Review

We are meeting today to have a preliminary review of images received so far and to discuss what next.....

Also a review of correspondence in relation to the project

ref:  email received from Ann Davern 11/10 2009 re exhibition

Dear Sheelagh

 

Thank you for your proposal submitted in May and your subsequent letter of 5 October.

The organisation of the programme for 2010 has been complicated by the fact that we had to wait to have a meeting with our funders, the Arts Council to discuss funding implications of the McCarthy Report and the current economic situation. We received only last Tuesday, another letter from the Arts Council which has further implications for our programme for next year and we have had to again revise our plans. The situation may again change so it is very difficult to plan.

 

However with regard to your proposal. We have prior committments to projects going back over a period of time which we are endevouring to fulfill for 2010. We aim to have a balance of various types of projects in our programme - solo and group exhibitions of emerging, mid-career and established artists, Irish and non-Irish artists, artist with a connection to this area, projects that engage with the community or with a particular constituency and projects that come about through a collaborative work practice.

 

We have prior committments to several projects that are working towards generally similiar aims and objectives as your proposal, and so to keep a balance in the programme we unfortunately are unable to offer you an exhibition at WCAC for 2010.

 

I wish you every success with the project.

yours sincerely

 

Ann

 

ref email received from Moira Sweeney independent film maker 04/1//2009

*_One Sentence Synopsis_*
*/Our Own Place/* illustrates the radical potential of the collaborative arts through the eyes of three visual artists as they create art works with very different and distinct communities in urban and rural Ireland. *__*
*_ _*
*_One paragraph Synopsis_*
*/Our Own Place/* illuminates the vibrant and dynamic practice of contemporary collaborative art in Ireland.  Three very different visual artists at varying stages in their careers, illustrate how the collaborative process works in diverse communities over the spring and summer of 2010. Chris Maguire is a photographer, draftsman and NCAD course leader deeply committed to integrating an arts and cultural practice within urban regeneration. We join him on his fifteen-year photographic journey documenting changing aspects of the Rialto community where he lives. Angela Ginn is a textile artist and landscape painter who has been immersed in the Re-imaging Communities project in Northern Ireland, which transforms murals from tribal expressions of sectarianism to positive celebrations of community identity. We will be following her as she collaborates with the young people of an East Antrim loyalist estate to create a new welcome mural. Sheelagh Broderick is a multimedia artist who is working with the residents of Sherkin Island on a project called Cosmopolitan Cosmology.  We join Sheila as she helps set up pinhole cameras with the residents to record solar graph images and reach out to the Sherkin Diaspora to share in the experience. All these art makers are turning traditional concepts of community art practice on their head as they ask thought provoking questions about who we are and where we live.

 

Camera Crew

From June 20 2009

From June 20 2009

From June 20 2009

Solstice

According to wikipaedia, a solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is most inclined toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun's apparent position in the sky to reach its northernmost or southernmost extreme.

This year this event will happen at 05:45 on 21st June

Thats (part) of the science of it. The solstice also has many other cultural and mythological interpretations, but I am going to stick with the simplest. The longest day...the shortest night...when we dare to go where we never went before.

June 20 Solstice eve

I think we have put in a lot of hard work over the last few weekends so next weekend it's time to enjoy the fruits of our labour and put out our cameras for 6 month exposures.

Next Saturday we will put photographic paper in the remaining cans ..and then roam the Island putting cameras in position and loading images to blog.

Sherkin Community Hall June 17

From June 17

I took advantage of the late ferry this evening and travelled into Sherkin to the community hall. I wanted to ensure that each camera destined for the inhabited Islands of Ireland, Scotland and Finland had an instruction leaflet attached.

SIDS says they will be dispatched tomorrow so hopefully they will reach their destination within a day or two the solstice on Sunday.

Cape Clear Island June 14

From Cape Clear June 14

Today I traveled to Cape Clear Island and met some of the remarkable people who live and work on the Island. We had done a pinhole camera workshop together last May. In the warm sunshine I remembered how cold it had been on that May Bank Holiday weekend and was relieved to be enjoying the fragrant warmth of the Summer.

I left 15 solargraph cameras on the Island, with basic instructions on how to position the cameras. I am looking forward to seeing the snapshots of the cans in situ and the chosen scenes for the extended exposures.

Cape Clear Island is wonderful place - getting on the ferry Cailin Oir in Baltimore is the first step in a journey that takes me away from whatever might be weighing on my mind.

You never know who you might meet in the random assortment of travelers assembled on the after deck of the ferry. Sometimes I have just passed the time in a daze enjoying the motion of the boat through the water, but today I met some friends I had not seen for almost a decade and I was so glad to have made that connection.

Workshop June 13 on Sherkin Pier

Cancel Notice

The weather has foiled our plans for camera making on the pier. Strong North Easterly winds blow right onto the pier and would make work impossible. I will work away at home and hope for better conditions next weekend.

Workshop May 23

We worked hard last weekend. As one pinholer put it - 'it was hard graft'. We weather proofed 65 coffee can cameras, loaded them with photographic paper in a makeshift darkroom, agreed a set of instructions for positioning cameras and had a mini-tutorial on how to load text and images onto the blog. That is a lot for one afternoon.

I think we need a bit of a break now and will not be doing any work next weekend.

In the meantime I will be wrapping cans to be ready for posting. We need to send them soon, so I will be collecting addresses from here on in.

Workshop May 16

Steam was rising off the house yesterday as we beavered away making pinhole cameras. We had some old hands and some new hands to the process, and some much improved techniques thanks to the QA of MS. I haven't counted all the cameras yet, but we must have close on 100. OG is taking the first ones to Killarney and we will start mailing out cameras from next weekend.

Workshop May 10 2009

The core group met in Sherkin to plan implementation of the project today. It was a good meeting and we have some new participants who are very welcome.

During the afternoon we revisited some of the research that has taken place in the previous phase of Artist in the Community project Sept 08 - Jan 09 and looked at the work of other artists and art projects.

A Cosmopolitan Cosmology

View more presentations from sheelaghnagig.

Some of the screens in the presentation are blank as references were emebedded in sheelaghnagig blog


We did some of our talking in the hall and then decamped outside for the rest of the afternoon.





We are meeting again next Saturday to start making cameras and it should be fun. if you want to get involved bring a drill and a sense of humour.