small acts &collaborations - ongoing.
one act plays
individually diverse            
building to a larger
creating a whole.              




'Dance in the Key of Paternal Grandmother'

is a body based work in response to an artefact at the National Museum of Country Life in Mayo as part of 'Guide', a programme artist Dr Rajinder Singh created and deployed for the 2022 FolkLife residency.
I chose a cófra, a large dark, locked food storage cupboard to work with. I explored with Raj its possible history in movement over a series of zoom calls and short videos. What emerged was the result of a series of embodied choices, something from the deep, fully connected.

The 'score' for cófra consists of text and drawings as well as the videoed performances.

Other artists taking part were Breda Mayock, Alice Maher, and writer Alice Kinsella

FOLKLIFE a curated programme by Culture Works and a collaboration between the National Museum of Ireland - Country Life, The Linenhall Arts Centre, Artsquad and Mayo Arts Office, funded by the Arts Council under its Faoin Speir initiative.





Dr Rajinder Singh
Here is an introduction to 'Guide': Guide is a 6 to 8 week body based movement oriented program focused on the role of the body in art. It asks what kind of questions or discussions in exhibition-making may necessitate an engagement of choreographic thinking. It is underpinned by the consideration that our engagement with art always comes from a place of embodiment and attempts to harness the senses which are often marginalised in art practice, criticism and appreciation to enable new modes of engagement and appreciation.
Guide considers cultural artefacts and infrastructure through ideas around the body, embodiment and the senses. The aim of the program is to produce a 'score' as a subjective interpretation of the narratives that arise from within the body-based work created on and off site as a series of moments, broken up and reassembled like a collage through poetic and image-based modes of thought on performance.










‘The Poetic Mind of WB Yeats’

This project was a collaboration with Susan O’Keefe and Bog Cottage, (Roberta Murray, Orla Meagher and Kian Benson Bailes) to reimagine the Permanent Exhibition at The Yeats Society Sligo. 

Funded by a grant from the Department of Culture we reworked the story through wall paintings, text and moving parts. -We designed and built a Gyre, with the help of engineer Mark Ryan and my brother David Clarke -Paul Kennedy, brilliant steady handed line stripper from Dublin painted the porch. - Jay Roche and John of Triskill Design, who with experience and creativity painted the main room to perfection. Thank you all for your expertise and patience.

The exhibition now tells the story of WB Yeats poetry and the major recurring themes of his work from his myth-laden youth in Sligo to his time in the theatre, his political work to  the Vision (my favourite), his collaboration with his wife George and phases of the moon. 


           

We worked with the beautiful Arts and Crafts building next to Hyde Bridge in the centre of Sligo town, exposing the period details.




We used the imagery from the covers of the books-imagery and design Yeats was highly invested in. Artists Sturge Moore, Althea Gyles. 



















quotes and segments of poems







Call in, take the tour, feel the magic. 
The Yeats Society Sligo, Hyde Bridge, Sligo.






2022
book launch



Look, Look, Look, Look, Look Again: Buddhist Wisdom Reflected in 26 Artists.

by  Kevin Thomas Townley Jr. (Author) 

ASIN : B09QD1FTCT Publisher‏:‎Lionheart Press, a division of the Open Heart Project, co-founded by Susan Piver and Crystal Gandrud.Publication date:‎February 21, 2022. Language :‎ English








Container of Gathering - a zine (2020)

A collaborative zine made with Joanna Kidney. During a research trip to Iceland in 2019 Joanna and I spotted a convergence in the way we document our connection to the natural world and its objects. This zine celebrates those connections, that location and this creative friendship.

#handheldobject










Find - a public art project

FIND was a series of temporary artworks/installations/events in and around the town of Castlebar, Co Mayo.  The works are installed within walking distance of each other and found via the maps included in the brochure or by attending the guided artist tours.  The Linenhall Arts Centre acted as central headquarters/studio for participating artists and audience alike. 

These artists also had the opportunity to be mentored and supported by International profile artists Alice Maher and Aideen Barry during the development and realisation of their ideas.

The theme of FIND is experience of temporary work, and documentation and legacy of temporary work.  Artists were encouraged to consider discreet or ‘hidden’ works that will be ‘unravelled’, or be revealed, via the event tour, and maps – encouraging the audience to search out the work.
This project was the first collaboration of the Linenhall Arts Centre and the Mayo County Council Public Art Programme, curated by Gaynor Seville.  2014

The Mayo artists who were selected for the commissions are Ian Wieczorek, Amanda Rice, Chris Leach, Nuala Clarke, Alice Dixon and Joanna Hopkins




"woven found" collaborative site specific commissioned installation. Images by Nuala Clarke; textual components by Crystal Gandrud.


30 linen flags flew over Castlebar's Castle Street, honouring the “boom times” of the local linen industry (1700's). Hand painted images and printed text both celebratory of and elaborating upon the profound story of the manual production of linen.






Numberless Dreams: A Yeats Day Exhibition

“I bring you with reverent hands
The books of my numberless dreams.”

Between Spaces- an installation.
The difference between awake and asleep is the weight and opacity of gossamer. A perceived veil, perhaps imaginary, perhaps imaginary. And what, we wonder, is the difference? It is there, between, that our curiosity ventures. We wait. We see. And we gather. Then we wake from a dream; dream while awake; fall asleep both to dream and wake up. As if peeking sideways through glassine, it reveals the invisible inferences and spaces where we create both automatically and purposively. And also in that space we do nothing; we witness and we are delighted.
Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
2014
Helen O’Leary
Shawn Dulaney
Steven Corsano
Helen O’Toole
Crystal Gandrud and Nuala Clarke












  
Text: W. B. Yeats. Phase Fourteen, A Vision






photographing the photographer  2015.
I saw Bill Cunningham at the new Whitney Museum.
I happened to be next to him as he asked the guard to pose.
The guard tried disuading him. I sidemouthed to the guard that he might just pose as the photographer was famous and that he could be in the NY Times.
After Bill got the shot he thanked me for helping him.