Arts & Culture: News

The Silver

A four screen video installation and sound piece

An exhibition of  work  by Martina Coyle launched on Thursday 12th October 2006, in Mickey Lavelle’s Car Showroom, Eachl é im, Blacksod by Catherine Marshall Senior Curator: Head of collection, Irish Museum of Modern Art.

Martina Coyle, an artist from the Mayo County Council Artist’s panel was commissioned to produce a site responsive artwork in the Erris area. After an initial research period living and exploring Erris, Martina returned to spend 4 months in residence in Blacksod early in 2006. Martina’s approach to creating The Silver was holistic in nature. Considerations of the location, the history of the area, language, (being a Gaeltacht region) and integration with the local community were paramount in the process to ensure a site sensitive artwork. In Martina’s own words ‘change and the local must be at the heart of it’. In response to her time in the area, Martina produced a time-based intervention and installation that is drawn from the actual and historical aspects of the Mullet peninsula, the Inish Kea Islands and its inhabitants.

Filmed in ‘real-time’, the sun-set off An F á l M ó r , could appear as a large still life photograph, yet while you watch, the landscape gradually changes with multifarious variations in light and the slow movement of clouds, thus setting the pace of ‘The Silver’. Juxtaposed to this are three other video pieces, two, filming the movement of boats between the Islands and the Mainland and the third representing presence on the Island. Martina aims to capture the psyche of place and of the people through generations attuned to the minute changes in the light and the elements. There is a mesmeric rhythmic feel to the work, setting a quiet melodic pace, a feeling of time passing and of the inextricable continuity of life in this exposed and isolated peninsula. The reflective mood is enhanced by a soundtrack of voices from the community, oral recordings using the Irish language as testimony of distinctive speech rhythms and place names particular to the locale.

Martina Coyle currently based in Dublin, divides her practice between Ireland and Paris. Martina is well-known for her multi-disciplinary and collaborative work, both in Ireland and Europe.

This Public Art Project for the Erris region was commissioned by Mayo County Council in 2006, funding for which was provided by the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government Percent for Art Scheme.

For further information contact Sally O’Leary, Public Art Co-Ordinator, The Arts Office, Mayo County Council, 094 90 47561 email soleary@mayococo.ie

Invitation to The Silver exhibition (see above for details).

Contact:

The Arts Office
Mayo County Council
Aras an Chontae
Castlebar

Phone: (094)902 44 44 ext. 7558, 7560
Email:artsstaf@mayococo.ie
Opening Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
and 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.