The Land Lines Trilogy

A trio of three durational, site specific, performance art works, entitled The Land Lines Trilogy, made in 3 outdoor locations in County Clare between June – September 2022. These works are a development of my performative practice, further exploring endurance based actions and the land, and were made with help from the Arts Council Agility Award 2021.

The artistic intention of this body of work:

To explore further the relationship of the body with the action and with the site. To experience the actions of walking, crawling, climbing. How it will feel to complete the tasks- during and after as physical and mental experiences. Whether a state of flow will be achieved. Highlighting the earth as we inhabit it now, as an act of documentation, and our relative insignificance but similarly the continuing desecration our human presence metes out on our environment. These works are a progression of sorts from a previous body of work; I Need To Be Ready.

The three works are titled

1: Crop Circle Crawl

​2: Tide Map

​3: Mountain Pilgrimage

Tide Map​

Image above is from Tide Map, performance made on 30th June 2021, at the Flaggy Shore, Co Clare

Description of performance:

A time based work, based around the shifting tide. By walking along at the edge of the water as the tide comes in, over and back along the full length of the beach, the tide is mapped. This is done for as long as possible, staying at the edge of the water, ideally for the 6 hours of the incoming tide until the tide is fully ‘in’. The artist accompanies the sea as it travels in on its journey. The performance will be documented and possibly live-streamed. Audience have been invited to observe and participate by walking alongside the artist.

Importance of the site:

The Flaggy shore beach is a contained beach, and quite a negotiable space to travel along, jelly fish and rocks allowing. The shifting tide line is visible as it travels up the beach. The full tide is very apparent as the water reaches the back wall of the beach. There is a back wall and above this, a parking area at the side of the road where you can park. This is where filming and documentation occured.

The performative action:

The goal is to complete 6 hours of performance, accompanying the tide over the 6 hours as it changes from low to high tide.

To consider: Energy never dies, it’s just shifted into another form. There are multiple elements in motion in the work: the earth is turning, causing the tidal shift of the ocean. The water is moving up and down the beach The artist is moving up and down in line with the tide. All are cogs in a larger mechanism.

The performance is:

​An act of attendance,

An act of witnessing.

An act of accompaniment.

An act of endurance.

An act of observation.

​The images and video link seen here are from a trial performance of Tide Map, which was performed on the 30^th June 2021 from 4am to 11am. The site for the performance was the Flaggy Shore Beach, Newquay, Co Clare. The images are courtesy of Paul Corey

(youtube link to video documentation of trial performance of Tide Map)

Work 2: Crop Circle Crawl

Image above is from the performance made on 31st May, in Doora, Co Clare (Image Credit Paul Corey)

​Description: A time based work consisting of the artist crawling along in a pattern of ever increasing circles in a field of green grass. The crawling has a mark making effect in the long grass as it is flattened temporarily from being crawled over.

​Importance of the site: The field where the work was made is located in Doora, Co Clare, 10 minutes outside Ennis. This work was seasonally dependent as June is typically when the grass, which has been allowed to grow long, is harvested to make hay bales and silage. Hay cutting is also weather dependent for obvious reasons. I returned to the site the next day and the grass which had been flattened through the crawling movement had mostly sprung up again. So the mark making was ephemeral . ​

The performative action: I used crawling here so as to slow the movement down and so as to experience being close to the ground. The action becomes about the mark making effect, as ones ability to see is blinkered by the close to the ground positioning and by the tall grass surrounding. Through using crawling I saw spiders, bugs, flies, different grass and flowers. I felt every lump and bump and uneven area. As discussed before the motion of crawling is also democratic to the body, extending (if performed carefully) equal gravitational weight bearing pressure throughout the hands and knees. It also requires the the R and L side of the brain to work together to coordinate the movement.

The performance is:

An act of attendance.

An act of exploration.

An act of mark making.

An act of endurance.

An act of observation.

Work 3: Mountain Pilgrimage

Image above is of the artist resting on the Cairn found at the summit of Mullaghmore. Taken from the performance made on August 23rd, Mullaghmore Mountain, Burren National Park, Co Clare (Image Credit Paul Corey)

Description:

A time based work consisting of the artist crawling from the base to the top of Mullaghmore Mountain, Burren National Park.

Importance of the site:

Mullaghmore (Irish: Mullach Mór, meaning ‘Great Summit’) is a 180 metre (590′) limestone hill in the Burren in Glenquin, Kilnaboy County Clare, Ireland. Mullaghmore is crowned by a cairn – a huge aggregate of loose stones within which the bones of Stone Age or Bronze Age special dead are interred in chambers or stone boxes. Cairns also functioned as temples where the living practiced religion and ritual. The late, great Burren writer and philosopher, John O Donoghue, considered Mullaghmore to be a sacred mountain and memorably wrote “Mullaghmore is the tabernacle of the Burren. Once glimpsed it can never be forgotten”.