Sí Gaoithe reflected on cultural tradition, intertwining artforms to create a conceptual musical and shadow performance. Songs and stories of the changing seasons were woven together to create a short and interactive performance with residents at Dunmanway Community Hospital working with artist Sharon Dipity and Fiona Kelleher.
‘It seemed like a good idea to try a new way of articulating our songs stories and visual work. Sharon and I worked closely to create a script and props and background landscapes to portray the story of summer and winter winds as residents shared with us in the sessions. We hoped to create a performance featuring participation from the staff and patients as well.’ explains Fiona.
The two artist worked together at Uillinn studios to develop their ideas, taking the studio time given by West Cork Arts Centre, to consolidate the concepts they had built up with the group over a number of weeks and months, into a performance. ‘Over the course of the project we collected ideas, stories, remarks and responses and created new songs and poetry about the summer wind (Si Gaoithe) and the winter wind. Sharon created a great collection of props and backgrounds for the Shadow Theatre . The Shadow Theatre itself is on loan to Fiona from Graffiti Theatre Cork and forms part of her performances and theatre work for Early Years Arts. We created a script and enlisted the talents of the staff to narrate. We have had some mini performances and plan to film the work for showcase in early January. The response has been very positive so far.’
Filmmaker Aoise Tutty will join the team in January to document the work in progress and final performance will be presented to residents, families and visitors on Monday 7 January, 2019 at 2pm.