Trading Places/CR.E.A.T.E. Programme

The Residencies

Periodic updates from the journals of the artists involved in this project. Back to residencies

Memory Objects

Written by artist Cliona on 22 November 2003

This week we did some large prints based on the memory objects we brought in and saw last week. We also looked at our matchbox pinhole camera images and our photo object prints from last week. In the afternoon we arranged memory objects on the the photocopier glass to create a series of large transparent prints which we will display on the windows.

Precious pinholes

Written by artist Cliona on 15 November 2003

This week we visited the mill at Maudabawn.
We looked at some of the old objects at the mill a world war periscope..old firesidecauldrons and compared them to some of the precious objects which we had brought in which held memories for us.
These included many interesting objects from photosof friends and family,a bayonet(!),rosary beads made from conkers(!!), hand embrodiered linen, a tshirt from New York, a hat, a medieval looking weapon, model racing cars, bracelets and many more things. We made some photoprints by laying our objects on paper. And also created some drawings. Then we took advantage of the beautiful weather and took some pinhole camera images with our matchbox cameras. Precious tiny images were created.

Linen Lore

Written by artist Cliona on 15 November 2003

Last week we visited Lisburn Linen Hall,
We recorded our visit on minidisc, video
and with a digital camera(you can see a section of one of our images on the right).
Our guide Emma filled us in on many of the stories behind linen including
stories of egyptians, rich saffron clothed men and spinners attempts
to attract a good husband. We finished off with a weaving
workshop and wove our way home.

stories and wheels

Written by artist Cliona on 27 October 2003

During the week we had a visit by local historian Patrick Cassidy who brought
along his spinning wheel. As follow up we did some drawing(many spinning wheels) and made some books which told the story of Linen. You can see a mightly loom on the right.We also watched the animations we made last week.
We are looking forward to the Lisburn visit which will happen after the holidays.

Animation, appearances and disappearances.

Written by artist Cliona on 18 October 2003

This week we imagined what might happen next in a series of old photos from the linen industry. We used this as inspiration for work on a series of rough and ready stop frame animations.
See a still here. We also experimented with some camera tricks and made groups of the whole class appear and disappear.When the boys disappeared to a match the girls videoed a chat show and a play.

painting and parachutists

Written by artist Cliona on 18 October 2003

Today we tried out the pin hole cameras..not everyones turned out quite as expected, however there were some nice surprises. We also did some drawing today. Each pupil received a small square of linen and was asked to draw some of the objects which linen was used for you can one of them here. We also began to do some work on photocopies of linen cloth, pupils imagined some of the memories which could be contained in a piece of linen.They did drawing with charcoal and added cutout black paper,also worked with white chalk and black plasticine.Some pupils grouped together and worked on a larger scale.. We had many parachutists one nearly lifesize, also plane wings and spinners.After this we did some painting from a projection of old photos. Some beautiful painting work was produced. I’ll add a link to these later this week.

From pencilcases to pinholes and cameras to townlands

Written by artist Cliona on 1 October 2003

Aogan O Farrell and Dernakesh sixth and seventh started their Residency yesterday. During the day I showed them some lifesize rayograms, and introduced them to the darkroom.They told me where they came from and introduced me to the wonders of cavan townland names as well as making wonderful photo prints from pencil case contents and hi-tech cameras from shoeboxes. More from Dernakesh next week.