This publication presents twelve unique reflections of place and identity in the postcard format by six young artists from St. Mary’s School, Ballymote, Co. Sligo: Neil Murray, Elaine Dwyer, Shauna Gallagher, Angela Brennan, Keith Henry and Kristof Kenderesi.

These postcards are the result of a three month art project that was a response to the exhibition A Special Place in Sligo Education Centre, where a variety of artists explored a place special to them through drawing, painting, collage, text and photography. The task for this project and publication was to explore the same theme and how it relates to the experience and ideas of the young artists in Sligo. 

The images on these postcards have been created using a variety of photographic and other techniques – the group have experimented with different cameras including waterproof plastic cameras; digital cameras; plastic fisheye cameras; multiple exposure cameras; digital cameraphones; and finally, digital manipulation of their photographs. This has created a diverse range of quality and technique in their imaging of ‘place’.

The postcard format is the way the tourist industry typically represents places and landscapes in the area. Within this publication, the young artists have worked to develop alternative images and understandings of ‘place’ that are different from the typical commercial and tourist representations of Sligo. The ‘places’ shown by the young artists on these postcards are often not visually arresting, but are embedded with memory and invisible personal attachment: this is expressed through the name they have chosen for their publication, Behind the Seen.

There is an interesting interview with the artist by Slavka Sverakova on the CIRCA website here

Image: Chis Wilson, Landscape (triptych), 2008, acrylic and gesso on canvas

Since the work we saw in the exhibition at the EC was from 1989, this interview is interesting since it colours in his practice and art activity since then. It particularly refers to an exhibition at the Mullan Gallery in 2007.

Image: Chris Wilson, Valley, 2008, acrylic and graphite on canvas

Part of Aisling O’Beirn’s art practice involves investigating people’s relationship with particular places. She is especially interested in the type of information that does not appear on city maps - information and nick names for local places and landmarks gathered from around a given city.

She has reserached this ongoing project in Galway, Limerick, Belfast and Dublin, which results in a series of  official-looking ‘street signs’ of   these nick names being located around the city.

‘The project is driven from an interest in how nicknames for places and landmarks help map and describe the urban fabric of the city, and how maps are like editorial documents where select information is included or left out according to the maps function.’ see here

We also looked at two public art commissions by Aileen Lambert (commissioned by Wexford County Council) and Etain O’Carroll (Roscommon County Council’s Haiku Poetry and Photographer in Residence programmes).  Both of these projects resulted in small scale printed matter, and reflected on ways of presenting the local knowledge that comes with knowing a place intimately – stories, meetings, memories, nicknames. The discussion of nicknames led to Aisling O’Beirn’s artwork and a conversation about Ballymote nicknames, and if they might be too ‘offensive’ to be put on postcards…  

A discussion of possible titles for the project and final publication yielded the following suggestions:  

Behind the Seen

Totally Neglected Territories (TNT)

Perspectives   

We’ll be making our final decision next week, along with finishing the individual postcards, deciding together on the selection of the final dozen, and discussing design and distribution. 

Today was the first workshop after 2 weeks of work experience and the group are continuing to use the Adobe photoshop software to manipulate the images they have generated and design their individual postcards. The aim is that everyone will make 10 postcards out of which 2 will be selected for the final publication.

In the last workshop we looked at historical examples of Irish postcards from the 1970s to the present, many of which tended to be exageratedly positive, kitsch or stereotypical. The aim of our project is to produce a book of postcards that present an alternative understanding of this place.

The group has been given two exciting cameras to experiment with, in addition to using their own digital cameras and mobile phones to collect images. These are the Lomographic action sampler & fisheye lens cameras. There is 2 weeks until the next workshop as the mid term break falls next week. It will be interesting to see what photos come back!

sample photo above taken with the actionsampler from here

For last week’s workshop (October 17th), the group moved outside to make some paintings, after looking at examples by Sligo-based artists Barrie Cooke and Sean Mc Sweeney, both of whom have drawn significant inspiration from the Sligo landscape. We worked outside at Ballymote castle, using acrylic paints, a series of papers and different surfaces, and different tools such as pallette knives, and PVA to mix in textures. To see some of the paintings made by the group, go to the ‘artwork‘ page.

Barrie Cooke, the Lough Derg Pike, 1991

1. beaches
2. forests
3. people playing football
4. mountains
5. pictures of old people at old folk’s home
6. waterfalls
7. forest park
8. animals
9. countryside
10. churches & schools
11. hotel in Ballymote (sister works there)

Angela

1. my house
2. people playing football – brothers
3. Bunnaidhle
4. mart in Ballymote
5. the old cinema
6. field – with my cows in it
7. our school
8. the church in Ballymote
9. Kennedy’s pub – good craic
10. my dad’s tractor
11. mini train in Ballymote

Kris

1. cultural/ social landscape – drinks cans, cigarette buts, etc
2. morbid fascination with Cranmore
3. my cats
4. the cats, photoshopped
5. consumerism – random crap in shop windows
6. impermanence, double exposures, same place at different times
7. anthropological aspects – people and how they behave – gathering around shops, crowds, groups etc

 Shauna 

1. the park in Ballymote
2. the train station
3. estates around Ballymote
4. old people’s home – outside surroundings
5. school
6. the parish hall
7. playgrounds, football pitch
8. kid’s train track around the park
9. the castle – from the inside
10. fields, sheep and cows and stuff
11. countryside
12. around my granny’s, the cowshed

  Elaine D 

1. the woods behind my house, day and night
2. ‘the gallows’
3. river beside my house
4. motorbike & cars (my dad’s)
5. the graveyard at night
6. guitars and drumkit in front of Irish flag
7. pictures of interesting people

 Neil 

1. Forests around home
2. rush hour in Gurteen
3. people on O’Connell from the top of Harmony Hill
4. the well at home
5. manmade dam behind the river
6. granny’s rocking chair
7. Strandhill
8. pictures of SLigo Bay taken form the top of Knocknarea
9. footballer playing football
10. Glencar waterfall – from the top looking down

 Keith 

1. Ballymote castle
2. Ballymote park – man drinking
3. Keashhill
4. river at home
5. cave at home
6. something to do with the GAA
7. the mini train
8. the bog
9. something to do with traditional music

 Martin Parr, ‘New Brighton’, 1986. © Martin Parr

So far the group has looked at ways of representing a landscape or a place that have included traditional landscape painting and cartography/ mapmaking. In todays’s workshop we looked at the tourist experience of landscape, specifically through the photography of Martin Parr and the images of Sligo and other places promoted through postcards.

Questions and ideas the group are considering include:

• What are the most commonly represented places in Sligo (for postcards and tourism generally)?
• What places or experiences are missing?
• How is the experience of a place or a landscape different for a tourist than for someone who lives there?
• What viewpoints, places, ideas, or feelings could you contribute to a postcard of Sligo?

Relevant websites: www.sligotourism.ie; www.breifne.ie

Martin Parr, Ocean Dome, 1996 copyright Magnum