Growing up in 1970s/ 80s Ireland I believed we were actually quite a normal country, doing normal things like all the other normal countries. Our music was cool with the likes of U2, Thin Lizzy and Clannad giving us a good international rep. Our form of imperialism was to culturally invade the world with not a bullet fired. It was funny to see other countries dyeing their rivers green on Saint Patrick's day and becoming more Irish than the Irish themselves. We were quirky, happy and even though Religion ruled our laws like some sort of caliphate we still had our sense of humour. It is only as I got older that I saw we were weirdos in what we took for granted and accepted as normal.
Our iceCream and sweet names rolled off the tongue and became part of our proud heritage no matter how strange they were. It is only when I hear about them now that that pang of nostalgia turns to 'What the F were we thinking?!'
Wavey special effect rolls across my post
Interior corporate board room 1980's Ireland
'I would like to draw this meeting of the Hazelbrook Farm's design committee to order. Since 1926 our company has been crafting Ireland favourite ice-creams. Slurp!..... Gerry, get out from under that table!....
In that time we have introduced some of the most revolutionary sweet treats in the land. Slurp! Slurp! Gerry, what the hell are you doing to my toes?
Sales are up for the Chilly Willy and the Hiawatha but the That-A-Way has not yet reached our shareholder expectations. It is time for a new product that will bring this company into the 1980s. Slurp!
Gerry if you are not out from under that table in five seconds, your fired!
For the summer season this year, we would like to create a new design as non-sensical as the rest,
Now, Gerry, Thanks for finally joining us and wipe your chin. Because of your disruption and insubordination during this meeting I am holding you personally responsible for this project.
Wavey lines bring us back to the present.
As you can see it makes perfect sense to us Irish and more than likely, absolutely none to everyone else.
And so it was that the Freaky foot was born. An ice cream in the shape of a foot, dedicated to all those with a foot fetish. I was more penny sweet or if pushed, a 99 person myself and so when I heard that due to a public campaign that HB had decided to bring back the Freaky foot in 2015 I was whelmed.
For its relaunch, I was approached by a PR company called Propmeup to create a large sand raking, gorilla style on Sandymount stand in the shadow of Pollybeg power station. Those two chimneys have been nicknamed the U2 towers for those playing along at home.
This kind of project was right up my alley as I had done some other sand rakings of footprints in 2010. Although, this time would be a little different as I had to reproduce a certain design.
Always trying to improve my technique I came up with the idea of making 2, 2-meter by 2-meter frames and laying them on the beach. I could use these to grid out the drawing and then leapfrog them over each other to find the next location to draw out my lines. (I hope this makes sense. I have no images of the process). This technique allowed me to draw out the image piece by piece without having to mark out a whole grid first.
It kind of worked and very soon I had a foot outline marked that I could then get a few staff from PropmeUp to rake in.
The sand on Sandymount was quite nice to work on. It is a very flat area which the tide smoothens every 7 hours. Interestingly the sand is in different layers of different tones that get darker as you dig down. I was able to use this darker sand around the edges to highlight, (or should that be darklight) the line.
A drone was then on hand to tweak and photo the image from above. These images were then sent off to the media.
The foot definitely was freaky, like a melting ice cream. I never got to see the relaunched product but I do know that it was not the same as the original. Gerry had come out of retirement but due to his old age had forgotten the recipe. By all accounts, it tasted 'Shite'.
So, do you have any body part ice creams in your country? I would love to see some down below in the comments.
(The images in this post are not my own but have been sourced from the HB Website and provided by Propmeup. As part of my Irish heritage I hope this will be viewed as fair use).
Ps
Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.
Innocuous Rift - sand sculpture
Board games - sand sculpture
Freezin™ - My run-in with Disney - ice sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon
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I am also starting to create NFTs of my sculptures and welcome you to my gallery where you can own a bit of ephemeral sculpture history