Above: Jaskaren Cheema at a workshop with artist James O’hAodha in the Sikh Temple.
Photograph by Jenny Brady.
Two locally produced video installations, the product of creative work from the Ships Passing in the Night, Culture Connects project, are currently available for viewing at Pembroke Library, Anglesea Road.
Ships Passing is part of the Culture Connects Dublin South East Area project, Light Waves, which sees community groups link in with CoisCéim Dance Theatre, The Hugh Lane Gallery and the National Gallery of Ireland to explore themes of exploration, connection and disconnection with neighbouring suburban villages.
The videos are the culmination of the project which involved children from the Sandymount Dodder Sea Scouts and the Sikh Community who have their temple in Sandymount.
Artist James Ó hAodha worked with both groups of children on the project, teaching them the basics of morse-code communication, which progressed to a stage where they were able to send each other encoded messages.
Later workshops explored group photography, and the creative staging of images: The children recreated scenes from iconic group photographs and paintings including ‘Lunch Atop A Skyscraper’, ‘The Last Supper’, and Robert Ballagh’s ‘After Goya’, an iconic work that they had viewed and discussed in a visit to The Hugh Lane Gallery.
Above: Recreation of Lunch Atop a Skyscraper by James O’hAodha and children from the Dodder Sea Scouts and the Sikh community.
The second video is the final collaborative artwork; a moving-image piece that ties together the varied strands of the project and uses light and darkness as a medium.
The light of a lighthouse is mimicked in a way that momentarily illuminates the journey of the project – capturing portraits of all the participants, their community spaces, and the scenes they have created together.
The videos will be on display in Pembroke Library for the rest of the year. The library is open Monday and Tuesday 1.00pm- 8.00pm; Wednesday and Thursday 10.00am-5.00pm; Friday and Saturday 10.00am-1.00pm and 1.45pm-5.00pm.
By Harry Bradley
