Author: Arek

2021 marks the centenary of the use of the fort on Spike Island as a British-military-run prison for Republican prisoners and internees. Between February and November 1921 almost 1200 Republicans were imprisoned on Spike Island. This exhibition is the result of over a decade of extensive research undertaken by the heritage team on Spike Island.

‘IMPRISONING A NATION’ features among others original letters, newspaper clippings, hand-written correspondence between the prisoners and internees and their family members as well as official documents issued by the British forces in 1921. Approximately one hundred and forty photographs were collected over a period of ten years. The autograph books containing signatures of those imprisoned on Spike Island during 1921 are especially remarkable.

All these distinctive artefacts reflect the struggle for Irish Independence and depict a unique link between the prisoners and Spike Island. We on Spike Island are proud and excited to bring this fascinating part of the island’s past and important chapter in Irish history to life and to be able to share it with you, our visitors.

‘Story’ is an exhibition reflecting on memory and circumstance. Each Artwork features a personal narrative reminiscing on anecdotes and memoirs. The work extends from the ghostlike anonymity of portraits symbolizing invisibility and absence of identity, to the haunting inner monologue caught in a cycle of repetition and the effort to untangle.
The Artworks depict intimate accounts from one seminal event, consumed with rebellion that influenced a lifetime of crime, to the childhood memories that form a conduit for escapism channelling the imagination into a brighter world. ‘Story’ is a selection of work curated by the Education Unit in Cork Prison designed to give agency to the student’s narrative through memory and reflection.
These are their stories……

“

My paintings are stories about memories and places I grew up around as a child. I still fish there when I get a chance, nothing much has changed only that it is all overgrown now. I love going to those places because it takes me away from the city and into Nature, I feel relaxed and at peace when I am there. All my Paintings are from memory, they tell stories about my childhood and my visits as an adult. When I’m painting, I can imagine things that I would like to see there. I often use bright colours to enhance the mood of the picture as they are my expression of the natural world.

“

Spike Island was home to hundreds of prisoners in the 1980s, most of whom were incarcerated for stealing cars and generating the joyriding epidemic in Cork and Dublin. My peers, the youth at the time, were inspired by stories of gangsterism and one crimelord in particular ‘The General’, who ridiculed and taunted the authorities any chance he got. The housing of groups of young fellas from socially deprived areas with blatant disregard for law and order was a recipe for disaster. We did not really comprehend the significance of our actions or the extent of damage that we would ultimately cause. That period of my life and that incident in particular would prove to have a detrimental effect on achieving any normal life. For a long time I would only understand and partake in rebellious behaviour, vandalism and a life in crime. So, I spent many years in Prison. My pots express my experience of the riots on Spike and are my stories of rebellion, violence, vandalism and total anarchy.
Luckily, no one died.

LISTOWEL WRITERS IN PRISON
Category: POETRY: GETTING STARTED
Result: 1st Place
The Listowel Writers in Prison Competition is an eagerly anticipated event on the Education Unit calendar every year. Having previously achieved second place in the Short Story category in 2020 this student attended the Creative Writing class in the Education Unit and began his journey into poetry writing. A natural writer with great aptitude he produced three pieces and achieved 1st place this year with his Sestina “Untangling”.

“Untangling”

My mind is swirling
Contemplating the repeating.
The day is all the same.
It is ultimately mind numbing.
Hour by hour constantly continuing
to try and find differences.

Are there any differences?
So I now sit here swirling.
All the time continuing
at all of the repeating.
The relentless constant numbing
Why are the days the same?

How is it they’re the same?
And that there are no differences
Trying to release this numbing
Untangle this swirling
To iron out this repeating
that keeps on continuing.

Thinking always continuing.
Thoughts the same.
Thinking about the repeating.
Working out the differences.
Still there is swirling
and uncontrollable numbing

What is the numbing?
Is it continuing?
The untangling of the swirling.
It is in fact not the same
that there are some differences.
Is it really? Repeating.

No! There is no repeating.

Getting feeling where there was numbing.
Finding in the day, there are some differences.

Realizing in my continuing,
that nothing is the same
and now I’ve stopped swirling.

From my swirling, that it’s not the repeating
or it being the same that causes the numbing
but the continuing and finding of differences.

by: PH

This stained-glass window was produced in the Education Unit in Cork Prison with the support of The Arts Council and the Visual Artists in Prisons Scheme. It was facilitated by the artist in residence Debbie Dawson in 2018.
Education is collaboratively delivered in Irish Prisons through the Irish Prison Service and the Education and Training Boards. There has been an ongoing association between the Education Unit and Spike Island for many years.
The Education Unit Cork Prison has been exhibiting on Spike Island on an annual basis since 2012. Some of our students in Cork Prison who worked on this panel had been incarcerated on the island.
The Education Unit presented this artwork to Spike in 2018 to commemorate this continuing partnership. This stained-glass window is currently on permanent display in one of the 1990s prison cells on Spike Island.

