CANCELLED The Sky Gives Way - Méabh Meir and Emma Brennan
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED
Come join us to welcome the sunrise of midwinter as we meet in Coventry and process towards Newgrange (co. Meath, Ireland) one of the sacred sites of ancient pre-christian Ireland.
The winter solstice, seen as a time of rebirth and renewal as signified by the return of light will be performed as a song and action response by Irish artists Méabh Meir and Emma Brennan as a programmed event as part of Array Collectives 2021 Turner Prize winning exhibition The Druthaibs Ball.
The performance will start at Coventry Cathedral at 8:14am and will end in Array Collective’s exhibition space inside the Herbert. The audience is invited to join us outside the cathedral and walk with us to the space.
ARRAY COLLECTIVE
Array Collective is a group of Belfast-based artists who create collaborative actions in response to issues affecting Northern Ireland. Array Collective’s work encompasses performances, protests, exhibitions and events.
As part of Array Collective designated banner days, the Winter Solstice will celebrate the Bán Bídh. The Sacred Cow Formed in Ancient Ireland is a representation of the queer body in time. We were always here!
Their first stride connects the North to the South.
Their second stride reaches the sea, then halted.
Bán Bídh’s body contorts and shifts
as the strain of the journey across the counties
has exhausted this majestic creature.
Its body, that nourished the land,
is now soured and tough.
Their hide worn and cracked,
their cries quelled,
and their tears dried.
They have given everything, and
now rejected by the people they cared for.
What is next for this creature?
Older than time,
born from the land it loves, its back now turned on it.
Hope?
A light on the horizon begins to flicker,
Dawn to dusk,
carried by the almighty roar of change.
This old relic, this sacred cow,
Bán Bídh takes another step back through its country proudly,
the body, not assimilated but again celebrated.
Méabh Meir is a visual artist, singer/vocalist, and art therapist from Belfast. She is a member of traditional singing group Landless, and of HIVE Choir. Recent performances include “The Druithaibs’ Ball” for Array Collective’s winning Turner Prize exhibition, Belfast, July 2021; “Swimming a long way together”, a durational art project by Vanessa Daws, Dublin, August 2021-2022; “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; and a singing performance at an exhibition of Alfred Wallis’ work at the MAC, Belfast, December 2021.
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 Flax Art Studios Belfast. She has recently shown work as one of the BBeyond performance collective’s new commissioned artists of 2021 at the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival (CQAF), September 2021, as part of the Belfast International Festival of Performance Art (BIFPA), in March 2021, performed at the Biennial FIX 21 in October 2021, as part of Black Kit Performance Archive in Cologne, October 2021 and shown work with inclusion of a performance at Eggs & Butter an exhibition curated by Moran Been-Noon, at the Glór gallery, Ennis, Co. Clare in November 2021.