First Weekend gig

Miles 150
Carbon Footprint 39 kg
Expenses 15 hardware, 20 food

I had to bring my young girls with me so we left home at 8.45 pm on Friday evening. It was really windy which is a bit nerve racking when I am driving the camper van as it kind of blows all over the road.

Anyway we arrived safely, though the girls were very nervous about the sound of the wind in the trees close by to where we had parked.

images from the evolving 'collection'

Opened up at about 8.30 and did some work setting up. I started work on the timeline which had previously been in the form of post-it notes and then set about putting up material. I had a few visitors including Anthony Collins, who was very proud to see his Miner's Helmet in the Nenagh Guardian! He had a great suggestion which was that I organise an evening of story, poem and song in the local pub. As he was talking a young man whom I had not seen before was looking at stuff; he turned out to be a documentary maker from Nenagh who is making a programme on Silvermines for TG4.

Quite a number of visitors throughout the day. At 3 pm we took off for Nenagh and did some shopping and various things, drove around the area showing Andrew some of the sights.

Sure enough, as predicted, cheap JigSaw turns out to be totally crap. Blade falls out immediately upon use.

I opened up again at 7pm and although there was a big crowd at 8 o clock mass just across the road, the rain had become a bit of a downpour by then so only one woman came by. It was good actually, because I spent the evening putting the threads in place which is an important aesthetic and conceptual addition to the display; it links material to different facts and dates within the 'annal' created by the timeline and obviously introduces physically the notion of 'drawing' meaning.

Sunday morning was quiet; Robin the documentary maker came back bringing two great gas masks that his dad had used during his time working in the Mogul mine. Things were relatively quiet until after lunch when there was a bit of a rush. In fact I didn't manage to close until 4 pm rather than 3 as I had planned.

I spoke to Tommy Hickey about the idea of the song night in the pub on the 18th as part of the closing event; he was totally enthusiastic. Robin Wallace will probably come and film that which will be fantastic.

Got home just after 6 pm.

Radio Interview

Miles 140
Carbon Footprint 37 kg
Expenses food 9 euro

Artzone, the Arts programme on RTE Lyric FM contacted me to say they were interested in doing a piece on the project. I arranged to meet the interviewer in Silvermines today to coincide with the Public Meeting in the evening regarding the Youth Art project.

I found his questions quite oblique - I mean I would start answering them but find that I was going round and round without being sure what I had been asked. So, I suspect that I am going to sound like a prize waffler. In particular I got really brain-dead around the question 'where is the art in this project' even though it was actually my own question!!!! and also on how this kind of relational work can be critiqued.

It's really clear to me that the Imaginary Museum is the encounter stage of the project; while that would count for something within the realm of relational aesthetics but that's not sufficient for me. Although the project is continuously evolving I suspect that the real art aspect will be in the publication.

In the evening Clive and Sally came for a public meeting regarding the Youth Art project. I expected parents - at least a few, but what we got were 11 kids, not all within the 10 - 16 age group. It was a fairly boisterous affair, but 8 kids took forms away with them so we will see who comes back to register.

Got home at 10.30.

Rain and more rain

Miles 151
Carbon Footprint 39 kg
Expenses assistant travel 60 euro food 24

Clive Moloney's picture from inside Shallee mine

Arrived in Nenagh at 9; bought some food and picked up my jigsaw from the Hardware shop. I feel a little nervous of a power tool which has typo mistakes on the packaging.

Anyway got to Silvermines and opened up for 10. Set about putting photographs on the wall. My daughter Eve was with me so she got various jobs to do. I decided to go for hand-writing the label information onto the walls with pencil. I think I preferred it without the writing, but then I would have to do a tour of the objects each time someone comes in, and for some reason I don't think that's right. It's not my role to be the guide to the objects, that comes from the people themselves. I have to maintain a certain distance from the Museum collection, because I don't want to get too identified with it, as though it's my collection.

Clive and Sally arrived and we talked through their proposal for a Youth Art project which is really good; they went off scouting around, putting up posters and things. Various people passed through, but not such a good stream as other days.

