THE THIN LAYER
Off-site residency / funded invitation (independent research). 2019 – 2021
Askeaton Contemporary Arts, Ireland
The Thin Layer – an off-site fieldwork programme (during Covid 19)
The Thin Layer was a body of time-based works drawing on geological thinking to explore behaviour, environment and instability and responded to research funding as part of the off-site programme of Welcome to the Neighbourhood initiated by Askeaton Contemporary Arts in Ireland.
Askeaton Contemporary Arts – Welcome to the Neighbourhood info 2019
The initial 2019 residency was postponed until 2020, then Covid 19 postponed the programme further. Due to uncertain movement in 2020 and 2021 ACA supported all artists in an off-site progamme of funding instead to focus on individual practice.
Founded in 2006, Askeaton Contemporary Arts aims to promote and provide contemporary visual art to the locale of Askeaton, County Limerick, Ireland. July 2019 will see the fourteenth edition of Welcome to the Neighbourhood, an annual programme of invited international and Irish artists resident and working in the town.
By developing community involvement and understanding how art might be produced and experienced in this locality, ACA aims to open up new possibilities of how contemporary art might operate outside a city environment, while concurrently supporting the production of new artists’ projects. The primary audience for the festival is the population of Askeaton, approximately 1,200. Their interaction with the artists and artworks is not only as spectators, but often they are actively implicated into the development of the artwork itself through their assistance or participation. This strand is developed through ACA’s activities each year.
Thirteen editions of Welcome to the Neighbourhood have been staged, introducing the work of artists from Sweden, Norway, Argentina, Mexico, Belgium, Denmark, France, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Germany, Holland, Canada, Bulgaria, United States, United Kingdom, Northern Ireland and Ireland to Askeaton. ACA has advocated an experimental approach to the production of artists’ projects, furthering an understanding of the possibilities of the project in a very broad cultural sense, and allowing for the development of the festival as a fluid conceptual model rather than as a more traditionally structured event.
Summary:
Independent off-site research residency funded by ACA Ireland / working remotely
Curator:
Michele Horrigan, Ireland
Invited artists:
Roddy Buchanan, Scotland
Ella de Burca, Ireland
Luce Choules, UK/Spain/France
Michelle Doyle, Ireland
Egill Saebjornnson, Iceland/Germany
Keywords:
Environmental Art, Physical/Human Geography, Ecology and Geology, Survey and Mapping, Archives and Fieldwork.
Funded by:
Links:
Link to Askeaton Contemporary Arts website
Link to ACA article in Irish Times
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WORKS
Emplacements, Construction for a script (text). 2021
A collection of concrete poems. Top image shows: E1 (the stealth undermining of labour value); and above image shows: E5 (the unequal divisions in economic wealth).
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Mass Erosion Event, Rehearsal for a performance (various rock types). 2020
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Mass Erosion Event, Rehearsal for a performance (various rock types). 2020
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Rockfall, Rehearsal for a sound (running time 17sec). 2020
This acoustic happening is a portentous signal of unfolding events – the afterlife of a tipping point. Several variations of this sound piece exist – they are to be played at loud volume.
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The Enigma of Dead Objects, Script for a performance (book cover). 2020
This proposition uses a dynamic and changing script to chart a conversation between technology and archaeology. This play features the characters Black Box and Temple of Poseidon (Sounion).
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Stronghold, Construction for a scene (various rock types). 2020
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Mountain Building, Construction for a performance (projection). 2020
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Alone at Last, Scenario for a performance (projection). 2019
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Wormhole, Constructions for a performance (consolidation). 2019
These photographic propositions are made from combining elements from the artist’s Prehistories collection – to date, c.1000 natural and artificial objects. A wormhole is a theoretical passage through space-time that creates a shortcut for long journeys across the universe. In the work, objects with different timescales are compressed through the making of a photograph. Held together in the image, these propositions allow the objects to exist in the same time-space. Images show: Wormhole (flourite – nest), Wormhole (desert glass – industrial waste sand), Wormhole (moss – flint).
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Letting Go, Rehearsal for an action (images). 2019
These structures are a signal of unfolding events – the consequence of natural agility to counter the forces of ‘holding on’.
