Curating the space in Listoke May 2021 I regard the things I make as tools, relational objects. The morning I arrive in Listoke I draw the objects into position. I am alone. It is just me and the objects. There is no plan yet, per say...
Blindbox houses the Eyecards The Eye shape echoes the Mandorla - which appears in the blog post on Provocations. Ellis and Bochner (2000) define as "...
Assembling the 'girdle' is a slow, small, quiet job. The stitches must be strong and unseen to anchor the strips to the flannel panel. There is a precision and order to creating them. I find my breathing slows as I concentrate on the space between...
Raw Edge Bound Edge Pinned edge Red Flannel and Bias Binding Bias Innards Bias bound between two rolls References Notes about Red Flannel from previous research 1800's onwards, in those days many folk wore red flannel as undergarments. Reports in the Victorian press stated that red flannel was worn close to the skin...
I wrote my way through February and March. I gathered all the writing that came out of me and put it ON something. I was object and subject and definitely felt at times (in the hospital) that I was performed upon. Art-ing about it...
Mold, replica, plaster, shape, embodiment, copy, cast. Hand as tool, hand as drawing implement. Death masks and life casts. I recall with fascination the Ex Voto shrines in this Cathedral in Brazil. Body parts hung in gratitude for receiving a intercession, or added as...
As part of my materials kit for my 'This is Tomorrow Project' I constructed 16 x 2m lengths of dyed recycled flag bunting. The intention is to mark make, paint and draw on each one over Zoom. When lockdown lifts we can come together as...
Eye in the rushes There is something that drives me, from the gut or belly to take a material and make with it. I've been responding to materials in the studio. A bag of rushes left on my doorstep. Making from my 'bolg' and creating...
From session with Hayley 1st Feb 2021 The following quote is in reference to Schrag (2003) and his unpacking of Praxis/Poiesis within Chapter 9. "One dimension is the making of things - spatiotemporally existent entities - which are the intrinsic product of poiesis. The second...
'Giving up the ghost' oil on paper 2021 Giving up the ghost is an intriguing phrase. If an idea/thing/machine isn't working, it gives up the ghost. My initial exhibition proposal was not working. I gave it up. What happened when I gave it up? Cave In, oil...
"Curiosity about the object of knowledge and the willingness and openness to engage theoretical readings and discussions is fundamental. However, I am not suggesting an over-celebration of theory. We must not negate practice for the sake of theory. To do so would reduce theory to...
On the last making day in 2020 I began the design and construction of an object with the salvaged baby wipes from the Craobh Rua project. https://spaces.oca.ac.uk/susanfarrelly/2020/12/14/making-day-12th-december/ It hangs now like a small pair of painters overalls. Faintly like talc and soft on the nose....
In this quote from the book The Meaning of Things: domestic symbols and the self (1981), Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi states: Cherished possessions attain their significance through psychic activities or transactions. Objects are not static entities whose meaning is projected onto them from cognitive functions of the brain or from...
I explore gently tethered things. It is done through the objects I make, the drawings I create, the collaborative workshops where I mediate. All work is a form of self reflection, a visual collection of anecdotal references (to reach and bind with the audience?) sometimes...
I set the relational objects up in the sitting room at home when the project in Craobh Rua was complete. I identified it as something to explore in my Playbook Part 1 - what would different contexts do to these objects. What would they be...
How do images reflect your thinking? Drawings are how I unpack ideas and themes. Photographs are how I document. Painting and printing offer alternative routes to exploring, personalising a narrative. I collect images from the newspaper, they can disrupt my making. Influencing new patterns. Video...
AAEX Performative making session one happened on Wednesday 28th October 2020. It was a proposal I submitted inspired by Kimberley's work group broadcast 'Echoed Structure: Structure Echoed' via Facebook. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCvu80cjloI Describing an event/process through instructions. This might be the process of making, the experience of a performative...
The Virgin of Eire , Manie Jellett 1940. How does Christian art depict women and their bodies? Our agreed provocation took me on a trip into history, lived and read. What exactly is history in the context of religious art, and does the history of...