Word started to filter through the youth community about the 'graffiti' project. They started showing up in great numbers wanting to know if they could sign up immediately!

Clive, Eve and Sally headed up to the Shallee mine. Luckily they met someone there who is working on the rehabilitation projec and he promised to give them a safety tour of the area. He also took them into the actual mines, something that we hadn't done the previous week.
Had a few more people through in the afternoon; Tommy Hickey came carrying a folder with a great range of material - receipts dating back to the 1890's for land rental from Lord Dunally and all kinds of stuff.

After the evening session I brought the folder back to Hickey's pub and we had a drink and a chat and watched some television. I met someone whose father bred and trained a Cheltenham winning horse just outside of Silvermines - the father would almost certainly have loads of material but I can't seem to get out to visit people, I have to wait for them to come to me really.
The next morning was an absoloute deluge. A few of the young lads arrived and hung out for a while; then Melanie Scott came and we talked through various logistics around the project and the final event.

We will try to arrange some kind of afternoon tea and sandwiches event on Saturday 18th, with an official opening by the Mayor and maybe some local input - music? Singing?
I have to design some kind of invites and get them to the Arts Office for printing.
Towards the end of the meeting Michael O' Brien came by; I have been hoping to meet him for ages. We arranged that I would call to his house after 2.

A researcher from ARTZONE on RTE Lyric FM phoned to ask if they could send someone out to do a piece. We arranged for him to come next Wednesday, in advance of the public meeting to discuss the Youth Art project.

I called to Micheal O' Brien; he had a great wealth of interesting material - like that the main street used to be a river bed! Not that long ago, maybe 120 - 160 years. The mining activity drained away all of the water.

Also, a most wonderful story about John 'Fiery' Gleeson. When Macgobar came from Texas in the 1960's and decided that they wanted to mine in the area where the Dunally castle was, the government was more than happy to give them the rights to the minerals under the land (reminders of Shell). The farmers had no rights to the minerals under their land, so they really had no option but to sell up to Macgobar.

Some held out for longer (and for better prices) than others, but John 'Fiery' Gleeson, with some assistance, traced back the ownership of his farm to 1660, when Charles 2 granted it to his family in return for their loyalty to the crown during the Civil war and the Cromwell years. What made that so important was that the King was the owner of the mineral rights; so in that granting of the land the rights to the minerals remained with the Gleeson family! 'Fiery' got a big sum of money, though he was never prepared to say how much!

But as a final aside, he also got permission to remain in his house on the land while his mother was still alive - she went on to live to 100!!

The house was completely overgrown with ivy, but has now passed to a niece who is doing it up. It's a really interesting looking house - I didn't have my camera with me but will get a picture for next week.

Pat Keane was visiting with Sally and Clive when I returned; he brought me an old rabbit trap and an old primus blow torch.

Clive Moloney's pictures from inside Shallee mine

Shallee Mines at last

Miles 155
Carbon Footprint 40 kg
Expenses hardware 54 food 18

This is a short account of last week; had good passing trade, some interesting new additions to the 'collection' went to see the mines with Clive and Sally (recent art graduates) including the lake that has formed in the open cast mining at Magobar - "The Biggest Hole in Europe" literally.



Green colour of the lake is due to minerals; when they used to pump water out of this mine, the wells in the surrounding countryside would run dry.

This was the site of the Dunally castle that belonged first to the O' Kennedy's who were the chieftain in the area way back, and then passed into the hands of Col. Henry Prettie, a Cromwellian solider who was 'granted' land in Silvermines as pay for his services. His descendent later became a Lord and took the name Dunally after the castle.

Clive and Sally liberating a found object from Magcobar crushing plant

We also took a trip up to the old mine in Shallee - that was absoloutely amazing. To get there, you just have to look out for a really overgrown lane next to a farmhouse. It doesn't look like anything except that there are a couple of derelict 1950's buildings

Still standing!

Miles 151
Carbon Footprint 39 kg
Expenses; 30 euro travel for assistant, 8 euro on timber and hardware.

I arrived in Silvermines at 8.45, quite nervous about what I would find. It was still there - no broken windows, no missing letters, no spray paint!

