JAN-APR 2011 - Collaboration Project

As soon as Christmas and New Year and the snow were over, I embarked on a major DISTRACTION, namely the CREATE collaboration project.

I have to back-track somewhat to explain how this 'distraction' came about.
On leaving college, I had promised myself that I would do at least one art-project each year - this was the way I set myself a goal, without making it as a stick to beat myself with - in other words, supposedly a 'small target'.

The project that came to mind was called "Seeing with my Hands". You can read here about these ideas, none of which have yet come to fruition yet.
I realized that this project would have elements of collaborative art in it, and I decided that I'd better find out about this way of working. Through the college, I got myself included in a project, not just collaboration between artists and community, but also between artists from different art colleges.

Suffice to say that the next months were taken up with this work.

Here is a video of what the final work looked like in context of the exhibition along with a number of other artists who all worked with different groups.


We worked in a broad way with the people who lived in what is known as the Docklands area.

Our aim was to see and record the beauty we experienced which didn't always get much attention.

 We wandered around the area, meeting people and visiting different areas. One place we went to was the Dublin Graving Docks. I think one of the reasons I loved this place has to do with the fact that it may be on the brink of extinction. This was a very busy place historically, where ships came to be scraped periodically. Now, a new type of paint has been invented so that the barnacles can no longer cling to the surface, so the old skills are being lost, and one of the docks has already been filled in.

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 As if I didn't have enough on my mind already, I had already arranged to take a visit to NEW YORK in early March. It was a great trip - I even got to visit the Stature of Liberty. The main Art event we attended was the Armory Show, and the allied VOLTA show. Other than occasional conversations with my companions (they were both BA and MA students as well as tutors.) about what I was doing, I decided deliberately not to think about the Docklands Project. Time enough for that when I would get back home.

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By the end of April, it was all over - well, almost, as we did a one-day show in a community centre in East Wall.

Time to get down to dealing with all the material left over from the Degree Show.