Ocean Wonder
A special broadcast of the Ocean Wonder — A Radio Play by Michael McLoughlin, Mike Finn and members of the Donabate Amateur Dramatic Society broadcasted on St. Ita’s Radio 89.5fm on Sunday 10th of September 2017 at 6pm. The Ocean Wonder was produced as part of Resort Revelations 2016.
Entirely hollow aside from the dark
Alan James Burns
‘Entirely hollow aside from the dark’ is a psycho-acoustic sound performance within caves; ancient natural auditoriums carved into the underbelly of Ireland’s countryside. The immersive installation creates a visceral experience of journeying into someone’s inner dialogue by using 3-dimensional audio. The cave personifies a human consciousness questioning reality, wherein an audible inner dialogue and choreographed sounds echo the character’s thoughts and memories. In the darkness, this psycho-acoustic work unfolds and a symphony of sounds shifts around the cave. Entirely hollow aside from the dark is an artwork by Alan James Burns, made in collaboration with writer Sue Rainsford and sound editor Ian Dunphy.
This event was part of a national tour taking place across the island of Ireland throughout the summer of 2017. The tour of Entirely hollow aside from the dark was core funded by the Arts Council of Ireland Touring and Dissemination of Work Scheme and was kindly supported by Creative Ireland. The artwork taking place at Smuggler’s Cave, Portrane, was in conjunction with Bleeding Pig Festival, and supported by Fingal Arts Office, Fingal County Council and Lynders Mobile Home Park. Entirely hollow aside from the dark was initially commissioned by Fingal County Council Arts Office for its Resort Revelations Programme 2016.
Perishable Picnic
Deirdre O’Mahony
The Perishable Picnic celebrated the history of fruit growing in North County Dublin. A giant ceramic strawberry jam pot made by artist Garnet McCulloch was the centrepiece for a picnic of strawberry foods, drinks, and conversation. Roger Lamb (Lamb’s Fruit), Ray McLoughlin who has completed significant research into the Lamb Farming History at Trinity College Dublin, artist Deirdre O’Mahony and Fingal County Council’s Heritage Officer Gerry Clabby discussed the history of fruit farming focusing on the impact of Quaker Farming practices, ethics and investment in the area through an industry that once played an important role in the local economy and community. There was a screening of archival film footage from the Lamb Family collection, and a reading by local author Peig McManus where she reflected on her experience of strawberry picking in the area as a child. Deirdre devised a strawberry feast to accompany the day’s discussions with local chef Wayne Hand, featuring lots of strawberry delights.
Earthbound
Catherine Barragry
An alien spaceship approaches in the distance. What is this unknown vessel and what future does it carry in its hull? Intruders have come to these coasts before: the land of Fingal is named after a foreign tribe. The vessel nears, and fear swills with awe, as the mechanisms that keep this immense vessel in flight become apparent. The vessel, now hovering a mile or so overhead, performs a majestic vertical landing in the corner field at Lynders. This mobile home site is used to welcome visitors, who come to decompress from busy lives, bringing only the most important things with them on their journeys. Perhaps in these decisions to decompress, simplify and change speeds, lies wisdom for our visitors. What can we tell these new inhabitants about Earth? How on Earth can they survive and thrive in these conditions?
‘Earthbound’ imagined that an alien landing is imminent. The work came in two parts; a live sound performance and a text. The sound performance uses voice and synthesised sound to place the viewer at the moment that the spaceship approaches and performs a majestic vertical landing in the corner field at Lynders. Meanwhile the text acted as a guidebook for the alien visitors to assist them in their survival on Earth. Written and directed by Catherine Barragry, music composed by Seán Mac Arlaine, performed by Cliona Ardiff, Susan E Brown, Jill Kiernan and Donna Wearen.
Other Space
Vanessa Daws
‘You will understand why the boat has not only been for our civilisation, from the sixteenth Century until the present the great instrument of economic development but has been simultaneously the greatest reserve of the imagination. The ship is the heterotopia par excellence. In civilisations without boats dreams dry up, espionage takes the place of adventure and the police take the place of pirates’ Foucault ‘Of other spaces’, 1967.
Vanessa Daws through her residency was drawn to the site of the famous shipwreck. The RMS Tayleur, which lies beneath the sea off Lambay Island. Her deep connection to the sea is demonstrated through her practice in which she swims, dives; engaging others in these acts as a way to inhabit the space of water.
Vanessa has been working with local man Laddie de Jong, a salvage diver who brought up many artefacts from the Tayleur in the 80’s, and also with Billy Crowley who in the 1950’s along with Tom Shakespeare re-discovered the RMS Tayleur and were pioneers of scuba diving in Ireland, the UCD Sub Aqua Club, Eoghan Kieran from Geomara who is an expert on the Tayleur and took Vanessa out while they were conducting a Multibeam Sonar of the Tayleur this summer, and Eamon McGrattan skipper of the Malahide Charter Boat.
Vanessa, through her experience of the dives, the installation on the boat hopes to make visible the depths of what’s below the surface to a new audience. Through the exploration of the RMS Tayleur the work considered the blurring of boundaries between culture and nature. It investigated the way in which maritime histories can come alive through stories, interactions with place, artefacts that are brought up to the surface and also through technology such as a Multibeam Sonar used to create a 3 dimensional image of the RMS Tayleur as it was in 2017.
Vanessa invited the audience to join her and underwater archaeologist Eoghan Kiernan on a boat trip to the site of the RMS Tayleur where she presented her own artefacts which relate to her personal interaction with this Other Space. Boats departed from Malahide Marina to the site of the RMS Tayleur wreckage.
Vanessa also hosted a conversation between Marine Archaelogist Eoghan Kiernan, former diver John Tayler and local man Laddie de Jong, uncovering more stories from what lies beneath the sea. The title Other Space was taken from Stephanie Merchant’s essay Deep Ethnography: Witnessing the Ghosts of SS Thistlegorm, 2014.