There's a sort of ritual starting up process now; open up, put out the ramp, unshutter the windows, plug in the electricity, and start the process of putting visual form on the concept!

After morning mass I had four visitors; not much to show them, but we had a chat about the project, the fact that the collection can only be assembled with the collaboration of the community.

Melanie Scott (Arts Officer) came out about 11 bringing Clive (recently graduated art student getting some public art experience).

She had a conversation with the Source Arts Centre about me having a solo show there next year arising from the residency; we plumped for September/ October, which gives me a good run at it over the summer. I have to find out what kind of package they are offering.

Melanie has arranged an additional budget to do a project with the teenagers: I just have to figure out how that is going to work. Tim Bradford has referred to them as the Teenage Tipperary Situationists - I like it!! Have to figure out how to encourage them to see themselves as Situationists now. Burnt out cars is somehow part of that, part of their aesthetic . . . .

There was a good run of people throughout the day; all local, all interested, some younger boys, a couple of teenagers, and then in the evening one tourist - a rare species indeed in Silvermines.

Clive and I had a guided tour of the Old Road Estate with Sean, Tristian and Paul doing the guiding; they sang a rude song about someone in the estate that Diggler (local boy wit) had written, so I recorded them singing that.

I spent the evening looking at the space and trying to figure the aesthetic of it all; myself and Clive had a conversation in which I said that I felt we were involved in a process of trying to discover the 'art' in this project. The publication at the end will be a kind of safety valve in that it will be the art if nothing else emerges in the process.

The not knowing is important.

I stayed overnight in the camper van and got up at 7 to do some work on the timeline. I realised that I want as little as possible stuck to the walls, I would prefer if everything including text was directly on the wall, but I don't want it to be physically hand-written. I need some technology to do that but don't know what it is, some kind of transfer technology.

Lots more people came in through the day. The first to arrive were four English tourists; ironically I ended up giving a sort of introduction to Silvermines! They were not really interested. It made me realise more that this is not about instant gratification so it makes the level of engagement by the locals all the more significant for me.

I interviewed Pat Keane who brought some great material and then Clive went off to learn how to make hay rope or Sugan's as they are known. No-one makes hay anymore so they had to use live grass, but even so they worked amazingly well.

Later in the day John O' Rourke came with some photographs; he used to play in a band on Sunday nights in the hall for dances; I am hoping that he can bring me some material relating to that and I will try to record him playing the accordion when his health improves

We closed up at 2 and had a quick wander around the Wealz plant part of the mining works that went up in 1950 and closed in 1952. Amazing place, like a ghost town, big buildings, and slag heaps everywhere, but also orchids and lots of wild flowers in pockets.

We put up shutters and left at around 4; needed to bring Clive to Birdhill for the bus and I had to get home for the Burren brand meeting.

Touchdown

Miles 160
Carbon Footprint 40 kg
Expenses Food 10 Transport of Space Shuttle 302.50

At last the Space Shuttle arrived in Silvermines.

I arrived in Nenagh at 9.30, spoke to the foreman in the Machinery Yard about the possibilty of getting a small crew to come out to Silvermines and help to position the shuttle off the truck. The truck was due to arrive at 10.30 but as these things go it then became 11 o clock, then 11.45, then 1 o clock and finally it arrived at 1.20.

The truck driver Pat was a very nice guy, totally cool about the whole thing, not a bit worried about the fact that it was lunchtime so we probably wouldn't be able to get a crew for Silvermines.

So he positioned it exactly where I wanted and then began the work of turning it into the Imaginary Museum. It was still a real mess inside, half painted in some areas, repair work still taking place around one of the windows etc.

By evening I was removing the old lettering from the outside to replace it with new text. A bunch of teenagers arrived, one of them I had worked with in the school. They helped to position the new text and told me lots of stories about how boring Silvermines is, nothing to do but drink when you can. They agreed to show me the drinking spots (some of them - probably not the most current one, which they need to keep secret). They said that Silvermines is very rough, lads from Limerick drive cars up to the Magobar mines and burn them out up there.

