“The Cove pulses with the memories of scaling the crags with the sea below, feeling the rocks with fingertips, smelling and tasting the air, with the effort, the challenge, the pleasure, the fear, the sense of mortality and the peacefulness and release.”
Tomorrow is the last day of the installation and at 8.30 pm there will be the last performance by Bridget and Esther, of the movement material that we have developed. It has been really interesting to see the way the movement material has gone through different phases since the opening. The first couple of performances felt exciting and special but they were followed by one or two rather dull ones. After that we went back to the rigour of the embodying process. Emphasising again the fact that the movement as performance is simply real movement in real time and real place. This is the reality of the compositional material. However the rigour of the real time composition is sustained by the understanding that the roots of the movement decisions lie in the attention and the way that creates the basis for intention and then action. So the issue is the way the attention is guided. In this case the attention is on the specifics of memory.
Not the generalised memory that degrades into nostalgia but the focused memory of the specific locations in Port a Doris that were the sites of the deep sensory, kinaesthetic, and affective investigations. So the movement is just movement but the micro-compositional and interpretative decisions are guided by an integrity of the attention. This rigorous process liberates the intuition. Relying on the fact that the work has been done and that the attention is focused on the appropriate things the intuitive taste to make one particular sequence of shapes or one specific tonus pattern or rhythmic form can be relied upon to produce some form of “sense”.
It was interesting that after re-focusing in this way Esther said that the performance seemed so normal and easy. The quality of the performance was amplified enormously and it began to develop textures and depths that had only been hinted at in the early showings.
We used various versions of the soundtrack; sometimes just the sea, sometimes with the clips of the discussion between me and Dan, sometimes the ambient sounds of the flapping tent, bits of chat, the swirling sea and crunching pebbles. It feels more and more that the sea on its own is really enough.
I’m very happy with the outcomes. It feels like the ground has been broken for a major development of working methods and performance approaches.
The installation grows on me day by day. I’m around it all day most days submerged in hours and hours of the sea on the sound system. Beautiful. Relaxing in a way but also full of variation and tension.
Favourite bits? They change from day to day, but most days the slow motion rolling on the pebbles attracts me. The sound is fantastic. The Rope God is a very “balanced” piece. It is very acceptable, satisfying without being demanding. It just sits there. Of course the platform itself is wonderful. It still has this amazing quality of “belonging” where it is. It was just like that in Port a Doris too. It has a very gentle presence. Of course you can’t miss it, but on the other hand its effect on the memory is rather subtle.
It is interesting to see who bothers to spend time with the video pieces. I know that when I go to an installation piece, or any exhibition really, I am quite obsessed with getting everything I can out of it. I try to see everything and to spend a lot of time with each element. Most people who come into the space seem to just drift really. They get a feel, an impression, but I worry that they miss a lot of the layers and depths. When someone really bothers to explore by reading the blog, watching the videos right through, sitting and thinking a bit, they evidently get very engaged and drawn in to the work. It is also noticeable how these people begin in different places. For some the entrance point is the blog, for others the photo’s, for others the videos. I wonder what are the ways of encouraging people to put this effort in. With too much explanation, on a gallery guide for example, or a written distilled explanation of the project it feels that it would be too leading, too much with a tendency to explain, to close the doors of the imagination. On the other hand one can see the lack of confidence that some people have to begin to engage with the work independently.
I don’t mean at all that we’ve had negative responses: quite the reverse in fact. However I feel a certain restrained diffidence in many peoples engagement with the installation.
Perhaps there is simply too much in it?
I miss Port a Doris. I am in the memory of it so much because of my daily proximity to the installation. It is so different to sleep in a bed. To hear the cars not the sea. To be dry most of the time. What I most miss is the consistent practical physical effort necessary for living at the camp. Everything demanded some form of disciplined attention. It wasn’t a holiday, but somehow, for me, there is a relief and a serious pleasure in the necessities of daily existence when they are so closely framed.
DANCE NOT DANCE CLIMB NOT CLIMB – AUG 2009
SENSING. FEELING. DOING – OCT 2009
CIVILITY AND ALTITUDE – OCT 2009
UNPREDICTABLE SPACES – NOV 2009
TEXTURES IMPRINTS FRAMEWORKS – JUNE 2010
EMBODYING LANDSCAPE AND VERTICAL LEVELS – Sep 2010
THE DAY SNOW CAME - Dec 2010
MEANING AND LOCATION – Jan 2011
THE LOCATION IS WHERE IT SHOULD BE – Jan 2011
IDEA BASE CAMP – Jan 2011
THE COVE – Mar 2011
NAMING SOME THINGS (1) – MAY 2011
NAMING SOME THINGS (2) – MAY 2011
SOPHORIFIC RAIN - JUNE 2011
ANTEBURN and AFTERBURN - JUNE 2011
TRANSITION – SEP 2011
Update:
After two beautiful and eventful weeks at the cove we broke camp and carried everything out.
It meant dismantling the platform and packing it so it would be good to reinstall in the studio gallery.
Gary and I worked late into the dark taking off the sheets – after the dibond cam e off it was interesting to see the stains and marks on the plywood – straight dark lines where the dibond joined – stained with water, dirt and salt – then damp stains and some mould. This was in the dark so the head torches really illuminated these colorfully – the plywood looked bright orange.
On the Monday we awoke from a night of near force 11 gales. By mid morning the main tent had collapsed - the poles splintered. It had lasted just long enough.
Steve had real life to deal with and went off to Derry with Tonya for a baby scan – we all had various segments of important other life filtering into cove over the last few weeks – it is useful to think how significant other things effect the experience in the cove. I spoke to Maggie, Leo and Anna most days and that connection to our kitchen (where they were on the phone) had a surreal ness.
We first packed everything up – tents, kitchen, equipment etc. Then Gary and I finished dismantling the platform. Ailbe, John and Jay arrived – our helpers to help carry out the material.
Carrying was difficult in the wind – we were unsure if we could do it over the headland parts of the path. Safety was an issue. Gary and I tested a few single sheet carries and managed ok – you had to dodge the gusts and be prepared to set the sheet down and also take several rests. But we did it in the end – the wind dropped slightly – it was ok – you had to be careful and take time – but it was ok. My arm was ok actually – the carrying technique avoided any painful movements. I was happy I could do it. But it was grueling work for 3 or 4 hours.
The saviour no.1! Steve arrived back – with good news from the scan and with a bag of sandwiches and drinks.
Then saviour no 2!! – the local farmer arrived with his tractor and trailer to lift the materials from the bottom of the long steep muddy hill up to the road and the van. This saved us another days worth of hard carrying.
All loaded into the van and drove to Derry where we unloaded around early evening. The amount of equipment and materials looked pretty crazy when strewn around the studio space in Bishops st. The boards tho looked beautiful.
Then a few days off back home – to return at the weekend – when Gary and I rebuilt the Platform in the studio over sat to sun midday – it was bit of a marathon effort. Gary slept on the floor – I slept in the van to protect it from drunken louts. I really respect Gary’s effort and resilience.
We added a new angle to it – so it slopes down to the left – so it’s not an obvious dance floor – or disco stage. It works well – it reinforces the object quality of it – the sculptural artwork. Gary also pointed something out which to me is really cool – it counter points the slope of Bishop street so when you look out f the door you see the intersecting slope of the street. The surface of the dibond remains fascinating to me – the stains, smears, scratches and dents – without this – new dibond sheets in the gallery space would have not had the resonance I feel with it. It will be a challenge to bring its history into the foreground.
