Ailbhe Mc Gowran
Passage
Durational performance piece created on the church grounds of St Munchin's Holy Catholic Church.
This body of work was composed of four separate performances which demanded physical effort and discomfort, intended to highlight the unforgiving labour suffered by the victims of the Magdalene Laundries.
Washing Away the Sin
Live performance during the Beyond the Square exhibition. Performing the monologue from Jean Racine's Phèdre, an extreme revelation that ultimately leads to a tragic end. Using duality by retelling a revelation, and yet keeping the words private and secretive by speaking in French so only the few in the audience (if any) who speak the language may understand.
Inspired by childhood sofa, blanket and chair forts. Experiencing the concept of “hiding in plain sight”.
Emotional Knapsacks - User Instructions
We store all of our emotions and thoughts inside of ourselves and carry them around everywhere with us, like little knapsacks.
Unless we decide to open the knapsack, we keep it shut and store everything inside.
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They can be made from any unused materials or unwanted scraps. They are accessible to all, there is no ideal material. Leftovers from other pieces, they are only part of an item, part of an old story, now they can hold much more depth – secrets, stories... anything the user wants.
Our thoughts and feelings are our own, but being in our own heads by ourselves gives us an obligation to independency, we can never possible share all of our thoughts to others to observe, analyse or compare. We are other, alien from everyone. To get around this, we can expel our innards and make them other.
The body is left by itself – purely surviving with its needs of food, drink, sleep, excretion, mating… Just the shell of the human being is left.
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How To Create Your Own Emotional Knapsack:
1. Find a spare piece of material, any material of any size will do, as long as you can fold it in half.
2. Fold your material over, with the inside outward
3. Sew along two sides leaving one side unsewn for the opening
4. Find a piece of string (this can be twine, wool, elastic… or any other material for the closing mechanism)
5. Fold over a small amount of material at the opening all the way around, this needs to be big enough for your string to go through
6. Sew along the fold but leave a small opening
7. Thread your string through this opening then tie a knot with both ends of string (insures it won’t slip out)
8. Turn entirety inside out
9. Voilà, your very own Emotional Knapsack is ready for use
How To Rid Yourself Of Your Insides
– A Basic Guide To Becoming an Empty Shell of a Human Being
Puking, crying, screaming, shitting… are all valid ways of getting rid of what is inside of you. But if that doesn’t work, just hide it.
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