Curated Exhibitions & Projects
Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co. Wicklow
Elisabeth von Samsonow
A View, A Ceremony, A Gift
A Visit, A Ceremony, A Gift was commissioned as part of the TULCA UnSelfing programme for Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture, supported by The French Embassy in Ireland.
Commissioner: Rayne Booth / Curator: Kate Strain
Producer: Anne Mullee / Editor: Eavan Aiken
Curated by Kate Strain, this artist film focuses on the research and practice of Austrian artist and philosopher Elisabeth Von Samsonow, who has been inspired by the role of the White Goddess and the Deep Ecology movement. Von Samsonow uses an alphabet based on trees native to both Ireland and Austria, to create poetry and uncover its’ origin in the woods.
Participating artists: Marielle MacLeman, Ruth Le Gear, Ruby Wallis and Michaële Cutaya, Michelle Doyle, Liliane Puthod, Naïmé Perrette and Sara Sadik; contributed new work through film, sculpture, music, sound and design investigating the access to nature through poetic language.
A Visit, A Ceremony, A Gift connects distant places by investigating the enduring challenge that all people face. That is, trying to understand the mysterious languages of nature in trees, the open air and the earth.
Laura Ní Fhlaibhín
in the marl-walled court of the fairy queen
Drawing on research undertaken during two residencies at the community studio housed in Tinahely’s Market House, in the marl-walled court of the fairy queen exists both as a text and as suite of votive objects, from clay ‘spirit creatures’ to wall drawings, tiny bronzes, commemorative plate and an embroidered flag bearing the emblem of a hare.
Ní Fhlaibhín’s discovery of the use of marl clay as a primary material for building rudimentary houses prior to the Famine provides a starting point for her explorations into aspects of the colonial judiciary, the fate of Famine-era ‘criminals’, and the historic exploitation of the area’s natural assets.
Archival research into court records points to the transportation of convicts to the New World during the nineteenth century, in addition to the harvesting and transportation of timber from Wicklow’s ancient oak forest to England’s shipyards, and, reputedly, to build the Old Palace of Westminster.