An Airing (2008)
This is a proposed public art project (2008) for the village I live in, Cootehall, County Roscommon, Ireland. The project was conceived as a response–using poetry and public interventions – to the unprecedented changes in the village as a result of Ireland’s economic boom in general and the “rural renewal” economic scheme in particular.
Part of this project has been realized to date: Viewfinder (see below) and a series of poems titled An Airing, of which Viewfinder is one. You can view a presentation I gave at the TRADE conference in Boyle, December 2007, which details my proposals for An Airing.
Viewfinder (2008)
24 July to 20 September, 2008
Viewfinder, a sited poem in a shed beside the Barracks, Cootehall, County Roscommon, Ireland.
A trick on the old and new Cootehalls (involving mirrors).
Viewfinder was part of AFTER, a series of public art interventions which addressed the unprecedented effects of Ireland's recent economic boom on the rural landscape. Facilitated by a TRADE international artist in residence program, five artists living in Leitrim and Roscommon (Carol Ann Connolly, Gareth Kennedy, Alice Lyons, Anna MacLeod and Christine Mackey) worked for a year with New-York based artist Alfredo Jaar. The events in AFTER were the results of this residency. For further information, go to www.after.ie. AFTER was funded by the arts offices of Leitrim and Roscommon county councils and The Arts Council/An Chomhaire Ealaíon
Staircase Poetry Project (2005 - 2006)
Poems on a staircase in The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim, Ireland. A new poem a month for 12 months (August 2005 to September 2006). Commissioned by Leitrim County Council under the Percent for Art Scheme. A book, Staircase Poems, was published in 2006. Click here to read much more about the project in a blog format.