Documentation of Public Programme | TULCA 2024
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts is pleased to share the public outcomes and online documentation of its 2024 programme, The Salvage Agency curated by Michele Horrigan. In part four, we present performances produced as part of the festival programme.
Stuart Whipps' The Leviathan of Parsonstown draws inspiration from the historic telescope at Birr Castle, Offaly, highlighting the intersection of scientific discovery and material extraction. Whipps’ work also connects to the James Mitchell Geology Museum in Galway, where he has developed a new performance piece, collaborating closely with curator John Murray and the museum’s artefacts.
Léann Herlihy's Beyond Survival School Bus is a 90-minute bus tour blending pedagogy and performance. The tour explores the impact of survivalism, examining its social implications and critiquing the emphasis on individual preparedness over collective action for societal and environmental change.
Part Four: Performance
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Performance: The Leviathan of Parsonstown | Stuart Whipps
Birmingham-based artist Stuart Whipps’ new performance and installation, The Leviathan of Parsonstown, shares its title with the name given to the historic telescope that sits in the ornate grounds of Birr Castle in Offaly. Built in 1845, it remained the largest telescope in the world for seventy-two years, drawing visitors to see the previously unknown spirals of faraway galaxies. Its creation was driven by intense curiosity and the tremendous personal wealth of the wife of its patron, William Parsons. Whipps points out the materials that made one of Ireland’s greatest scientific wonders possible: ‘Parsons saw the potential in using speculum metal, an alloy made from copper and tin, as the material for the reflective mirror – in order to learn about the stars above our heads, we must first extract metals from the rocks and mud that sit beneath our feet.’
Continued research for Whipps has led to the James Mitchell Geology Museum, founded in 1852 at the University of Galway with thousands of rock, mineral, and fossil specimens, along with the remains of a larger natural history museum once on campus. Still appearing as a nineteenth- century room with few modern updates, it is referred to by many as a ‘museum of a museum’. Given full access to the collection throughout 2024, Whipps has worked closely with the site, artefacts and the generosity, endless knowledge and enthusiasm of curator John Murray, teasing out a new performance artwork and a subtle rearrangement of objects and labelling in the museum.
Performance: Beyond Survival School Bus | Léann Herlihy
Beyond Survival School Bus (2024) is a free 90-minute bus tour with a pedagogical discourse that spans from eighteenth-century hedge schools to twenty-first-century school tours.
Departing from the urban sphere and commencing its voyage deep into the mountains, the school’s curriculum explores the polemic effects of ‘self-perseverance’ through the social practice of survivalism; moving through examples such as an assimilated ‘outdoor’ swimming pool situated in a 15-story underground survival bunker designed for those who hoard economic wealth, to skimming the surface of open resources available from online prepping communities. Delving into the lack of depth within these social movements, Ranger Herlihy forewarns of the damaging effect of implicated de-prioritisation of collective scale action—that is, the point at which preparing for the potential risks brought about by environmental, economic and/or societal damage supersedes the more important task of advocating for structural and revolutionary change. Utilising the scripted nature of reality survival shows, Ranger Herlihy provides a participatory script to each scout and invites them to take up a single role spanning from Doomsday Prepper alumni, ‘Warrior’ Martin to ‘eco crusader,’ Al Gore.Continuing in their journey beyond survival, the collective narrative moves towards building a future where both humans and nonhumans, deemed unproductive by utilitarian standards, are valued for their own nature. Yet, creating space to stray away from the ‘natural,’ as these un-natural positions, offer alternative views for imagining new, just, and sustainable ways of living beyond survival.
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
The Salvage Agency
Curated by Michele Horrigan
1-17 November 2024
Galway, Ireland
Video documentation: Jonathan Sammon
Image: Installation view of The Leviathan of Parsonstown exhibition, James Mitchell Geology Museum, University of Galway, 2024. Photo: Stuart Whipps