Consummation was first installed in the Orpheus Gallery, Belfast, in 1992 and then in an altered format in
Limerick City Hall as part of ‘E.V.+A 93’. The piece consisted of 32 wall-mounted beer bottles
(each label of which had been hand painted with New York-found, Bord Fáilte-generated images of
Ireland) and a large, uncomfortable settee/armchair that was constructed from 106 rates and 2544 ‘empties’. Combining picturesque landscapes (of sites principally associated with invasion) with the smell of stale beer, the work was primarily about the relationship between alcohol and maudlin sentimentality for the ‘homeland’ (and Ireland’s propensity for the marketing and abuse of both).
