Project 52 / Tionscnamh 52

I was delighted to be invited to take part in Project 52/Tionscnamh 52, 
an interesting art project, that took place on the Dingle Peninsula, over 2017, 
and was exhibited as part of  Feile na Bealtaine, our fantastic arts festival, 
the May Bank Holiday Weekend. 


Project 52/Tionscnamh 52 is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary arts
project connecting 52 artists living on the Dingle Peninsula. 
Over 52 weeks of 2017, each artist had a week to create a new piece 
of work. This piece was then passed on to the next artist and was used
as the inspiration for the next artist’s new piece. Artists involved in 
the project include writers, painters, dancers, musicians, photographers, 
filmmakers, milliner, among others. The work is grounded in the 
landscape and culture of the Dingle Peninsula with pieces in both
Irish and English. This project captures the rich and diverse art 
being created hereand is a barometer for the collective community.

As part of the project, a creative piece was made, by No 1 person 
on the list, it could have been visual, verbal, auditory, or any 
other format. This piece was then passed onto No 2 on the list, 
who only saw the previous piece, an had to create a new piece
 influenced by it. And so on... I was given the following photos, 
and had to create a some form of art based on it.

Using these photos as influence, I concentrated on the 
text, which was both in English and Irish. It reminded me 
of my final pieces in college many years previously (Fadó, fadó!! 
[Irish for long, long ago]). I created pieces of text carved into 
wooden panels. The words, illegible, became shapes rather 
than text. I decided to use this same technique.

Firstly I carved text into a wooden block. I used lino cutting 
tools, and a hieroglyphic style of font, angular letters that
 would carve easier than cursive. Using a combination of oil paints, 
and oil pastels, I coloured the text and the wood.

I then played around with the wording of the text, writing on torn paper, writing and scraping with oil pastels and sharp implements. I was really enjoying the process. I had a week to create my section of the project, and then I sent these photos onto the next person.

Project 52 / Tionscnamh 52 was exhibited as part of Feile na Bealtaine, 
in a large room, which used to be a brewery. Until the exhibition, 
few of the artists had seen each of the works, so it was a really 
interesting opening! As well as art pieces, from print to sculpture, 
there was poetry, music, sound, performance. It was an 
excellent experiment and shows the diversity of artists living 
on the peninsula.

 I have photos on my phone to transfer and edit, of the exhibition, 
and of my final piece, which I will edit into this post over the 
coming days. I am trying to get back into blogging 
and hopefully this will kickstart my blogging mojo!