bauntlieve

Bauntlieve – Conversations is composed of two parallel projects by artists Patricia Hurl and Therry Rudin. Having recently moved to a cottage in the somewhat ‘remote’ townland of Bauntlieve, Inagh in Co. Clare, they wanted to find a way to create a cultural dialogue with their new neighbours. They kicked off the project with a party at their cottage, which quickly turned into a ‘round-the-house’ céilí event, with the best of traditional music and dancing.

Video, text-works and Coracle - Patricia Hurl and Therry Rudin

The community of Bauntlieve were familiar with the ‘documentary’ traditions of art – portraiture, the representation of houses, animals and land – and while this was somewhat outside of the usual practice of these artists, they recognized the opportunity that this presented to stand on common aesthetic ground and to develop a truly collaborative artwork with this rural community.

Hurl began to invite neighbours into her studio to paint them; she decided to “revisit an old favourite painting, Grant Wood’ American Gothic, the iconic image of mid-American vernacular” as a template for the portraits. The sittings became a form of cultural exchange, with stories and histories being offered by the sitters to the artist, who in turn sought to arrive at a physical likeness, something that was important to the sitters.

Rudin, for her part, began to make a photographic record of houses, land and animals; she sought to “monumentalise” the images and began to give framed copies as gifts to the families. The artist made light boxes “which will illuminate these images of Bauntlieve is a celebratory fashion. The light boxes also function to bring into focus images of and insights into the shared experiences of our lives, including universal questions as “who am I?” “how do I define my relationships?” and “what happens when we die?” .

A second work by Rudin, the Coracle piece, was a further response to her engagment with the community. The artist says "In conversation with the people of our close community here in Bawnslieve I felt that it was important to involve all of us in a celebration of renewal, rebirth to remember and honor the lives past and present in this very remote townland. Cloonmaken Lake which can be seen from our cottage, gave me the idea to build a Coracle, which is ancient fishing vessel, made of canvas stretched on a circular framework of interwoven hazel and willow rods. Texts and drawings of personal nature were added to this by everyone and the Coracle will be set on fire during the period of Mid-Winter. "