Summer Inspiration At DLR Lexicon, Dublin
The inspirational timescape Feast Upon The Earth has moved from Tullow to Dun Laoghaire’s Lexicon Library for the rest of the summer. The launch talk in July was “very engaging,” said Susan Lynch, senior executive librarian at Lexicon, who welcomed the timescape. “I don’t usually see so much participation in these workshops.”
At the talk, creator Tom Butler introduced a wide range of topics, weaving together the facts of our existence with the choices we’ve made.
The whole timescape, covering 13.8 billion years, is “just the introduction,” said Tom, “and the question at the bottom of the last panel is where the conversation really starts: ‘What future will we choose?’”.
As the conversation turned to the accelerated communication that technology has enabled, workshop participant Fionnuala asked “What do you mean by consciousness?” The internet has given us a “global brain”, enabling us to share information in real time, and social media is a vast vox pop, with trends and memes. But will technology “save” us? Or do we already have the answers that we simply need to uncover?
A Hit with Secondary Students
These big questions appealed to Tullow Community School students this spring at a separate workshop organised by teacher Ann Corrigan in Tullow. They commented on the vastness of the challenges we face, but also had some answers.
Ann developed an ecological art project to create sculptures using recyled materials from home, in collaboration with internationally renowned Carlow designer Sasha Sykes. The project helped them connect to real issues in our world today, and to find the creativity and vocabulary to express their concerns and solutions.
The timescape served as a practical extension of their environmental science and art curricula, weaving together many threads of a complex story.
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Bringing Art to Science
Feast Upon The Earth made its debut at the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s Earth Rising eco-festival in September 2023. Hundreds of visitors saw and engaged with the timescape, which drew consistently enthusiastic comments and sparked conversations about our future.
It has since sponsored the Mary Robinson Climate and Nature Conference in Ballina, the 50th anniversary event of Friends of the Earth, and has inspired visitors at the Teach Bhride Holistic Education Centre in Tullow.
A conversation between Tom and the Brigidine elders earlier this year “became a vibrant conversation about the future. It was a productive way to bring a science-based conversation to a faith-based community,” wrote Carmel McEvoy, who invited the exhibition to Teach Bhride.
As the effects of climate change become increasingly apparent, exhibitions like this play a crucial role in helping us all understand the world we live in. One environmental enthusiast said it highlighted our “responsibility to take action and protect our planet for future generations.”
Catch it at the Lexicon to 30 August.
The book of the timescape is available at VISUAL Carlow and Made in Carlow. For more information visit astraea.net/events.
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