Installation view of Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty exhibition. Photo: Ros Kavanagh
Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty
A Collection of Disarticulated Bones is an ongoing research platform and artistic endeavour by Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty, developed through fieldwork and active questioning of cultural identity in Ireland, Spain and the United States over the last year. Their aim is an ambitious one: to unpick the various foundation myths of the Global North – institutional, pop cultural and embodied.
A collection of new films, photographs and objects is planned for display at TULCA, developed in a new initiative involving a production residency with the University of Galway and Galway City Museum, and partners in the United States – Solas Nua in Washington DC and Virginia Tech Institute of Creativity, Arts and Technology.
In each context, Clinton and Moriarty keep asking how stories and narratives are shaped and told, interpreted and circulated. Their initial findings point to the vital role of the individual to bear witness to history, no matter how offbeat or bizarre it might initially be perceived. In one short film, a former member of An Garda Síochána, who now runs a luxury wedding car-hire service, talks of witnessing a UFO while on patrol in the 1990s. His story was reported in the newspapers of the time with an air of credibility, due to his stature as a figure of authority in Irish society. Another vignette follows the story of a long-retired naval officer, once aboard the ship that repatriated W.B. Yeats’ remains from the south of France back to Sligo in 1948. Today, doubts exist as to whether these were, in fact, Yeats’ bones. Then, outside a supermarket near Coleraine, a replica of the Giant’s Causeway appears...
Galway City Museum
Spanish Parade, Galway, H91 CX5P
2-17 November 2024
Tues-Sat 10-5pm (closed Sun + Mon)
Access
Accessible venue
Accessible toilets
Accessible parking (St Augustine St)
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
The Salvage Agency
Curated by Michele Horrigan
1 - 17 November 2024
Galway, Ireland