someone decides, hawk or dove - Oldbridge House

Niamh McCann

‘someone decides, hawk or dove’ is commissioned work by artist Niamh McCann and architect Peter Carroll as part of the programme for ART:2023, a Decade Of Centenaries collaboration from The Arts Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. 

Hosted by Solstice Arts Centre in the Octagonal Walled Garden of Oldbridge House, Drogheda, this multi-layered approach to “site” by Niamh McCann is an art object and installation in collaboration with architect Peter Carroll and Grammy-nominated singer/composer Iarla Ó Lionáird. The installation will remain at Oldbridge for three weeks, visiting three other locations thereafter; The MAC, Belfast, National Sculpture Factory, Cork, and Solus Nua, Washington DC.

Sculptural Elements:
Located in the Octagonal Garden, the overall installation is displayed in a cruciform shape with sonic messages/reflections relayed to the audience from each of the four corners. It takes its material and visual notes from a 19th-century panopticon design and the Lambeg drum.

Within the inner section of the octagonal garden sits a central sculptural structure, ‘Turn Again’. A collaborative piece with architect Peter Carroll, this covered seat holds two people - sharing the same seat but facing opposite directions. In the inner section of the octagonal garden, four printed brass plates place the viewer within a forest, the Dead Zoo and megalithic burial chamber. 

Sound Scape:
The interweaving of natural and recorded birdsong and caws create a particular dramatic otherworldliness within the brick walls.
An original composition developed by Iarla Ó Lionáird, a soundscape is installed spatially through the site. Using the feel or sensibility of the traditional keening or battle song, it emerges into a contemporary tradition.

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