the neighbours (2012) HD 00:34 cathy fitzgerald
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I’m exhibiting with my human neighbours, The Nine Stones Artists , at Deighton Hall, Carlow, for Eigse 2012, 9-17 th June.

It looks like, thanks to the great help from the Eigse festival committee, that I will be able to project my video work in a small temporary room at Deighton Hall. I didn’t exhibit with the group last year; I was still finding my feet in my practice after a long break working in arts administration, green party work etc. While some of my clips have been shown before during Eigse, such as burning bright (1:30s) in 2008, and once i counted birds in 2010 (1:oo) (in the new Carlow multiplex cinema,  which incidentally turned out to be a surprising thrill to see my work on that scale). Perhaps, the space most complimentary for my work so far has been in a small dark walk in space, in the Norman Gallery at Monksgrange in 2009 and I think Deighton Hall may also be a great venue.

I have decided that since  my works to date are mostly 1-2 minute clips and are a sort of video diary of an ongoing slow art & ecology forest transformation project, that I will make a show-reel of different short works for Eigse 2012, possibly with some new clips as in ‘the neighbours’ sketch above. It will, I hope, show my interest in moving from more standard, narrated nature documentary conventions, to works where I’m trying to sensitively attend,  give more prominence, to the universe of communities that make up my small forest-in-the-making, on which others  and myself depend (my wee 2.5 acre forest delivers us 70+ tonnes of wood every 3 years, gives out huge amounts of oxygen and provides home and food for a multitude of beings; and in this clip you can see broadleaves living quite happily amongst the conifers). My recent writings about ecocide and the anthropocene (the age of man) has made me aware that we must urgently extend our perceptions to encompass the more-than-human world, and  ‘yield to our neighbours, even to our animal (and plant) neighbours, the same right as ourselves to inhabit’ this land, if we are all to survive and thrive.

The Nine Stones Artists was formed in 2004. Its members are professional artists most of whom are based in the foothills of the Blackstairs Mountains in South County Carlow—video artists, printmakers, sculptors, photographers, painters and installation artists. , Gwen Wilkinson, Annabel Konig, Martin Lyttle, Jules Michael, Rachel Joynt, Michelle Byrne, Stephen O Briain, Eileen MacDonagh, Cathy Fitzgerald, Brian Hand, Orla Ryan and Remco de Fouw, will occupy and adorn the raw exposed brick hall space of Deighton Hall with some of the most intriguing artworks to have emerged by any art collective in the country.

VENUE: Deighton Hall, Dublin Street, Carlow
OPENING: SATURDAY 9 JUNE, 6-8 PM DATES: Saturday 9th – Sunday 17th June
Opening hours: 1pm to 7pm daily

Note, the proprietors of Lennon’s Restaurant together with the Carlow Brewing Company promise some POP-UP fare* on Tues, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday (12, 13, 15 & 16 June) 8 until 10 pm

• * quote from Sitting Bull