Commissions
‘As above, so below’: Earthy tones, hair, flesh coloured leather and a night sky indigo cape embody the witch and the mystic in these three creative collaborations.
Nature and texture, in material and movement, appeal to the senses in these timeless and elemental costumes designed by Róisín Gartland.
The Tower
By Jesse Jones (2022)
The third exhibition in the Magdalene Series at Rua Red Arts Centre, Dublin.
This film installation is the second part in a trilogy which began with Tremble Tremble.
Working with Junk Ensemble, and a cast that includes Naomi Moonveld-Nkosi and a young choir of performers, ‘The Tower’ turns to the figure of the mystic and the heretic and questions ‘Who came before the witches?
Olwen Fouéré is present here again, on screen and carved in stone as a central figure. Inspired by the story of Mary Magdalene emerging from the cave after many years, with her hair flowing down to her ankles, the costume is created from lamb skin in its undyed natural form. This piece here too acts as a second skin, a shamanic covering.
Carved in stone with texture translating from soft wool to stone statue – a sublime moment is captured forever in a solid material – the elemental chemistry between Olwen and the natural sheepskin is immortalised.
On screen Olwen wears a top that moulds to the body, made from fine second skin and hand-dyed in natural tannin. Milagros in formation are stitched to the top front section, and here the costume mirrors the live movements, where ritualised Milagros are handed to audience members as talismanic gestures of care. Olwen’s exploration of her own mouth conjuring the Sheela na Gig through performance.
For The Tower Róisín works with not only leather but with a combination of other materials including hair and fabric. Silky plaits of hair are manipulated and then photographed and printed on to fabric, while cotton leggings are dyed by hand to create a deeper flesh tone. The costume is pinched in at the waistline by rubber tubing which also shapes the neckline by adding detail.
Worn by the choir, the effect of these printed tunics is a conjuring of dark, medieval candlelit corners, multiple bodies together, entangled, moving. As they stood together as a group the costumes were shaped so the members appeared to be cojoined, so that the hair covered them all, merging in to one body.
Here no historical period or reference was used in the making of these costumes, the floating space between every time and no time inspired these pieces to be of their very own time, connected to the past but evoking a future imaginary.
An Diabhal Inti
Lagan Media Productions for TG4 and BBC NI. 'An Diabhal Inti (The Devil’s In Her)' Director: Paula Keogh, Producer: Ashlene Aylward. Costume by Róisín Gartland.
This Lagan Media Productions documentary series for TG4 and BBC Northern Ireland, directed by Paula Keogh, explores the rare cases of witchcraft accusations in Ireland, set against the backdrop of traditional beliefs where powerful women created the landscape and ruled the Otherworld.
Filmed in several locations around the country, actor/dancer/choreographer Aoife McAtamney is at once supernatural and of the earth, in her summoning of characters from history, performed with an otherworldly ferocity.
At the outset, snow white leather represents childhood innocence in a simple, soft leather slip. The colour changes and tones accumulate as Aoife moves through forests and rivers, wading through the many stages of her characters. Rowan red berries leave a stain as innocence is left behind.
Olwen Fouéré appears as the disruptor, the woman in the wilderness, the witch who is every oppressed woman in history come back to warn us. This character’s costume was created from white leather that had been buried in a bog for 2 years, transforming it to an earthy, muddy hue, along with a naturally dyed indigo cape and skirt. In this way, both the land and the night sky were represented as one connected entity. Around her waist, objects hang from chatelaines, each one relating to the story being told.
When the leather pieces were brought up from the bog, both the director Paula Keogh and Olwen Fouéré were present, and the moment was captured on film. Across the front of one of the pieces images appeared showing three seemingly hooded figures. Within hours, these had disappeared without trace as though they had never existed. This image was developed and hand carved by Róisín and was cast in solid silver, becoming the anchor of the chatelaine. The connection to the women in the stories to be told was not lost on all involved, as was the link to the ancient triple goddess the Morrigan.
The series ends with the woman in the wilderness alone in the cave at Owneygat, her costume covered in mud as if it were some kind of premordial afterbirth, before emerging in her final form as the Goddess.
Tremble Tremble
Tremble Tremble represented Ireland at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017 and later was shown at La Salle, Singapore (2017), Project Arts Centre, Dublin (2018), Talbot Rice, Edinburgh (2018) and Guggenheim Bilbao (2019).
A multimedia installation which the artist describes as ‘a spell, which link judicial politics, fire, the living and the dead, community desire, beliefs and energies, across four centuries’.
In this incantatory work, situated somewhere between theatre, film, sculpture and ritual, Olwen Fouéré is the witch, the feminist archetype of the persecuted past and the unknown future.
This timeless, multifaceted character wears flesh coloured, superfine leathers. The costume, with its natural uncut edges, is transformed into a malleable second skin. It is hand tinted, wrinkled and kneaded by time to perform a protective covering akin to armour, albeit soft feminine armour. The material developed a wonderful ‘touch’ through the transformational process which added to its power and character when worn.
The surface has undergone particular processes to achieve a bodily landscape that informs and creates its own sensation; one that in turn informs the performances. The colours were achieved by immersion in a natural tannin liquid. While wet, it was manipulated to break the pristine surface. This process provided a bodyscape that connected with the imagined future of our character and had the ability to transform under the camera’s lens, enabling us, the viewer, to be transported into that ageless otherworld.
Joseph Walsh
Róisín Gartland’s ability to transform and manipulate specially selected organic materials fuses seamlessly with the sculptural forms created by Joseph Walsh Studios, each in harmony with the other. The Joseph Walsh Studios have commissioned several works since 2017.
Get in touch
For collaborations and commissions get in touch.
roisin@roisingartland.com
+353 87 2490984
The Design Tower
Trinity East
Grand Canal Quay,
Dublin D02F685, Ireland