The Inishlacken Project and others

I am now back from Galway; I visited the opening of TULCA. The visit was interesting not least because I met so many fascinating people, writers, artists, makers, curators and people working within the arts field. There were about 150 people at the opening, rather more than you might get at most English openings unless you are in London. An opera singer ‘sang’ the show open and there were speeches by curatorial advisors to the project and the Galways arts officer.
I was very pleased with the siting of my work – the curators had placed the neon in the window of the building facing out onto the street. This was the perfect place and reflected totally the notions within which the work was made – one of message vividness to the wider community. (There is more about the neon work on my website www.carolinewright.com if anyone is interested in more info). There were many works in the show and 70 artists in the whole of TULCA – the programme combines seminars, shows, performances, music, social occasions and site specific work around the city. There is more info on www.myspace.com/TULCA
I met one gentleman at the TULCA private view and he revealed that in this blog I do not often explain the connections clearly enough for the reader who does not have access to the information I hold in my head. One case in point is the last posts’ reference to the tea ceremony and my son’s course leader at Kingston, who has written on Japan and the tea ceremony. When I was visited Japan last year on a residency, I made several films about tea drinking and the tea ceremony (these partly inspired my recent mad artists tea party event). The neon work shown for TULCA drew together all the issues I had explored in film, using the four principles of the tea ceremony and the bright neon language of the young. The new generation in Japan are rejecting the tea ceremony tradition, in time it will die out. Hence the possible meeting with my son’s course leader to discuss a common interest in all things Japanese together with the ever present possibility of new ideas and work is something I am looking forward to.
In Galway I met with Rosie and we talked further about the Inishlacken project. The opening date has been set for 31st January 2008 and I was able to meet with the Galway Arts Centre curator, Maeve Mulrennan to talk about my ideas briefly.
So all in all a productive visit especially as I was only there for 24 hours. It was only marred by a terrible flight home with loss of cabin pressure, oxygen masks, emergency decent, an unconcious passenger, fire engines and my life passing before me for what seemed like an eternity. Thankfully all was ok apart from one passenger but it has taken me a while to recover.