Tables and chairs and other people
Curated by Emer Lynch
A collection of art installations presented in and amongst Lynders Mobile Home Park for the duration of the Bleeding Pig Festival featured work by Hannah Black, Richard Forrest, Marcus Gambrill, Lorna Hayden, Mitchell Kehe, Caroline Madden, James Moran and Camilla Wills.
Alan James Burns
Entirely hollow aside from the dark
Entirely hollow aside from the dark was a psycho-acoustic work installed in Smuggler’s Cave: an ancient natural auditorium carved into the underbelly of Portrane’s Cliffside. A symphony of sounds unfolded from the fissure between reality and imagination, swirling an inner dialogue down a curious yet treacherous path of self-identity. The work was made in collaboration with writer Sue Rainsford and sound engineer/editor Ian Dunphy, with thanks to Dublin Institute of Technology’s Summer Studio programme.
Communication Evolution
Fiona Marron
Communication Evolution was presented in response to Fiona Marron’s investigation into a sub-sea cable that linked Lambay Island and a beach on the North Dublin coastline. Many of her artworks to date have involved narratives of modern day subsea cables and their significance in the infrastructure of the internet, she found that focusing on a historical communications cable was an interesting way of exploring the precedents for contemporary communication, whilst also uncovering a local artefact of interest and the stories that surround it. Her work for the festival culminated in a talk alongside exhibited elements with specialist Derek Cassidy, founder and chairperson of the Irish Communication Research Group (IGRG) and also the chairperson of the Irish Network of The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)
Ocean Wonder
Michael McLoughlin and Mike Finn
Michael McLoughlin and Mike Finn in Association with the Donabate Portrane Dramatic Society, Tower Bay Singers & St. Ita’s Hospital Radio 89.5FM, Tower Bay carpark
Ocean Wonder is a form of radio play that mixes narrative, monologue, verse, song and soundscape. It was a special one-off radio broadcast for the Bleeding Pig Festival to be listened to in Tower Bay car park. It was a site-specific artwork developed by Michael McLoughlin & Mike Finn. The radio play is based on stories, histories and testimonies relating to Portrane from the sinking of the Tayleur in 1854, to the present day. Visitors were invited to listen live to Ocean Wonder on St. Ita’s Radio 89.5FM from Tower Bay carpark, Portrane on Friday the 9th of September 2016 at 6.30pm.
the fools, the fools, the fools*
Ella de Burca Symposium
The seminar examined the role of art and politics in shaping how a society remembers past events through a keynote discussion which asked, ‘Are artists viable political agents for social change?’ The seminar invited art practitioners to speak about how they use their art practice as a platform to highlight political and social situations. Chaired by Helen Carey, the seminar featured contributions by writer Dr. John Welchman, Professor of Art History at the University of California, Irish artists Sarah Browne and Brian Maguire and curator Aneta Szylak (Director of the Wyspa Institute of Art, Poland).
*the fools,the fools,the fools relates to a speech given by Padraig Pearse at the grave of O’Donovan Rossa in 1915. His funeral was used to stir nationalist sentiment before the 1916 rising.
A Motivational Manifestation
Caroline Doolin
A research presentation combining video, 3D modelling, narration and sound to explore the idea of energy and how it might be articulated through visual, digital and linguistic forms. The work focused particularly on the geothermal energy bound to Portrane’s volcanic past, its geological present and the wider potential for such heat to be harnessed for contemporary industry processing. The presentation further incorporated aspects of motivational speaking, its equivalent language of potential, transformation and purpose and its desire to manifest psychological and emotional energy in the individual.