2020 was marked by the necessity to keep our distance, to avoid gatherings, to hide the subtlety of our expressions behind masks. The unspoken fabric of public space that we previously negotiated silently and unconsciously was a terrain of both hyper-awareness and a new strain of social blindness.
In partnership with Meta, Solstice Arts Centre commissioned Dumbworld to create a special community arts project with groups and individuals across Meath. Collaborating with artists workingin visual art, bio-art and woodworking, Dumbworld explored unconscious exchanges and our taking of space, assembly, belonging, places that are of importance and the reasons ‘why’.
Through workshops, examining the themes through music and words; one-to-one interviews; field recordings; film footage and photography – they investigated how some expression of each of the participant gatherings could be integrated into the final overall experience for audiences.
The outcome, a sound/video and living installation was inspired by the journey through these moments of assembly across Meath. Choirs coming together to sing, swimmers taking the cold plunge together, trees connecting under the earth in a network of support. If We Could See Ourselves As Other See Us is a space to join together in a moment of reflection on our necessary connectedness – a Möbius strip of ponderment.
A Community Arts project commissioned by Solstice Arts Centre in partnership with Meta
Supported by Meath County Council Arts Office
