BREATH AND BLOOD | 2018
IMAGE CREDITS | POSTER IMAGE & DESIGN – SANDRA CORRIGAN BREATHNACH
(FEATURING – MACLENNAN AND CORRIGAN BREATHNACH)
PERFORMANCE DOCUMENTATION | EMMA HOWE
Born out of working closely together on a body of work during 2017, ‘Breath And Blood’ was an exhibition/installation of drawings, video, sound and live art performance, that took place in the Burren College Gallery and Newtown Castle in 2018.
Named after Corrigan-Breathnach’s poem, ‘Breath And Blood’, the performance /installation looked at the cyclical nature of life and regeneration that occurs within it, viewing this as a possible aspect of mind, where nurturing growth and new energies, can allow one to expand and renew one’s awareness of being. Carbon, a fundamental building block of life on earth, expressed in the form of charcoal, a core element of Corrigan-Breathnach’s practice was brought together with MacLennan’s mounding of the body, transformed through the nature of ‘action’ a new emerging narrative opened, released and created further fusions allowing forms and perceptions to alter. A temporal drawing unfolded, echoing ‘natural’ transitions. Duo drawings, evoked using human hair embedded in willow came into being, thereby suggesting further links, with hair holding ‘memory’ and willow ’emotional healing’ by intertwined, intuitive, flowing action.
The personal became a sharing connective element within the objects of the performance and installation, the wood of the Scroll handles coming from wood that has been nurtured by both Artists over time the Birch handles from Alastair MacLennan and the Willow handles and drawing sticks are made from Willow grown by Sandra Corrigan Breathnach with the drawing sticks containing strands of her own hair.
INSTALLATION / MATERIALS
Collaborative Works on Paper – Main Gallery and Castle Space
Performance Drawings – Glass Jugs of Water – Black Oil paint mixed with white spirits in white ceramic bowls
Drawing Sticks – Designed and Created by Sandra Corrigan Breathnach – Willow and the artist’s hair
Charcoal – Irish Charcoal (With thanks to Greenfuel Ireland)
White Dress – Created by Sandra Corrigan Breathnach – worn during the performance and hung in Newton Castle as part of the installation following the performance
Wood Y shaped branch – MacLennan’s – sourced from his home
Video – Videography – Editing – Sandra Corrigan Breathnach
Two Sound Works – 1 – Main Gallery 2 – Castle Space – Sound Recordings/Editing – Collaborative process
Collaborative Sculpture | Painted Wood
Collaborative Scroll | Marked + Hand sewn by MacLennan and Corrigan-Breathnach | Handles as noted in the above text kindly turned by Gerard Leslie
IMAGE | ALASTAIR MACLENNAN + SANDRA CORRIGAN BREATHNACH LOOKING AT ONE OF THEIR COLLABORATIVE WORKS IN MACLENNAN’S STUDIO IN MAY 2017 (WHICH FORMED PART OF ‘BREATH & BLOOD’) DURING A STUDIO VISIT BY CAPE TOWN BASED VISUAL ARTIST AND RESEARCH ACADEMIC DR. KIM GURNEY
PHOTOGRAPHY | KIM GURNEY