To find out more about the Education Unit Cork Prison visit:
https://www.corketb.ie/about-cork-etb/further-education-training-f-e-t/education-service-cork-prison/
https://www.tg4.ie/en/player/play/?pid=6310075341112&title=Nuacht%20TG4&series=Nuacht%20TG4&genre=Cursai%20Reatha&pcode=627182

When museums, galleries, and cultural institutions were forced to close abruptly in March 2020, many art events had to be cancelled. The pandemic has not been easy for anyone and the art and culture sector has suffered considerably. Therefore, Spike Island was delighted to host an art exhibition ‘Modern Captivity’ by Maria O’Sullivan in August 2020.

‘Modern Captivity’ refers to the various forms captivity can take; both physical and psychological. The feeling of entrapment threads throughout the artwork, often using a constant transformation as a narrative to reference the imposing nature of modern society and its isolating effect. Social isolation is more present nowadays than ever before and can have significant consequences for people and communities across the globe.

Each composition shows structures and scenes shifting into something new. Irregular textures and strokes are used to build detailed representations of the increasingly abstract and restless world we inhabit. A large part of what determines the direction of Maria’s work is the artist’s intuition. Focusing on solitude, introspection and the nostalgic exploration of time and place, Maria often uses a variety of techniques and mixed media to examine the history of architecture and the transformation of space over time.

‘Modern Captivity’ is Maria’s first solo exhibition.

Maria O’ Sullivan was born in Cobh, Co Cork Ireland in 1990. She graduated with an Honours degree in Fine Art from Crawford College of Art and Design in June 2014.

From the Degree Show she was selected to exhibit in several group exhibitions, including the annual Fledglings exhibition in the Lavit Gallery Cork, The Joan Clancy Gallery in Dungarvan, and the Emerging Artists Exhibition in St. Patrick’s Hospital, Dublin.

Maria was also awarded a three-month residency with Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice where she spent time developing her practice. In 2015 her work was represented by the Doorway Gallery in Dublin and the Agora Gallery in Chelsea, NYC where she first exhibited her Urban Series.

Since 2018, her artwork has been exhibited in the Doorway Gallery Dublin, Cork Airport, and the Half Light Gallery in Middleton. She has also worked with St. Aloysius School in Cork to create a body of work for the ‘Future Forms’ Exhibition in the Glucksman Gallery, UCC, March 2019.

Maria’s work is collected both nationally and internationally.

www.mariaosullivanart.com

The Trial is a multi-screen visual art installation on the history of healthcare and human rights in the Irish criminal justice system. Created by visual artist Sinead McCann, made in collaboration with men from the Bridge Project, Dublin, who have lived prison experiences, and draws from historical research by UCD historians Catherine Cox and Fiachra Byrne. It is part of a larger Wellcome Trust funded research project ‘Prisoners, Medical Care and Entitlement to Health in England and Ireland, 1850-2000’.

For twenty-two minutes, three characters–Tommy, Charlie and Neilí–tell real-life stories of those who were held or worked in Irish penal institutions during the 19th and 20th centuries. The thematic focus is on experiences of solitary confinement, dealing with separation from family when in prison, mental and physical wellbeing in prison and childhood experiences of detention in St Patrick’s Institution, Dublin.

The making of The Trial involved the design of a creative process that enabled the men from the Bridge Project to engage with UCD academic research on healthcare in prison, past and present.  The script for The Trial was developed through a series of creative workshops using carefully selected historic research and the men’s own health in prison experience. Two case studies from the 1880s, John Burns and John Burke resonated strongly with the men and were developed into mini scripts.

Actors Tommy O’Neill and Neilí Conroy then performed these scripts in a series of theatre workshops led by the men from the Bridge Project. During this process, the men authored monologues using their own experience of healthcare in Irish prison in the late 20^th century as well as their responses to the historic research. Their monologues were incorporated into the script for The Trial along with responses from the Irish Prison Service, a prison chaplain, an addiction councellor, two former prison governors and a representative from the Irish Penal Reform Trust. Combined, these accounts present a compelling story of healthcare in prison.

In 1847, the Shell Store where The Trial is exhibited was first a prison hospital. Then it was converted into a juvenile prison that held up to 100 boys. The Trial makes explicit use of this history to physically and poetically reference healthcare in prison over time.

Director Dr Sinead McCann

Script Writer Sarah Meaney

Video production Mary Caffrey and Dan Monk Sixbetween

The Old Cork in Colour exhibition is the result of a collaboration between Spike Island and the authors of the hugely popular ‘Old Ireland in Colour’ books, Professor John Breslin and Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley.

