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

Third Phase Residencies

Back to residencies

Collooney NS; Collooney, Sligo; Dave Kinane

screen

Written by artist Dave on 8 September 2005

stone lady

Written by artist Dave on 8 September 2005

footpath

Written by artist Dave on 8 September 2005

open day

Written by artist Dave on 8 September 2005

Open day

Written by artist Dave on 8 September 2005

On the 4th of May we had our open day. We had a good attendance including a visit from the boys and girls from Sooey. Some of the visitors were interviewed on camera by the girls, but when they ran out of interviewees they interviewed each other, pretending to be pupils visiting from another school. The feedback was very positive to all the work and photos were taken for the Sligo Champion.
I made a visit in the meantime to say hello and goodbye (unfortunatly, no funding for another residency). Strange thing! A large beech tree which stood c. 250 years in the yard fell down one night, nobody around thankfully. (see image, handprint on bark, earlier) Good news, the girls won their Gaelic football, “Cuman na mBunscoil” tournament and also retained their Green Flag for their work on the school environment. I see it flying when I pass these days. Thanks for the cards and good luck to the girls going on to Secondary school. I will miss my visits.

Since finishing my residency in May I have been developing some ideas which have come out of working with the girls in Collooney. Coincidentally I have been following a video making course at The Community Media Training Centre in Manorhamilton. This has involved camera and sound techniques, and editing. This will be a huge help to me in working on a final video element for my Response. I have begun work on a “screen” (see image) which I hope to use as a surface on which to project several symultaneous images. The surface has 3 separate facets which I hope can fuse the images.
Another aspect was prompted by Orla Kenny in pointing me towards “Glowlab” (www.glowlab.com) and ideas around Psychogeography. We experimented with this in the Collooney streets when we took chalk and, interviewing passersby, traced their journeys in colour on the ground. Also during the clean up day we had used the cameras to record the normally forgotten. ignored or overlooked in our “drift” through the town. This has begun an important investigation for me. I have been reevaluating my photography in this context. I have started to put some of this work together for a new web Site. “The Academy of Subrural Exploration” is now online at www.slowloosechippings.com I will be hoping to develop this further in the future. The “Fonts” page features two water fonts from Collooney, the first of many now collected from all over the Nth. West.

Muddy confusion

Written by artist Dave on 21 May 2005

Muddy confusion

Written by artist Dave on 21 May 2005

Muddy confusion

Written by artist Dave on 21 May 2005

Muddy confusion

Written by artist Dave on 21 May 2005

Muddy confusion

Written by artist Dave on 21 May 2005

Muddy confusion

Written by artist Dave on 21 May 2005

Muddy confusion

Written by artist Dave on 21 May 2005

Last day with the class. We decided to go to the Bleech Mill again. As we arrive the heavens open. Do we stay or go back to class? Muddy confusion in the quagmire of the ruins, but nobody is complaining. Equipment getting spattered. Our long cloth is sopping wet after a few minutes. The girls chalk their faces and take photos of each other. We experiment with the cloth and draw on the stones, bringing light and colour into the dreary interior

map5

Written by artist Dave on 23 April 2005

map4

Written by artist Dave on 23 April 2005

map3

Written by artist Dave on 23 April 2005

Map2

Written by artist Dave on 23 April 2005

Map

Written by artist Dave on 23 April 2005

A project today in the centre of Collooney. The girls would approach passers by and ask them to name the place they travelled from to Collooney that day. “Would they mind drawing their route to town on the footpath” The girls built up maps of the town and surroundings from their own knowledge and the input of those who would cooperate with them. Some wouldn’t. Others took a great interest. Family, relations, friends, shopers, postman, mechanic.

action4

Written by artist Dave on 23 April 2005

action3

Written by artist Dave on 23 April 2005

action2

Written by artist Dave on 23 April 2005

action

Written by artist Dave on 23 April 2005

projection

Written by artist Dave on 23 April 2005

Next day in the classroom, I projected some of the street images onto large paper which the girls traced as the start-off of a large drawing. Choosing crayon, the drawings took on a “keep within the lines “ kind of neatness. Arguements about surface treatment, worry about the end result. But somebody said, “can we take this piece of paper outside and paint it” Bingo! Action painting on the grass for the afternoon.

clean up3

Written by artist Dave on 20 April 2005

clean up2

Written by artist Dave on 20 April 2005

clean up

Written by artist Dave on 19 April 2005

This week the girls were doing a sponsored clean up of Collooney. This was an opportunity to take the cameras out into the street and record some images of rubbish and the texture of the street.

ghost

Written by artist Dave on 13 April 2005

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Quicktime, 2MB

This week a visit to a ruined Bleech Mill at a place callled Rathbraughan Bleech Green. We took a long piece of white cloth into the dark and dank ruined stones. It seems to collect light to itself and reflect it into the dim space. Also coloured chalk drawing was done on the stones.

floating

Written by artist Dave on 13 April 2005

. Click on picture to see this animation. (Quicktime)

Back again after what seemed like a long Easter break, we got straight down to work. I have noticed that the girls often use the cameras to make images of themselves. In the work we did using magazine images for weaving and collage the girls invented their own representations. I made a template for a puppet which the girls then constructed. It has articulated arms, legs and head. The girls dressed and imaged the figures to their own designs, choosing the charactor and gestures for their own construction. We then took images in terms of frames for animated action
Since the figure was too large to scan completely we used the scanner as a space that the figure could “float” through. Others used the stills camera to make a series of images.

Waiting on the Window sill

Written by artist Dave on 15 March 2005

Waiting on the window sill.
Taking the magazine images as source material we collaged these portraits onto paper seedling pots. The pots are prepared with potting compost and seeded with linseeds. We will be anticipating the germination of the seeds and “hair” growing from the heads. We will photograph them at intervals to make a time lapse animation.

Cochneal Beetle Dye

Written by artist Dave on 2 March 2005

A very enjoyable day out to the Linen Museum in Lisburn Co. Antrim. Learning about the linen process.Demonstrations of Spinning and Weaving. During a dye making workshops the girls learned with horror that the red dye in many foods in made from the Cochneal Beetle. They got to crush their own to make this beautiful colour

woven vessel

Written by artist Dave on 2 March 2005

We began by taking newspaper and magazine paper and rolling it into a long fibre. We wove these fibres into flat and 3D compositions. We got interesting woven structures and patterns by the random conjuntions of colours and images.

Magazine Weave

Written by artist Dave on 24 February 2005

We began working with portrait images in the magazine pages. We meshed two images into a single image. We also collaged abstracted elements such as hair and faces.

Weave

Written by artist Dave on 26 January 2005

This piece is made with recycled bicycle tyres. And air