Voices from the Cillin

This was an exhibition at the Orkney Museum, had seen various advertisements for it on Facebook and looked interesting. I have been to a few exhibitions in there and it's been of the same style more or less, so I went there expecting the same hanging pieces of work against that horrible dark green walls. (been perfectly OK as background for a museum space but now that there is more and more mini exhibitions in there just white walls would be more suited) But when I turned that corner from the Orkney room, I was soon to discover this was not the standard! 

There was light projections all round the room, from a central adapted light box of their own construction. It was a hollowed out plinth with clip on desk lights on the top with their designs (in reverse) placed as a box on the top. There was sufficient a gap between the light and the paper, as from using those lights myself, I'm aware of how ridiculously hot they get. 

It transformed that room. A completely different atmosphere was created. 

The main piece was the video, which was projected against the far corner of the room, the far left one as you entered into the room. 

The plinth had a shelf where the projector sat. And there was no light projections to interrupt the film projection. The power cables were taped to the floor and also there were speakers linked to this central plinth. Again everything kept flat as possible on the floor, and was all black to avoid distraction. 

The piece is based on the secret burial of infants on un-consecrated ground. They were buried in secret due to the extreme poverty in Irish families and with infant mortality being so high in the 19th century it was the only option, although not the easiest. 

The whole installation was hauntingly beautiful, I got goosebumps sitting there while watching the film on my own in that room. 

There was also a few extra pieces which to be honest I hadn't even noticed as I entered the room, it was only when I went to leave I seen them. But perhaps that was the idea..? I liked the long narrow shadow boxes framing the poems.