SAC — Special Area of ConVersation
In 2019, Resort Residency and Lynders Mobile Home Park became the location for An Urgent Enquiry. Fingal County Council partnered with Wexford County Council and Dublin City Council to provide three artists residency commissions, funded through the Arts Council’s Invitation to Collaboration Scheme. Artists were invited through an open call to submit a proposal for one of these three site specific residencies along Ireland’s east coast, from the peninsula of Portrane in Fingal, to North Bull Island part of the UNESCO designated Dublin Bay Biosphere, to the South Wexford Coastline. The residencies offered artists the opportunity to explore the biodiversity and effects of climate change on these areas through research and engagement with environmental specialists, scientists and local communities, with support from the local authority Arts & Biodiversity Offices.
Fingal County Council selected Joanna Hopkins and Mary Conroy who were interested in exploring the Fingal context, with a focus on the unique bird colonies, prominent coastal erosion and an environment that is constantly changing as determined by a human need for housing and how nature challenges our definitions of home. From June to September 2019, the artists were located at Resort Residency, Lynders Mobile Home Park, Portrane. They researched locally and nationally with specialists in particular species, liaising with our Biodiversity and Climate Education departments in Fingal to develop their reflection on the theme and the location, which was presented during The Bleeding Pig Cultural Festival in September 2019.
SAC – Special Area of ConVersation was a temporary art installation on Portrane Beach as part of An Urgent Enquiry artist residency commission, by artists Mary Conroy and Joanna Hopkins. This temporary public artwork and site specific theatre performance represented an amalgamation of ideas and concepts that were processed through the artist’s three month residency in Fingal. The artwork drew attention to the conservation efforts being carried out in the Fingal area for both humans and wildlife, to highlight the existence, fragility and importance of all the creatures who call the Fingal coastline ‘home’.
A residency commissioning programme with Wexford County Council, Fingal County Council and Dublin City Council funded through the Arts Council’s Invitation to Collaboration scheme.
