Dorothy Cross, Irish, b.1956
Title: Ghost Ship (i)
Date: 2011
Medium: Luminescent print
Dimensions:
Plate: 37 x 45 cm
Sheet: 47.5 x 55 cm
Signed: lower right: Dorothy Cross
Credit Line: Purchased, 2019
Object Number: NGI.2019.47
DescriptionGhost Ship I and II (NGI.2019.46-47) are etchings from a limited edition of 75. The image is printed over a base of luminescent ink which absorbs light and releases it slowly as a phosphorescent glow in darkness. The prints relate to a major public art project ‘Ghost Ship’ which Cross undertook in 1999. Lightships were located on reefs that were too deep to build lighthouses. By 1970, most lightships around Ireland were decommissioned and replaced by satellite buoys. Cross turned a de-comissioned lightship into a ghostly artwork. The Ghost Ship remained in Dublin Bay for three weeks. These prints, created over ten years later memorialise the 1999 project and the lightships themselves.
Inscriptionlower left: 63/75