Visiting Coming Home

The MacVeigh family were one of our many groups of visitors who joined us on this rainy afternoon at West Cork Arts Centre. Some members of the family had already viewed Coming Home during its time in Dublin Castle as part of their architectural design studies and remarked how interesting it was to see it in a new format. The family felt that the historical short film that accompanies the exhibition is very important to the overall experience, observing that as an art exhibit it manages the monumental historical context of the Famine conscientiously.

Michael Farell’s Black 47 particularly engaged the MacVeighs as they felt it incorporated a lot of the different elements in Coming Home. They found the style and scale of the painting, understandably, impressive but also empathised with the artist’s attempt to recontextualise the Famine as a global human tragedy. The family identified many WW2 reference imagery in the painting. In an experience similar to my own, the MacVeighs expressed disbelief at the story of the Turkish Sultan narrated in the painting.

Black 47 is a painting of an imagined scene; the trial of Charles Treveylan. Treveylan, now infamous in the anthem the Fields of Athenry, was one of the figures in charge of Famine Relief during An Gorta Mor. His inaction at this time is a source of controversy in Anglo-Irish history and this painting addresses the complicated circumstances of the Famine. Farrell was an extremely political figure and had to leave his teaching post in New York due to his outspokenness at the time of the Vietnam war. However, Farrell was Irish born and even though he lived much of his life in England and France his paintings always engaged with Ireland and Irish history. In reality, there was no trial of Charles Treveylan, but there were trials of Nazi leaders in Nuremberg following WW2 and this painting eludes to this, along with other WW2 imagery. In the docks observing the trial is the Turkish Sultan.

I first saw the figure, like the MacVeighs as being rather bizarrely misplaced in this particular courtroom drama until I learnt of the interesting story behind his inclusion in this scene from the exhibition’s curator Dr Niamh O’ Sullivan. The Sultan of Turkey had an Irish doctor who convinced his employer to pledge £10,000 in Famine Relief aid to the Irish people. However, as Queen Victoria had only contributed £2,000, the Sultan was asked to lower his contribution to the sum of £1,000 to avoid embarrassing the Queen.

This absurd tale ignited a strong sense of poignancy amongst the MacVeighs. They left the exhibition with an idea for an interesting public venture; that Famine graveyards and villages should be opened as national parks and heritage sites in homage to the Famine victims. The exhibition arouses strong feelings and reactions among our many visitors and I look forward to sharing more of these experiences in the coming weeks.

Interacting with Coming Home

I arrived at the gallery today and was once again overwhelmed by the interest in Coming Home. Visitor numbers reached a record-breaking 800 last Thursday and have been generally a consistent 500 a day! The exhibition engages with a broad spectrum of interests from Irish history to world history, art history to contemporary art, local interest to current social significance to everything in between. Coming Home embraces a variety of perspectives and interpretations creating an inviting atmosphere that visitors can respond  to. The tour team and invigilators are all hearing so many stories and personal accounts form visitors, I hope in the coming weeks to able to share some of these with you..

Photo credit: Zenda Williams

110 Skibbereen Girls

The programme of events at the Uillinn this summer is extensive and an event I was unlucky to miss was 110 Skibbereen Girls by artist Toma McCullim. This event was the culmination of a year long project as part of the ongoing and comprehensive Arts for Health Partnership Programme managed by West Cork Arts Center since 2005. The artist worked at Skibbereen Hospital Campus, with the staff, service-users, residents and visitors to create this site-specific artwork.

Earl Grey's Famine Orphan Scheme, the inspiration behind the project, has been the topic of conversation among my friends and I since the event's launch. The story of how 110 orphan girls, aged between 14 and 18, left Skibbereen in 1848, in the middle of The Great Famine, for Australia has received press due to Toma’s project. These girls worked as domestic servants before being matched to a suitor when they were of a suitable age. The girls had, on average, 8 children each and it is estimated that there is 10,000 descendants of the Skibbereen girls. The disbelief amongst my friends and I that these girls, who were younger than us, left their traumatic surroundings for this fate caused this story to resonate . However the artist Toma McCullim is keen not to portray these girls as victims but intends instead to commemorate their bravery. The girls left behind a life of incredible hardship in a town ravaged by the Famine and with remarkable resilience, they sought a better life. Bravely, they left Skibbereen and all they had ever known, equipped with a bowl and spoon, with a desire for a fulfilling life.