Chapter 5 in the book 'On Dialogue' had a particular relevance to me. A further look at slippages of role in my practice in an attempt to understand what is happening when they occur. Bohm presents a strange book. At certain points the...
Chapter 6 Participatory thought and the unlimited Words in bold extracted from chapter 6 - On Dialogue. My slippage of role in practice is best understood when it is seen as an attempt to find and encourage participatory thought. The images below originated...
Box TopBox FrontBox Right SideBox Left SideBox BaseBox BackBox Inside Initial Concept design in notebook Documentation of box in progress. The outside was varnished. I left the inside blank, hope to capture some new lines in there? To be drawn on or altered during the course of...
Find 3 things...
Envoi ...
https://youtu.be/l3JGDsYImLA Raw Footage sound removed - A,K,S Mulholland May 2020 The Reliquary box was delivered on the 29th of April and collected on the 8th of May. During this time Amber, Kai and Sarah produced this video. I was delighted and amazed by what they created...
Aspect Cards Parceled I am always exploring ways to use my interactive objects and sculptures by creating encounters. I have reached out to three actors (living near me) that I have worked with previously on the 'Cloaked' performance. They are three sisters. I propose...
One speaks of individuality, two speaks of duality and 3 speaks of otherness. Entrance Stone featuring the Triple Spiral at Newgrange dates to 3200BC. Triple symbols are prevalent in ancient cultures, the mystic qualities of the number 3. Nicolai Tesla was obsessed by the number three,...
The 18th March is known as Síle's Day in Ireland. A long forgotten and un-celebrated Saints day following St. Patrick's Day. Síle is an ancient female deity of fertility and re-birth. There are over 100 stone effigies of the Sheela-na-Gig (Pronounced Sheela-Naw-Geeg) in...
My practice uses a collaborative approach with participants, space for encounters with soft sculptural objects to interact with, communal drawing as a means to making new objects (co produced with participants). Capes Installations (2019) AAEX Installations In non art environments (outside a gallery context) we...
The presentation is available to view on the gdrive. https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13d4Lu1AFfZcZGkqHiCCmHYgRFyO3vtAlvbIRq5at0PA/edit?usp=sharing Notes taken from the feedback: Layers in work, engage on surface or journey in deeper (Jo) Look at Tim Ingold 'Making' (Sally) Welcome Trust, Play - look it up. Multiple audiences recognised and engaged (Les) Children's drawings...
The use of the materials attempts to capture and deliver desired outcomes for audience: Babies: Puzzle, play, touch Mothers: Comforting, cocoon, restful In here it feels...
I installed a hook in the ceiling of the studio to use as a suspension point for the next part of the TYB project. To utilize the capes for a different context, build a tent form to dwell in a space for mothers and babies...
Model for Floor Installation Labyrinth Rug and Platonic Playthings : Soft Sculpture forms - based on the Platonic Solid Shapes. The labyrinth rug was based on a ink drawing, the trace of the brush marks are still evident despite the digital printing method used. This...
While waiting on tenants to leave the Creative Spark building on Tuesday night so I could lock up, I spotted a little booklet. Produced by Create, the national development agency for collaborative arts in Ireland it contained some very relevant little nuggets of information. A set...
This sentence triggered a series of memories which, for me encapsulated the doing and saying of ritual. The context of Valentines Day, and its commercialized symbols. I woke with the memories brimming. The blog has become a reflective ritual so an appropriate place to put...
Today I had the pleasure of having 7 of the little artists to the studio who created the initial drawing on the white cape. I wanted to introduce them to the fabric made and the shapes made from the fabric. What would they see/feel/say/do when...
Things are progressing nicely with the TYB Craobh Rua project, inside and outside the studio. Two of our artists met for with our grant funders and handled the admin side of paperwork required to draw down funds. While myself and Jenny Slater met with the...
