This article is from page 42 of the 2013-09-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 42 JPG
CULTURE NIGHT at The 5 Star is an exhibition featuring an array of lens-based media that includes installation, sound, video, photography and painting.
Ennis artist Shelagh Honan curates the exhibition which is the third from the series ‘Call It What You Will’, which began in the small village of Ballyferriter outside Dingle in a house called Tig An Tobar in 2012.
“It attracted much curiosity from the local villagers who had not previously witnessed a Camera Obscura installation” reveals Honan.
“Fiona O’Dwyer’s installation turned the streetscape outside the house upside down and projected the image on to the walls of the living room.
“While this is an analoguue technique that was used by renaissance artists it is still as exciting to witness in todays digital age where technical virtuosity is now common place,” she adds.
The exhibition was further developed and become part of the Photography Ireland Exhibition in Faber Studios in Limerick this summer.
“Here Maria Finucane’s video piece ‘Blow’ featured the artist blowing dust against the dark night sky these images were then projected against an old whining machine,” says Honan.
“The final piece is housed in a small glass box, where the captured performance of Blow loops endlessly to the whirring sound of the old machine being cranked up.”
For her own installation that’s entitled ‘Below The Surface’, Ms Honan features a male figure fully clothed plunging and drifting in to the depths of the Atlantic ocean.
“The final piece is then projected on to the surface of a disheveled bed,” she reveals. “I filmed the piece on the pier in Doolin with underwater diving instructor Christy Healy and his son Stephen,” she adds.
The exhibition will also feature painting from John Hanrahan and a video piece entitled ‘SongLines’ based on the Shannon estuary from Dutch artist Trudi van der Elsen that deals with imemory of neglected aspects of the land and reflects the loss of emotional engagement with our surroundings and ancient symbols.