The Australian Deputy Ambassador, Simon Mamouney and the Artist Toma McCullim at the unveiling of 110 Skibbereen girls artwork at Skibbereen Hospital campus. Photo credit: Carmel Winters

Toma used the symbol of the spoon to commemorate the girls. 110 spoons were sculpted in beeswax by the many participants of the project before they were cast in bronze. The spoons are now embedded in  the walls of  Skibbereen Workhouse at Skibbereen Hospital campus. Councilor Danny Collins, deputising on behalf of the Cork County Mayor, spoke about the significance of the project in Cork County and how it takes on a heightened meaning in Skibbereen. Cork Kerry Community Healthcare Chief Officer, Mr. Ger Reaney put the work into the context of the residents and spoke about the important Arts for Health Programme.

 The artist Toma Mc Cullim also spoke at the event. I was told by anyone who attended that she spoke with 'a lot of heart' as she described her process; how she connected the staff with the heritage of the site and with the creation of the artwork, before thanking all of her collaborators, management and funders. In a particular poignant tribute to the 110 girls, Judith Constable and her daughter Katriona spoke at the artwork's unveiling. These two women are descendants of Jane O' Leary, one of the 110 girls who left Skibbereen in the mid-1800s. Judith provided an emotive account of the life of her great-great grandmother and also described her own personal search for her ancestors in Ireland.

The Australian Deputy Ambassador, Simon Mamouney was the ceremony's special guest. He officially opened the event with the story of the stone that was brought over from Australia to be embedded into the wall of Skibbereen Workhouse alongside the artwork. The newly formed, Skibbereen Hospital Choir was also in attendance and led by Liz Clarke delighted the crowd with a rendition of both 'Far Away in Australia' and 'Dear Old Skibbereen'. The event was a tremendous success, the extent of which can be seen in how 110 Skibbereen girls has filtered into the conversations of people who weren't even in attendance at this special event.

More information about the amazing work of the Arts for Health Programme can be found at artsforhealthwestcork.com

Skibbereen Arts Festival

Skibbereen is alive with the sounds of music and culture as festival fever engulfs the town. Skibbereen Arts Festival, which is in its 10th year, runs from the 27th of July to the 6th of August. Its presence has made itself truly felt throughout the town as music, art and culture can be found around every corner.

I found a beautifully designed exhibition Terra Incognita in The O' Driscoll Building on The Old Quay. The exhibition curated by the Doswell Gallery's Roisin Foley, includes work by Rachel Doolin, Tom Doig, Sarah Roseingrave and Tomas Penc amongst others. Tomas Penc is currently in residency here at Studio 2 in West Cork Arts Centre. He will be giving what promises to be a very interesting talk entitled 'Present.Makes.Future' on the 2nd August as part of the Festival.The free talk will be held in Uillinn and is an open discussion on technology, science and the contemporary mind-set around this issue. Another exhibition housed in the The Old Driscoll Building is Elements: West Cork Landscapes. I found this to be a particularly celebratory feature of the festival as artists exhibit glorious explorations of the West Cork landscape. These artists include Christine Thery, Donald Teskey and William Crozier. Christine Thery's uses masses of oil paint to striking effect in what I consider to be a must-see exhibition.

The Festival was officially opened Saturday evening by the acclaimed, Irish, artist Robert Ballagh. The artist is a popular figure in both the art establishment and public life. West Cork Arts Centre facilitated a lively talk with the artist on Saturday prior to the festival’s opening. Robert’s oil painting Roimh forms part of the Coming Home exhibition and he spoke at length about the impact of the Famine on the Irish psyche.He began his talk with a lament for the recent downgrading of history as a subject in the Irish curriculum.

I still have plenty to see in the coming week and an event I’m particularly excited about is the arrival of the Domestic Godless here at Uillinn This unusual trio is made up of Stephen Brandes, Mick O' Shea and Irene Murphy and they will be in action over the Bank Holiday weekend. Although they are not chefs, they concoct interesting platters of food, occupying the unfamiliar territory between art and gastronomy! I am also eager to take one of Skibbereen Heritage Centre's Historical Walking Tours. The only complaint anyone could possibly have with Skibbereen Arts Festival is that they haven't enough time to see everything!

For the full programme of events you can visit the website http://www.skibbereenartsfestival.com/

Tours

Photo credit: Justine Foster

I'm really enjoying giving tours of the exhibition to the public. It's great to see people's reactions and to hear people stories. There are free guided tours every Tuesday and Thursday at 1.30pm with no booking required - I hope to see you soon!

Anáil na Beatha

Coming Home is accompanied by a programme of events, talks and tours. Anáil na Beatha, a site-specific performance  by artist Allanah O' Kelly, was a particularly special event on our calendar. The new, live  performance,which took place Saturday the 21st of July, was held on the sepulchral grounds of Schull Workhouse.

