Pálás Cinema
15 Merchants Rd Lower, Galway H91 F6DF
Saturday 16 November
2pm - 4pm
Join us for a programme of short films at Palás Cinema, presented as part of the TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and curated by Michele Horrigan. This specially curated selection showcases the works of renowned artists, Joan Jonas, Patrick Hough, John Carson, Coilin O’Connell and Michelle Doyle.
Explore a diverse selection of visual narratives that reflect the intersection of contemporary art and film. This programme offers an engaging opportunity for both experienced cinephiles and newcomers to short films to discover various forms of artistic expression.
Film Screening Programme
Joan Jonas | Volcano Saga (1989) | 28:30 min
Patrick Hough | Whale Fall (2023) | 16:17 min
John Carson | American Medley (1985) | 11:00 min
Coilin O’Connell & Michelle Doyle | Super Gairdín (2022) | 24:29 min
Joan Jonas is a pioneering American performance artist and video artist, born on July 13, 1936, in New York City. In 1985, Jonas began developing Volcano Saga after a trip to Iceland with video artist Steina Vasulka. This performance interprets the Laxdaela Saga, a thirteenth-century Icelandic folktale centred on a woman and her four dreams. In 1989, Jonas adapted the story into a video featuring actors Tilda Swinton and Ron Vawter, who appear superimposed over the Icelandic landscape, which functions as a character in its own right. Later transformed into an installation, Volcano Saga represents a pivotal moment for Jonas, marking the integration of female character development, narrative reflection, and the volcanic landscapes as symbolic elements.
Patrick Hough was born 1989, Offaly, Ireland. Hough currently lives and works in London. Whale Fall is a film set in the middle of an Irish peat bog where the inexplicable remains of a humpback whale are discovered by two rural women. Drawn into the mystery of how and why it has appeared, they soon realise the whale is exerting its own magnetic force; summoning the ghosts of lifeforms and ecosystems obliterated in the name of 'progress'. As the women explore its origins, they confront old divisions and differing views on the worlds gone before, and the worlds yet to come. Part ecological horror, part existentialist drama, Whale Fall is a striking meditation on the consequences of the so-called Anthropocene - our current era of human-induced planetary change.
John Carson is a Belfast born artist who has worked in various media to provocatively explore the interface between high and low culture. He has exhibited and performed internationally and has made works for television and radio. He taught at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London UK from 1991 to 2006 and in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh USA from 2006 to 2022.
Super Gairdín is a new video work by artists Cóilín O’Connell and Michelle Doyle about divine spirits, landscape, language and nature. Taking cues from the folk horror tradition, the film is set in a desolate garden centre, a space where landscape is held indefinitely. A figure wanders the aisles of saplings, chancing upon a long forgotten rock deity; the Cailleach. The Cailleach is capable of great forces, summoning nature at will and throwing rocks from her apron. She contemplates the various narratives that surround her existence in lore and the difficulty of translating her powers into Béarla. She views mankind with hatred and will soon enact her revenge.
Access:
We aim to ensure that our event is accessible to all individuals interested in attending. If you have access related questions, please contact info@tulca.ie
Palás Cinema
Wheelchair accessible
Accessible toilet facilities
Step free
Accessible parking (located on Saint Augustine street - 4 minute walk)