Yesterday I spent a few hours photographing & videoing the film installation, Limit Horizon, before taking down the show. The footage here is very short, just a teaser, but I’ll put up more as I edit it. The Super 8 film running through the projector (Horizon) is pretty wrecked now – it was running continuously on a loop, and this is the second time it’s been shown at a stretch. The outcome was anticipated at least!

Yesterday (Thursday 11th August) some 35 people from the area of Birr & beyond were treated to a guided walk on the Killaun Bogland Reserve, led by local man & geologist Dr. John Feehan, as part of the Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival.

It was the first time I’d been out to the Reserve since the end of March, and the transformation was remarkable! The fallen bridge has been completely repaired, and so too has the walkway itself. It is terrific to see how efficiently and carefully it has been reworked – no wood was disposed of unless it was necessary to do so – you can see from the photograph below just how carefully and concernfully done this was (the dark wood is the original walkway):

waste not, want not

Afterwards folks gathered at the gallery in the Maltings for some tea, coffee & biscuits where they were invited to engage with the works installed by Siobhán & myself, and to ask any questions about how the work came about. All round a very lovely morning!

Spent Sunday of the Bank Holiday down in The Maltings, Birr, installing Alchemical Reserve. A minor mishap with a certain super 8 projector derailed my plans of a swift installation – but relief came with the discovery of a secret button that keeps the Lamp from Lighting! Thanks to Julien of Super 8 Ireland for his analytic understanding of the equipment he sells, phew! I’ll complete the installation on Friday, just in time for the opening at 6.30pm – if anyone is down the Midlands way be sure to drop by!

Alchemical Reserve is an exhibition of works by Jessica Foley & Siobhán McDonald inspired from many walks & hours spent out on the Killaun Bogland Reserve, near Birr, Co. Offaly. The works, ranging from unique ‘resin’ pieces and drawings by Siobhán McDonald, and Super 8mm projections, idiosyncratic bog walkway furniture, and an audio short story by Jessica Foley, will be installed at The Maltings, Birr, from the 5th to the 12th August.

A Guided Walk across the Bog with Dr. John Feehan

Car pooling is available from The Maltings, Thursday 11th August, at 11.30am sharp. Be sure to wear/bring rain gear with you! There will be refreshments & conversation with artist Jessica Foley about her work & relationship to the Bogland Reserve afterwards. Hope to see you!

Visit Birr Vintage Week & Arts Festival for more information.

Alchemical Reserve began as an experiment in sharing & developing art-making, between artists Jessica Foley and Siobhán McDonald.  Our practices are both very different, but we share common interests thematically and philosophically in many ways. We decided to exhibit together to explore these similarities further and to see where the process might lead. To focus this journey we have used geography as our formal constraint, namely the Bogland Reserve at Killaun.

This exhibition has become a focal point for us to extend our own work, and to share the offshoots of that process with a wider public.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE

WED 23^rd

THE WRITING WORKSHOP 5.30 – 7pm
This workshop will be facilitated by Jessica Foley, and will draw its subject matter from the exhibition Alchemical Reserve – there will be experiments with thaumotropes (simple homemade 19th century animation devices) and wisdom from the i-ching, and mostly there will be chat, writing and tea drinking. No experience required, all welcome.

Please contact jessica.dylan.foley@gmail.com to reserve a spot or inquire for more information.

EXHIBITION OPENS FULLY FROM 7pm – 8pm
We hope you will join us, we don’t have a budget for wine or beer, so bring along your own if you fancy a tipple!

THURSDAY 24^th

Open all day 12-6pm
In conversation… 6pm – 7pm

A relaxed, informal conversation between the artists, writer/artist Fiona Fullam, and the public.

All welcome  (There will be tea & biscuits, dress warmly)

FRIDAY 25^th
Open all day 12-6pm

SATURDAY 26^th
Open all day 12-6pm
Both Jessica and Siobhán will be in the gallery all day. Siobhán will be running demonstrations of her seismogram apparatus throughout the day and Jessica will be making thaumotropes with any one interested.

SUNDAY 27^th
Open all day 12-6pm

ADDITIONAL EVENT AS PART OF ALCHEMICAL RESERVE:

BFJB will be playing some jazz tunes this sunday from 5pm at The Joinery (Arbour Hill, D7) as part of Alchemical Reserve, a show by Jessica Foley & Siobhán McDonald.

No cover charge, BYOB policy, loads of great art on show…  can’t think of a better way to start a Sunday evening. Can you??

:: music by BFJB :: alan elliott (bass) – mathias …baumann (guitar) – owen o’neill (tenor sax) – aidan o’donovan (drums) ::

I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before, but my interest in the bogland reserve goes way back. Most of my family were involved in the establishment of the reserve and the building of the walkway. Though I was only about 8 or 9 years old at the time, the enthusiasm of the people involved in the project was inspiring and wonderful. I recently found the Report on KILLAUN: St. Brendan’s Community School, Birr – Community Educational Bogland Reserve.

Reading through it I’m amazed at the vitality & scope of the project, and how simple it’s objective is – to conserve the bogland, to pull it back from it’s 20th century role, solely as an energy ‘resource’, and to establish it once again, in some small part, as an ecology of it’s own reward – a fundamental part of what sustains the diversity of life existent in the countryside of the Midlands of Ireland. Here are some excerpts from the Report:

I should say that Y.E.T.I. stands for Youth Environment Trust Initiative, and was a group of students, self-organised and assisted by teachers in the school, who came together in the very early 90′s to conserve a local area of bogland that was gifted to them by Bord na Mona.