Commissioned
performances
On the banks of the river Lagan, as part of our River Celebration on Saturday 3 August, we will host a series of stunning performances by HIVE Choir, Emma Brennan, Janie Doherty, Rosie Mullin, Méabh Meir and a Lagan Currach Trad Session.
Coinciding with the Pagan celebration of Lughnasadh, and our votive offerings to the river in the form of thousands of boats, we are also honouring the river through the creation of a myth.
Unlike other significant rivers in Ireland, such as the Shannon, Boyne, Boyle, Bann, Bandon, and Erne, and - even more locally - the Farset, Blackstaff and Belfast Lough, the Lagan lacks a parable which protects it from us, and vice versa.
Our project aims to highlight both the power and vulnerability of our river. Since time immemorial, water has been regarded as a sacred but formidable element, venerated for its life-giving properties as well as its ability to overwhelm. River-goddesses are representative of mothers and healers, and as fertilising and nurturing entities, whilst also embodying formidable forces which must be appeased.
Amidst rising river levels and occurrences of flooding, as well as possibilities for leisure that a rejuvenated waterfront can bring, cultural expression can help us to communicate the myriad value that caring for the river can create.
Join us at Mayfield Basin (near Lanyon Place Train Station) from 11.30am on Saturday 3 August to witness this powerful story unfold.
The river she,
bends just to me.
Her will to hone
Is mine alone.
The river she,
I bid her free
cast out the pain
that threatens she.
From my palm,
an offering ship.
Sail on steady,
don’t sway or dip.
An báidín saor
we send to float,
get rid, from she
her sufferin’ coat.
Emma Brennan, 2024
HIVE Choir
HIVE Choir is an experimental vocal ensemble based at the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast. HIVE creates new music from found texts, traditional songs and improvisation. Directed by John D'Arcy, the group collectively compose and improvise with verbal notation and audio technologies, inviting participation from non-expert performers and audience members. Formed in 2017, the group come from a variety of musical backgrounds (Irish traditional, pop, experimental), dancers, writers and researchers. HIVE has been commissioned by National Museums Northern Ireland, NI Science Festival, the Northern Ireland Mental Health Arts Festival, Belfast Film Festival and Northern Ireland Screen. Recently, HIVE Choir composed 'Songs of Genomics' in collaboration with Oxford University's Centre for Human Genetics, and participated in Holly Herndon's Choral AI project for Serpentine Gallery.
HIVE performers on 3 August:
Adam Bradley, John D’arcy, Aisling McCormick, Emily DeDakis, Katya Solomatina, Kathrin Popp
Image courtesy of Joe Laverty.
Janie Doherty
Janie is an artist from the North of Ireland, originally from Derry but now based in Belfast. Janie works across many mediums with a socially engaged approach and is influenced by her surroundings of post-conflict society and the politics of site, place and people.
Janie is interested in evoking empathetic resonance in the audience and uses images, video and live performance to do this. Her multimedia project ‘The Politics of Comfort’, is a body of work inspired by women who are caregivers and the poignant potential of the bun and bread culture of Northern Ireland. In this particular piece, she focuses on the working women who held society together, sometimes as life was falling apart.
Janie became a mother in 2021 and has been weaving her mothering into her artistic practice, most recently showcasing ‘Matrescene’ in The MAC, Belfast. The artwork features two large-scale images: one of her and her daughter in the bath, and another of her placenta after birth, depicting the tender and brutal aspects of motherhood.
Image courtesy of Eslam Abd El Salam.
Méabh Meir
Méabh is a visual artist, singer, member of traditional vocal group, Landless, and lover of interdisciplinary collaboration.
Landless have been performing locally and internationally since 2013 and have just released their well received second album, “Lúireach”, with Glitterbeat records.
Some recent collaborative performance projects include “The Night Draws Near”, 2023, Ulster Museum; “po(e)sies” with sound artist Min Kim, various locations July 2023 - May 2024; “Swimming a long way together”, a durational art project by Vanessa Daws, 2021-2024, various locations; “The Black Pig’s Dyke”, Cavan, May 2023; “In a Contrary Place” for Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty, Sligo, 2022; “The Sky Gives Way”, Belfast, Dec 2021; “The Druithaibs’ Ball” for Array Collective’s winning Turner Prize exhibition, Belfast, July 2021; “Two Miles of Earth for a Marking Stone” commissioned by Solas Nua for International Women’s Day and the 15th annual Capitol Irish Film Festival, Washington DC, March 2021.
Emma Brennan
Emma Brennan is an interdisciplinary artist who works predominantly in performative practices to include multi-media installation, moving image and collaborative processes. Based between Belfast and Dublin she is a former Co-Director and Chairperson at Catalyst Arts Belfast and a current studio member of PS2 Studios Belfast. She has shown work as part of the multiple exhibitions and festivals locally, nationally and internationally including the Belfast International Festival of Performance Art (BIFPA), the Live Art Biennial, FIX21, with the Black Kit Performance Archive in Cologne, at Livestock Dublin, in the Dublin live art festival, as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival and more. Brennan has worked extensively with Turner Prize winning collective, Array Studios, as part of their winning exhibition The Druthaibs Ball and its coinciding programme of events. Recent projects include an entirely new body of performance work as part of the Zeitgeist Irland 2024 project POTLUCK at the Kunst-Station Sankt Peter in Cologne, Germany, collaborating with Alice Maher for Vox Hybrida at the Golden Thread Gallery in February 2023, and on residency at Haihatus in Joutsa, Finland in 2023 and much more. Brennan is a board member of both Bbeyond Belfast and Live Art Ireland, Tipperary.
Rosie Mullin
Rosie has been a core member of the dance community of Northern Ireland since 2013, performing with Maiden Voyage Dance, Off The Rails and OD Works. This year she will have her debut performance with Irish Modern Dance Theatre as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival. Her creative joy lies in physical theatre. She is in the early stages of creating first solo piece, ‘Obedient Lamb’, depicting the nuances of rural Irish living.
Lagan Currachs Trad Session
The currach has been a venue for all kinds of performances and players including Irish trad, Syrian and Appalachian folk music, from solo singers to full ensembles.