In November I explored ways of honoring the work of the Drawn Mantle Makers - the children who filled the white cape with their drawn response . See blog post [https://spaces.oca.ac.uk/susanfarrelly/2019/12/07/response-1-a-drawn-mantle/] Inspired by previously looking at Katharina Grosse and her draped installations in Nov ( https://spaces.oca.ac.uk/susanfarrelly/2019/11/19/the-homework-i-never-did/...
I was first introduced to Derek via Chroma, his book on colour and I was hooked. His writing style, so visual and poetic brought me great joy. So when his retrospective opened at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, a visit was a must. Derek Jarman,...
During the time the 'Cloaked' ( see previous post dated 3.12.19) installation was live I spoke at length with an artist, Jennifer Slater who has since invited us (myself & Caoimhe O'Dwyer) to collaborate with her on a idea she was brewing. She saw the...
As a group we set ourselves the challenge of designing and producing a catalogue of the show. We wanted to preserve the show and have a shared object to represent our project and the group. This was our first time producing printed matter as...
20 artists from our group have worked together for 3 months with a curator Anne Mager. We obtained the use of a building that was being renovated and made it our HQ. We wanted a space to engage with the public, collaborate together...
These are my RITUAL patterns of my making in the studio - neolithic marks, a language, labyrinths - a journey inside. Mapping. The cape evolved in the exploratory project, a symbolic deconstructed portrait, thoughts and connections anchored in thread. After assessment I focussed on making...
"Why is Banksy allowed to write on walls?" was a question I was asked once by a wonderfully curious 9 year old. And it sparked a very interesting critical debate in our after school art class. Context alters a lot, once upon a time...
November 9th arrived. We met on site at 11.30am, it was my first time being on site having only seen the space virtually. Builders were still working away, dust rubble and no light. An exciting space with lots of nooks and levels to work with....
Manifesto for performance with multiple capes. BlanketCapeCircumference (Elena)CloakClotheCloudConcealCoverCurtainDisguiseEnshroudEnvelopeEvolve (Brigitte)HideMantleMantletMantellumMaskMetamorphosis (Brigitte)ObscureOrbit (Elena)OverlayPelerinePelissePonchoRefuge (Elena)ScreenSirapeShawlShroudSpiral (Elena)Solace (Elena)StoleSwatheSwirl (Elena)Transform (Brigitte)VeilWhirl (Elena)Wrap Inspired in some ways by Richard Serra's verb list, it is a way of mapping the entanglement and collision that could occur during the mingling of capes and bodies. To...
Gathering, Cataloging, making, fusing together, being tethered - cutting cloaked, drape My tutorial was spent discussing the potential outcomes (mostly unknowns) for the November performance with multiple capes, but interaction/intra-action is reliant on having an impactful number of capes.Recording some shots from above, how that viewpoint...
Words emerging from work, where to put them? Other artists that use words, that seem most relevant to me now (as they doing use a graphic/advertising framing device) - Jenny Holzer, uses the words to focus on a view - one that speaks of power...
" I would open my heart and carry it in my hand so that others may know also; for there is no deeper desire than the desire of being revealed. We all want that little light in us to be taken from under the bushel....
After the work submission deadline and the physical submission of the 'box' I was catching up on life things. I also got to meet Bob which was a highlight. Year 1 submission May and June tend to be rather hectic, looming work deadlines, bank holidays and...
2019 The Mapping the territory project began my close investigation of my practice as it stands now. I have been working for the last 11 years as a self employed artist and creating the physical map laid out the various aspects that my practice has...
I came across this exhibition in The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny. Originally from El Paso Texas, Reveles lives and works in Wicklow Ireland. The intricacy and detail of his painting and drawings is inspired by the landscape and ideas about infinity, as seen in different...
"I've told you my name, now learn my shape, though you already understand it in part. Every doorway has two sides, outward and in, one facing the public, the other the home. And like a doorway seated at your threshold, who watches incomers and outgoers, so I, doorkeeper of the...
These are the two images I feel work best out of the batch that I took. Wrapping thread and rags around a tree is an old pagan tradition that carried across to catholic rituals. Often the rag tree is situated by a spring or...