Allanah O' Kelly is one of Ireland's internationally renowned multi-media artists. Her powerful multi-media piece, No Colouring Can Deepen the Darkness of Truth, along with her photographic panels of the landscape, A Kind of Quietism, both form an important part of the Coming Home  exhibition. O' Kelly is known for incorporating sound and image, praying and keening with photography and a kaleidoscope of scarred landscapes.

West Cork Arts Centre commissioned Allanah to create an event embedded in the community. Anáil na Beatha compromised of a sequence of performances, fragmented and presented on this highly-charged site. As someone who had previously never visited the Schull Workhouse, the atmosphere on the grounds was immediately striking. I am struggling to describe it as anything other than uaigneach, which is Irish for lonely or sad. This mood was intensified by the night-time setting of the performance. The event began in the late hours of the evening and continued on into darkness. The attendees were divided into groups and guided around the grounds to different performances. Some performances were brief while others seemed to narrate a particular story. All of the performances evoked a sense of cultural memory.

The ruins of the workhouse itself was central to the event. The building was strikingly lit against the night sky, which gave the effect of both beauty and melancholy. The audience sat, vigil-like, while the performers utilized the tradition of keening to lament and mourn those lost to this tragedy.

However, the artist emphasised throughout the event the sad fact that tragedies like these are happening today, albeit not in Ireland, but in the war-torn countries of the world. I left the performance thinking how shameful it is to see other people experience a similar plight to that  experienced by the Irish people nearly a hundred and seventy five years ago. Anáil na Beatha expanded on many of the themes and issues raised by the Coming Home exhibition and left the audience with plenty to think about.

Opening Night

A huge thank you to everyone who joined us for our Opening Night. There was a palpable buzz around the galleries as visitors experienced this significant and thought-provoking exhibition for the first time. Curator Niamh O’ Sullivan spoke passionately on the night about finally seeing this exhibition realized in Skibbereen. West Cork Art Centre’s chairperson Cyril Thornton and Mayor of County Cork, Patrick Gerard Murphy shared similar sentiments, remarking that it was a momentous occasion for the town considering its synonymity with the Famine and its reputation as a cultural hub of West Cork.

 Dee Forbes, Director general of RTE, officially opened the event. Her remarks in regards to the significance of  Famine illustration journalism, referenced in the exhibition, adds another lens to experience Coming Home through. As Forbes noted, we only know of events through media coverage and how the media presents information to us. It is an interesting idea and one that is particularly significant in the world today.

A common reaction to the exhibition is the realization of the Irish Famine’s similarities to other humanitarian crises that have occurred throughout history and continue to happen today. The contemporary artwork of West Cork artist William Crozier, Dorothy Cross, Rowan Gillespie and Hughie O’ Donoghue, amongst others, located in Gallery II, are significant contributing factors to this realization. Gillespie’s  bronze sculpture, Statistic 1/Statistic 11, seems to have caught the imagination of visitors, which are between four and five hundred a day. Whilst invigilating the exhibition and talking among visitors, I have witnessed many search amongst the Famine victims names inscribed on the sculpture for a shared surname.

Basking Shark Currach by Dorothy Cross is another artwork that immediately demands the viewers attention and retains it through the sculpture’s many layers of narrative. Another reaction that seems to be almost universal amongst the visitors on opening night is the disbelief that the Famine happened not so long ago! The effects of the Famine are still being felt on the Irish psyche as a result. President Michael D. Higgins, who opened the exhibition in Dublin Castle addressed in particular, how the effects of An Gorta Mor can be seen in the Irish mentality towards emigration. Many Irish diaspora are visiting Coming Home already, with visitors from America and England drawn to exhibition’s themes.

An element of theatre was incorporated into the night, adding a further sense of reality to an event that can sometimes feel confined to the pages of history book. The speakers were joined by local Historian Gerald O’Brien, Philip O’ Regan of Skibbereen Heritage Centre and Carmel O’Driscoll from Skibbereen Theatre Society, who embodied characters from Famine times and read accounts of their daily realities.


The response on the night was wonderful, with the artwork helping people to recall different stories of the Famine they had heard from family members, schools and Irish life. Everyone here at Uillinn was  thrilled with the success of the event. The interest that was aroused by Coming Home’s arrival has not subsided. The Uillinn is being kept busy with visitor numbers daily since the opening. I’m looking forward to meeting new visitors with new stories in coming weeks!