Carbon footprint 39kg
Expenses Food 24 +65 euro (returned jigsaw)
I went to Nenagh to bring back the crap jigsaw that never worked. Arrived in Silvermines just before 10; the sun was out for a while, and it was nice setting up and getting things in place. Jim Quirke arrived with a few pieces for the collection and then Clive and Sally came. They showed me some images from the site-specific piece up at Shalee which is looking fantastic. They have taken sections of the toxicology maps and painted them onto the weird infrastructure up there. They have also been collecting mottos from Mining Companies and Mining Workers Unions and inscribing them as text works. (I’m not sure that they have quite got the massive and important political distinction between the motto of a Mining Company ‘Employ the People; Enrich Yourselves’ and that of a Mining Workers Union ‘Strength Through Unity’ but we will have that conversation at some point.)
I told them that so far only one person had signed up for the Youth Art project, none of the kids from the estate. They spotted a couple of the teenagers wandering down the road, and went off to see whether they were planning to join.
After a while they came back looking a bit 'frit' as my friend would say. 'None of the estate kids are doing it' said Sally. It turned out that Daryl would be on holidays, so his girlfriend won't do it, so her friend won’t do it, so the other two boys won't do it because the girls aren't doing it . . . . etc. etc.
We went on a bit of a campaign. C&S got in touch with Father Moloney who agreed to do a big announcement at mass and then they made big colourful posters.
After we had hung up the posters they headed off; I went to see Michael O' Brien to borrow his photo album. I met Pat Keane on the way back we had a chat and then I had to excuse myself so that I could listen to the Lyric FM programme. It was a bit heavy on the 'Space Shuttle' metaphor for my taste, a bit lacking in content. I'm not sure anyone would have a clue what I was up to from listening to it, although the whole context aspect got fairly well clarified.
I started work on a hand-drawn map of the area for the story map which in a way is the real heart of the psychogeography aspect. I wish I had been able to do it weeks ago, but I suppose you get there when you get there.
In the evening at about 6 an absolute deluge came in from the south-west; a real wall of blackness and rain with some incredibly loud and close thunderstorms. I felt quite nervous about being in a stainless steel box, so I went and sat in the campervan. There was just no let up - it went on and on for ages, with the thunder really close and prolonged.
Eventually I got bored and figured that if it was going to hit anything it would probably be the church steeple across the road, so I went back into the museum. I locked myself in so that I could get some work done (not due to open again until 7).
Then there was a banging on the door; I could not find the key so whoever was out there was standing in the absolute downpour. Finally, I found the key and opened the door to M, a young teenager from the area, who wanted me to drive her to a town about 10 miles away. 'I can't possibly do that' I said, and inquired where her parents were. She said they were all out or away, and that she was locked out of the house and could I lend her 10 euro to get a taxi. On the basis that if I didn't she was planning to hitch (in the dark and pouring rain) and knowing that I would probably not see the tenner again I agreed. I felt really nervous wondering if it was the right thing to do. Should I have turned her out in the rain? I just didn't know.
After mass a few kids came in to get forms for the youth art project, so Father Moloney had worked a bit of magic.
Sunday morning dawned quite bright and sunny; mass was absolutely chockablock. There was a bit of a rush after mass, some visitors and some people looking to register for the youth art.
Martina Finn arrived; she has taken over as Community Development officer having been Acting Arts Officer for the first two thirds of the residency. We talked over and around some stuff; on lots of things we really agree but there are aspects of the residency relationship that maybe neither of us handled that well so some lingering discomfort with that.
Darren and Pressure arrived, wondering whether they could still sign up for the Graffiti Project, but too cool to ask directly. First they had to spend a while insulting the project and then mine and Martina’s cars respectively (I’ll give you 300 for it). I do like them both – I doubt they will do the project though. They don’t really do 10 o clock in the morning, or 5 days a week – they just want to show up for the painting in the Handball Alley.
To close up I really emptied the place and turned it finally into a 'museum' for next week's finale. I went to see Tommy Hickey about the evening of story and song - he has already put up posters but seemed to think I would do MC!!!!!!!!! He has obviously never seen me in action in public. Completely hopeless on any kind of stage.
So, really looking forward to the end of this thing now, although it's been great but I am worn out and I am looking forward to working on the publication. In private.
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