It didn't look rough to me.

A while later some young lads arrived and asked me lots of questions about why it was here, and how could I possibly think Silvermines was interesting etc.

A few of the smaller boys came and started collecting rocks for me from up around the old mining area. By 9.30 or so I had to tell them to stop, that I had enough rocks!

Quiet night in the camper van. I got up at 6.45 to do more painting in the shuttle. The principal of the school arrived at about 9.30 and gave me the key to the school so that I could hook up to the power supply, which I did. It's amazing to have full access to the school like that - I can use furniture etc. as I need it.

I was expecting the Arts Officer, Melanie Scott and Acting Arts Officer, Martina Finn (on her last day) to arrive for a meeting at 10. My friends 'the rock stars' were hanging around wanting to do some more work on their collection.

The meeting was reasonably cordial, although the Arts Officer didn't like the tone of an article that the Tipperary Voice had published about the Space Shuttle getting the go-ahead to move. I imagine that my previous journal entry wasn't popular either, though none of us mentioned it. Luckily for me the Nenagh Guardian had also printed a piece which was word-for-word the press release that I had sent to both papers, to I could point to journalistic re-working of the text.

We went through the fairly extensive 2nd interim report that I had submitted; Melanie said that the Arts Office was keen to offer support from this point forward to ensure the successful realisation of the project and also to 'take the pressure off' me as an artist.

I pointed out that most pressurised period was pretty much over, but I do appreciate the offer.

During the meeting Jim arrived ( I had met him the previous night). He worked in the mines all his life and says he has loads of interesting material but won't lend it to the museum because he plans to sell it for big money. He also described how he sent a drawing to the ESB to show them how the huge tailings pond up the side of the mountain could be converted into a Poulaphooca type Hydro electrical plant, which he seemed to think would lead to a hotel on top of the mountain with cable cars going up to it! He thinks the ESB are very interested in the idea.

Then Pat O' Brien arrived with a lovely piece for the collection. He reckons it's an old piece of school slate - it has a fragment of writing on it that says mines.

So I have about 5 things now in the collection.

A few more people passed through during the day; my three rock start Sean, Tristian and Danial hung around using a printing set I had and helping me to do bits and pieces.

Then in the afternoon I got a full visitation of the teenage boys. It's a very particular energy, so volatile and hard to relate to at times. I really wanted to stay on their good side and was trying to talk to them about what interests them.

There was a lot of talk about how windows get smashed in Silvermines regularly, with each of them pointing their finger at the others as being responsible. I tried to talk to them about why people would do that but they didn't want to engage with that, it seemed a stupid question.

Eventually they drifted away 'up to the mine'. It was quite a relief.

I was getting ready to go for a guided tour with the three younger boys at about half three, when one of them said to me 'the older boys will definately break the windows and peel off the lettering after you go'.

I felt really upset and I could see that it was almost certainly true; probably the very lad who had helped me to put up the lettering would be the first to take it down. It's a really strange thing - it's not malice it's just a kind of absence of feeling for things.

It's what Eric Fromm talked about - the need to create or in the absence of that, to destroy.

A completely untapped testosterone fuelled energy, frustrated by society's failure to give it an outlet.

So, I spent another hour drilling new holes for the window shutters and putting clear contact over the vinyl lettering.

God only knows what condition it will be in when I get back.

A Bad Day

Expenses 71 printer cartridges 120 vinyl lettering for Space Shuttle, 14 paint and masking tape.

Today was a really bad day in the residency, absoloutely the low point.

This is what my week looked like;

The Space Shuttle is being moved from Nenagh to Tipperary tomorrow, and I was informed today that the County Council will extend their insurance to cover the Space Shuttle while it is in situ but that the owners of the Shuttle (in this case the Ground Up Artists' Collective) must insure the structure and that I must also indemnify the council with my own insurance. The suggestion was that 'I should have known' that would be the case. While this would have caused me some considerable ire in May when I asked the Arts Office to look into the question of insurance, coming the day before it moves to Silvermines, after it has already been delayed for 2 months as a result of the planning requirement I find it totally unacceptable.