Ag Cothú an Dearmaid - Active Forgetting
Ag Cothú an Dearmaid
Oona Hyland
Amharcealaíontóir is ea Oona Hyland agus céimí le déanaí aici le MA i dtaighde agus comhoibriú ealaíne ó IADT i mBaile Átha Cliath (2022), MPhil i Stair Ealaíne na hÉireann TCD (2017) agus rinne sí staidéar ar Chineamatagrafaíocht ag BCFE. Tá go leor cónaitheachtaí idirnáisiúnta déanta aici agus fuair sí The Emerging Artist Award ó DLR, Baile Átha Cliath sa bhliain 2022. Toghadh Oona chuig an Royal Society of Painter/Printmaker i Londain (2021) agus is ball í de Graphic Studio Dublin agus 9 Dragonheads.
Ráiteas an Ealaíontóra
Tá mo shuimeanna fite fuaite sa ghné fhisiciúil den ealaín féin agus cad is féidir le próisis dá leithéid a chur in iúl i gcleachtas ealaíne coincheapúil. Is bealach é mo mhodh chun próisis na cuimhne, coincheapa na teorann, na friotaíochta, an chreimthe agus an mheath a chur in iúl. Sa chiall seo tá claonadh i mo chuid oibre smaointe a fháil ó phriontáil thraidisiúnta fiú agus mé ag leathnú amach go meáin éagsúla eile, mar líníocht, dealbhóireacht, scannán agus físeáin. Áitím i mo chuid saothair gur féidir eolas ar phriontáil priontaí a chur i bhfeidhm ar chúrsaí eiseacha. Ag foghlaim ón chloch.
“Is éard atá i gceist le fáil réidh leis an neamhfhoirfeacht ná léiriú a mhilleadh, saothar a sheiceáil, an mothú a bhaint as beogacht …. Tá neamhfhoirfeacht de shaghas éigin riachtanach do gach a bhfuil ar eolas againn sa saol”.
Clocha na Veinéise 1851-1853 John Ruskin
Ag Cothú an Dearmaid: Bon Secours
Tá íospartaigh tráma imeallaithe i gcultúr na hÉireann sa lá atá inniu ann; cuireann a n-imeallacht isteach ar mhothú neamheagraithe agus neamhchabhrach a chothaigh eachtraí trámacha ina n-íospartaigh. Is samplaí iad áiteanna tráma tubaisteach ar nós an tsuímh ag teach na máthar agus an linbh i dTuaim, Co. na Gaillimhe, áit ar cuireadh 796 leanbh i gcóireáil séarachais in aice leis an teach, ar shuíomh tráma arb é láthair an chaillteanais agus an phian gan aithnid nó nár aithníodh den duine imeallach féin.
Ní mór an caillteanas seo a chur i gcomhthéacs tacaíochta pobail agus éisteacht aireach comhbhá. Chun é sin a dhéanamh, tá gá le bealach nua chun an gaol idir an duine féin agus an duine eile a bhrath. Is é an ceann eile scáth iontach den duine féin. Is é ceann de éirim eiticiúla agus pholaitiúla na hoibre seo ná go bhfuil teagmhais thrámacha doshéanta ach is díol suntais iad freisin.. In this short film I will explore some of these ideas as a listener, an artist and also as the child of a victim of the Tuam Mother and Baby home.
Oona Hyland, Aibreán 2024
Tost
Bainimis an glas den tost,
an tost a thacht teangaidh is urlabhra
na nglúnta a thainig romhainn.
An tost a chosc is a cheil,
tost na dtréan, tost na tíorantachta,
an tost a dhamhnaigh Dia agus duine.
Na ligimis don tost imeacht fiáin
thar thalamh méith ár gcuimhní,
a gcur ó fhás i bhfiailí na díchuimhne.
Na ceadaímis don tost ding a chur i gcaint
is muid ag iarraidh ar gcuimhní
a thabhairt chun solais i gcomhrá.
Tuigimis go gníomhaíonn an tost
i gcuislí ár gcuimhne mar screamh aoil
i bpíopaí, a dtachtadh, a gcalcadh, a múchadh.
