‘Babel’ is a response to Ireland’s property boom and the consequences of its collapse. The work aims to encourage a critical examination of the societal changes and transformations that impacted on the built environment as well as the cultural, economic and political landscape of the country. The ‘Tower of Babel’ is used an allegory to represent how Dublin’s property bubble spiralled into folly.

The sculptural installation takes the form of a 1:200 scale architectural model. The architectural model was chosen to represent ‘Babel’ as a means to re-appropriate a language of presentation used by developers and real estate agents as a marketing tool. The clearly exaggerated and imagined development of Dublin as a modern day tower of Babel is used to reflect the very real hubris of time.

Aidan Lynam was born in London in 1978 and has lived in Ireland since 1978. In 2008 he graduated with a BA Honours in Fine Art Sculpture from the College of Art Design & Printing at the Dublin Institute of Technology. His current work draws from his experience working in model making.