The authors have used their digital and research skills to identify and colourise over thirty images from the city and county of Cork, many of them being colourised for the first time. There are ten images taken on Spike Island that showcase its rich past, as a military, penal and social space, while the remaining twenty images include areas like Cork City, Cobh, Kinsale, Bantry, Bandon and Cork Harbour.

John was able to make use of a computer-based “artificial intelligence” system called DeOldify that does an initial colourisation of a black and white photograph in a short period. After that, he manually colourises various aspects of the photograph in Photoshop to correct any incorrect colours—such as uniforms, eyes, hair, etc.—based on any records or research he or Sarah-Anne can find. For uniforms, John and Sarah-Anne contacted several uniform specialists in Ireland and the UK to find out about various shades of khaki, green, etc. for those British and Irish uniforms that he had colourised from around the WWI time frame. For eyes, hair, etc. he consulted portrait paintings, Ellis Island travel records, biographies, prison records, family members and any other relevant records where available.

“Often the details are unknown, so you must choose a colour that looks right or that seems to match the shade of grey in the original photo—there is a certain amount of interpretation here, but it is usually based on commonly worn colours, building materials, etc. from the period, statistics on eye colours in certain countries, and so on.”

The exhibition is on display in Mitchel Hall until November 2022.
Curated by Dorota Gubbins.

From left, Dorota Gubbins curator and John Crotty general manager, both Spike Island and authors Dr Sarah-Anne Buckley and Professor John Breslin, both NUI Galway, at the official opening of the exhibition ‘Old Cork in Colour’ on 12 April 2022. Photo: David Keane

Hold Fast. As part of the Cork Harbour Festival and in collaboration with Backwater Artists Group, studio member Seán Hanrahan presents a body of work in two of the cells, of the former Punishment Block in Spike Island. The work reflects on the maritime theme of tattoos, which are perhaps one of the most recognisable visual forms, when we think of the culture of sailors. Tattoos are also very much part of prison culture. The exhibition will reference popular images of tattoos, such as the nautical star, anchor and swallows and explore the correlation between both cultures, in relation to this theme.

HOLD FAST: Physically, the term Hold Fast means to bear down and fight through the storm, it also indicates a sailor’s career as a deckhand, by the tattoos on their hands of the same name.

About Seán Hanrahan
Seán Hanrahan is a multidisciplinary artist based in Cork city, working in print, photography, installation & collaborative practice. My studio practice is at Backwater Artists Studio where I am also a board member. I have been a member of Cork Printmakers for 15 years, where I have worked on several projects & exhibited internationally. Recent projects/exhibition – Artist in residence at IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) where I produced a site-specific flag Project Memory Anthem for IMMA’s A Radical Plot residency program August-October 2021. Facebook Artist in Residence (AIR) program, where I produced a large-scale mural for their Cork Oculus laboratory offices. In 2018 I co-curated Aрка/Arch exhibition of Belarusian graphic work with Belarusian Artist Roman Sustov, Studio 12 Backwater Artists, Cork IRE. HALFTONE 16, 17, 18, 20, 21 The Library Project, Dublin IRE. The 188th RHA open submission exhibition, Dublin IRE. Solo exhibition Night Frightens the Day/Калі ноч палохае дзень VCCA (Centre for Contemporary and Modern Art) Minsk, Belarus. Over the Sun, (Kazimir Malevich’s influence on western Artists), initiated and curated by Seán Hanrahan. Participating artists Seán Hanrahan IRE Dominic Fee IRE and Josh Dannin USA, Vitebsk Gallery of Modern Art (V.C.C.A.) Vitebsk, Belarus.

xhanrahan.com

Holding fast, in cells and on high seas | Podcast by Ellie O’Byrne

Source: Tripe + Drisheen

About Backwater Artists Group
Established in 1990 by artists for artists, Backwater Artists Group provides high-quality, affordable studios with security of tenure, access to facilities and developmental support for over 70 visual artists. We ensure a stable, supportive working environment for artists and we are committed to ensuring that artists develop the skills needed to establish, expand and sustain their studio practice.  Through our Studio 12 exhibition/project space, we support studio and non-studio artists and aim to increase collaboration and engagement with the wider artistic community and the general public through exhibitions and outreach events. The Backwater Artists Network (BAN) offers a shared city centre focal point and opportunities to connect for professional artists working in isolation from studios in their own homes or in single privately rented studios.

backwaterartists.ie

About Spike Island

Spike Island offers unique art venues within the prestigious heritage buildings whose history spans almost two centuries.

Dorota Gubbins is the curator at Spike Island with her primary focus being on heritage and arts. This has led to organising and facilitating a great variety of events.