Mar an féir ag fás is ag spréamh rútaí
i ngan fhios dúinn, tig an tost chun cinn
in íoganna ár gcuimhní, a bplúchadh.
An tost eaglach, an tost choiriúil,
tost na díchuimhne, tost callánach na mbréag,
tost na staire, tost na hurchóide, tost an uafáis.
Tost na cumhachta is na ceannasaíochta,
an tost a chuireann snaidhm i mbéal na fírinne,
tost na heaglaise, tost an phobail, tost an stáit.
An tost a thugann cead réime is saoirse
do na hainghníomhartha, do na huafáis,
a theacht chun cinn gan bhac inar measc.
an tost seo a bhaineann a mbrí de fhocla!
-Cathal Ó Searcaigh
22ú Aibreán 2024.
Dán úrchumtha le Cathal Ó Searcaigh don scannán Am Mothúchánach le Anna Viola Hallberg agus Oona Hyland.
Active Forgetting
Oona Hyland
Oona Hyland is a visual artist and a recent graduate with an MA in art research and collaboration from IADT in Dublin (2022), an MPhil in Irish Art History TCD (2017) and studied Cinematography at BCFE. She has been on numerous international residencies and received The Emerging Artist Award from DLR, Dublin (2022). Oona was elected to The Royal Society of Painter/Printmaker in London (2021) and is a member of Graphic Studio Dublin and 9 Dragonheads.
Artists Statement
My interests are interlocked in the materiality of print itself and what such processes can convey towards a conceptual art practice. My method is a vehicle to articulate processes of memory, concepts of boundary, resistance, erosion, and decay. In this sense my work tends to draw from traditional printmaking even as I expand into various other media, such as drawing, sculpture, film and video. In my works I argue that the knowledge(s) of printmaking can be applied to existential matters. Learning from the stone.
“To banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze vitality…. Imperfection is in some sort essential to all that we know in life”.
The Stones of Venice 1851-1853 John Ruskin
Active Forgetting: Bon Secours
Victims of trauma are marginalised in modern Irish culture; their marginality imbues a feeling of disorganisation and helplessness that traumatic incidents induce in their victims. Traumatic catastrophic sites of trauma such as the site at the mother and Baby home in Tuam County Galway where 796 babies are buried in a sewage treatment area near the home, are examples of a site of trauma that is a site of the unacknowledged or unfathomable loss and pain of the marginal self.
This loss needs to be placed in the context of communal support and attentive empathetic listening. In order to do so, a new way of perceiving the relationship between the self and the other is necessary. The other is the uncanny shadow of the self. One of the ethical and political thrusts of this work lies in the fact traumatic incidents are overwhelming but they are also a revelation. In this short film I will explore some of these ideas as a listener, an artist and also as the child of a victim of the Tuam Mother and Baby home.
Oona Hyland, April 2024
Silence is not Always Golden…
Silence spreads in the veined tissues
of our memory like limescale
in water pipes, clogging them.
Silence like thorny briars
flourishes in the dark earth
of our memories, smothering them.
Silence, what we omitted to say,
pains us now like an open wound
that cannot be healed.
Silence exists between what
we lost and what we held on to
like a shadowy beast.
Silence is a burning pain that
consumes the lungs of woads
like aspestos dust.
Silence screams in unlikely
spaces: confessionals, constitutions,
and above all in coffins.
Silence is given a false timbre
and a pitch, a lyrical deceit
in the speech of tyrants.
We need words to talk
about silence, decipher its presence,
speak sentences of resistance.
We need to mourn before
it’s too late, what we hid in silence.
the word is a heart that can stop.
We need to give them air,
give them strength, the stories that were
silenced on church altars and in state chambers.
Let the dead weight of silence
be lifted, let the raw acoustics
of speech blast it away!
This poem was newly composed by Cathal Ó Searcaigh and read at the opening of Ag Cothú an Dearmaid / Active Forgetting. This work gives tongue to many of the visual ideas expressed by Oona in her challenging artworks.