Letters and Speechlessness

Glass artist Michelle O’Donnell came with her family from faraway County Offaly, and sculptor Sarah Lewtas and her partner, painter Ian Gordon, came down from their hideout near Mt. Earagail. I talked about Redmond Herrity in an earlier post. Seamus Quinn was in good form, hosting the best party in Letterkenny, and we ended the night at the Cottage Bar, with our spirits further elevated by the company and generosity of the celebrated Frank Kerrane, Rian’s father. Like many good nights in Ireland, this one required a little recuperation time the next day.  We had some great responses. As for my Old Tongue, responses ranged from “best film ever about Ireland” to “if this came up on my television, I’d take it in to have it serviced.” Others related it to the way one remembers one’s own dreams, and to specific Vajrayana Buddhist visualization practices. In any case, Letterkenny was, for a moment, the center of experimental cinema in this part of Ireland, probably, and dozens of people admired and got involved in the creation of “Velvet Letters.” Everyone we ran into had seen the newspaper articles, which was gratifying.

Seamus & Rian

By Seamus’s account, his many daily visitors were, on the whole, fascinated and intrigued. Many thanks to all who attended, had a good look, and welcomed me to the County Donegal arts community in recent weeks. Special thanks to Rian and Seamus, of course. Looking forward to future exhibitions.

Rian Kerrane‘s piece, Velvet Letters, covers two walls with an evolving tangle of letters/words that wrestles with red-flocked circles and leafy shapes. Visitors add their own significant words and phrases to a rolling list, and the new thoughts and sounds get composed and installed as the run of the show continues. Labor intensive interactive installation. If all of Letterkenny gets a word or two in, the wall will be a highly-figured near-black with the texture of text and its intersections. There’s still some space, so bring your words.

My short movie looks great on a framed monitor lent by the Letterkenny Arts Centre. (See this previous post for an even-more-abstracted variant of what’s being shown.)  The show is open to view right now. A wide range of people have come through and are amazed, puzzled, charmed, or caught off guard by Letterkenny’s most peculiar currently-showing movie. Everyone I run into seems to have something to say, which can’t be bad, and most seem to be productively befuddled, which is perhaps how the human mind evolves. It’s how mine does. I like this writhing flick. Hope you do. Stop by the opening and talk to us, and to the exhibition’s adventurous curator, Seamus Quinn (pictured).

The version of “Old Tongue” that just opened at ArtWorks is too quick and detailed to come across on the web, but by trying to strip it down for compression, I came up with a very different version, one that leaves recognizable imagery mostly behind for a flattish world of peeling and twisting. If you’re in Ireland, it’s up now, in Letterkenny, but I won’t be there until next week. Hope you like this variation.

(Update: I’ve arrived. If you didn’t arrive here via my home page, click here for more info on this show, Rian Kerrane‘s piece, Velvet Letters, curator Seamus Quinn, and the opening reception, which is coming up in a few days as I write. Here is another link, to my description of Old Tongue, my contribution to the exhibition [with a composite image].)