With time a place unwinds itself; people and their names make a space familiar and map a wide breath of time. There are differences in me now between this time and the first time I was in Charlestown.
I spent a short month in the Art Centre in Charlestown exploring the changes that happen with time, particularly the movements between being present and being absent; short inconsequential absences and longer, perhaps infinite absences.
My residency was directed by the photograph in the hallway of the Art Centre taken in 1986 of a large group of people in the Square. They were members of The (renowned) Charlestown Little Theatre Group, actors and extras gathered to partipate in the filming of a community access RTE play called “The Emigrants” written by local man Gerry Murray.
During the month of January local residents came in to visit me, to name the group and talk about Charlestown on camera.
Later that year we returned for a screening of the original film and my research video. The cast and families were in the audience. They had not seen the film since it was aired on television in 1986.
I spent a short month in the Art Centre in Charlestown exploring the changes that happen with time, particularly the movements between being present and being absent; short inconsequential absences and longer, perhaps infinite absences.
My residency was directed by the photograph in the hallway of the Art Centre taken in 1986 of a large group of people in the Square. They were members of The (renowned) Charlestown Little Theatre Group, actors and extras gathered to partipate in the filming of a community access RTE play called “The Emigrants” written by local man Gerry Murray.
During the month of January local residents came in to visit me, to name the group and talk about Charlestown on camera.
Later that year we returned for a screening of the original film and my research video. The cast and families were in the audience. They had not seen the film since it was aired on television in 1986.
CHARLESTOWN ARTS CENTRE Charlestown Co. Mayo.
January 2016, in residence.
February, show.
January 2016, in residence.
February, show.
Thank you to: Joanna Hopkins, Gaynor Seville, Gerry Murray, Seamus Birmingham, Patricia Maloney, Angie Casey, Declan Casey, Sean Grimes, Joe Lowther, Anne Marie Kivlehan, Matt Doyle, Michael Mulhern.
TY Students: Amy McCann, Leasha McHale, Anna Sloyan, Michaela Henry, Anna McHale, Jenny Cawley, Elaine O’Donnell, Hannah Burke, Eoin Beirne, Luke Dunleavy, Adrian Flatley, Tomas Harrington, Megan Haran, Ryan Dockery, Jake Doherty, and Teacher Sinead Roache.