A strip of light fractures the otherwise dark surface of the stone. Split in two but still whole. Rough hewn. Larger flat sides command that it's placed a certain way. Lying flat or perched upright on the ugliest face. I count five sides. The white...
Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda Co. Louth In the 1940's this was a church where my father served mass as an altar boy. He lost his job after being a bit vigorous with the incense thurible and setting the rug on fire. Highlanes as a Church Highlanes as a temple...
Having glued a pair of the little people onto a piece of card I used various light sources to make different cast shadow images. As I was just pointing, shooting and messing with light I didn't really think about the narrative. But it was...
My brother sent me this article yesterday. And Bob also sent me the link after I posted this, how's that for delicious synchronicity! A show opening in the Large Glass. It's unlikely that I will get to see it in person but it may be...
While creating the map I stumbled across 3 different artists that visually gelled with the appearance of my own. Robert Fludd, Cosmic Imagery (Utriuesque Cosmi) 1617 Robert Fludd was an English Occult Philosopher with interests in science. He was labelled by his contemporaries as a magician and...
Mapping with annotations So after I stuck down all the bits, the act of sticking and being with it triggered more thoughts. Seen here in black marker across the diagram. Then I took the weekend off. My brother and his kids were coming to stay for...
During a power cut I took the quiet time to brain dump initial thoughts into my notebook. When I scribbled the word 'symbols?' I realised that I already had a template to work from. I pulled out an old test print from the petroglyphic portrait print...
Poster Girls Exhibit at the London Transport Museum till March 2019. I had great intentions of getting to the Tate during our three day trip to London but the realities of maneuvering 8 kids around central London over the New Year laid those plans quickly to...
This idea surfaced in the 'sitting in the labyrinth' phase. To create a series of mono-prints that might capture 'ideas and feelings projected onto atmosphere'. I struggled to give it some structure and not just chuck out a load of experiments. I knew I wanted to...
Folds have always been a source of pleasure for me. Folds of flesh, fabric, undulating landscapes, enveloping, uni-directional pliable interchanges. In the late 1990's I saw a wonderful collection of paintings by Alison Watt in Edinburgh. Her juxtaposition of nude painting and fabric folds creates...
When my term of taught workshops and classes end in the studio I relish the time I have to myself. I try to catch up with my peers and engage with whatever is going on. It frustrates me sometimes not to be able to incorporate...
When the tiny plastic people arrived last week in the post I wanted to revisit the red wax labyrinth model again. In many ways and on many levels, the narrative of this labyrinth has changed. How would the presence of people change the way I see...
Blackboard diagram of 'finishedness' by Bob,Brigitte, Jo, Sally & Susan I (M+C)*(N-VR)-C=F Intention, materials and construction, narrative and view/reflect minus changes = Finishedness For me intention, material and construction are tightly linked. Narrative is something I need to engage with making. View/Reflect is something I do but don't...
Not to be confused with a maze,a labyrinth is about a journey. A quest. It's so apt that Sally suggested it to me as a way to frame my fractured forms during our cohort crit call. This project has indeed been a quest, a very...
Caught contemplating at the small Passage Tomb at Knockbride, Cavan Neolithic Art (dating back over 5000 years), particularly the symbolism in mark making and their sculptural forms hold a huge fascination for me as an artist. As a teen I rambled through many field in search...
These photos were taken of crumpled wax papers back lit using a red light. in my call with Sally I sought her help and feedback as I was feeling rather lost with the framing. These images excited me, they captured the notion of nerves under...
So it's Saturday night, time to kick back and relax with your husband on the bank holiday...
[gallery ids="605,606,607,604,608,609"] As the grand finale of a 3 year MA in Studio Practice approaches I look to my writing as inspiration for the artwork. Everything seems to relate, the words like materials in themselves. There is a meditation working with the hands, especially handsewing. I...
‘Giving up the ghost’ oil on paper 2021 Giving up the ghost is an intriguing phrase. If an idea/thing/machine isn’t working, it gives up the ghost. My initial exhibition proposal was not working. I gave it up. What happened when I gave it up? Cave In, oil on...