Limerick Nicknames aims to examine how people’s nicknames for places and landmarks help describe the urban fabric of the city. It is also concerned with how naming is a way of claiming local knowledge, and how maps become like editorial documents where select information is included or left out according to the map’s function.
(Text: imagine limerick catalogue, 2004)
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