Loose Ends: ART:2016 Open Call National Project

Loose Ends was commissioned by Arts Council of Ireland as part of the ART:2016 Open Call National Project Award to mark the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising. The work was co-commissioned by The Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin and Matt’s Gallery, London. Loose Ends was a major commission and made a unique contribution to a national debate about the contemporary relevance of a formative event in the history of the Irish state and how this should be remembered and commemorated. The research also significantly contributes to examining how art can bring new insights into representations and understandings of national identity and history in a rapidly changing country. Loose Ends was shot in locations in Gola Island, Donegal and Dublin city centre, following a period of library research and site visits to both places. The footage depicts two places connected through events leading up to the 1916 Easter Rising and its conclusion. The research explores how forgotten people, overlooked events and neglected sites associated with the Rising are remembered and imagined today. The formal rigour of the output is built around the creative decision to use a single zoom lens to articulate the connections and differences between these two places. The long, slow zoom collapses space and perspective while examining the material evidence of how these places look, one hundred years after the events of 1916. The camera takes the viewer close to the surface of existing architectural structures and their surrounding urban and rural contexts, while a 5.1 surround sound audio mix with voiceover explores how a residual response to these events continues to resonate in the present. The research advances the methodologies and processes of video installation as a form of expression that can be used in renegotiating traumatic experiences.