|  | |
| Alan Counihan's Shelter of the Bay | Alfio Bonanno and Chris Drury's Mountain Shelter |
The Wilderness Sanctuary Artists Retreat Centre is situated close to the ruins of the Coomeen monastic site from which the monks are said to have set off for the Skellig rock. Pushing off without oars, leaving themselves to the waves and the will of god, they landed on that spikey rock, and then, not just surviving, but carving six hundred and twenty steps up to the top of the rock where they made the most majestic, beautiful, enduring stone shelters, or 'clochans', in Europe. The Shelter Project enables artists to explore and build on this tradition in a contemporary context, combining sculptural form with functional and ecological concerns.
The project is designed to run over three phases, with a total of five Shelters altogether, and is an integral part of the Wilderness Sanctuary Artists Retreat Centre. Each work must be conceived within the context of its own immediate surroundings with which it should hold a sympathetic relationship, reflected in the use of materials, size and shape. The mountainous nature of this 48 acres offers a diversity of sites with ample opportunity for each work to be made within its own natural context.
The first two Shelters, were made by artists Alfio Bonnano (DK), Alan Counihan (IR) and Chris Drury (UK), working with a team of assistants. The brief for Shelters1 was to use materials found on the site itself - (stone, earth, blue 'till', rushes) or to use native timbre if tree planting was included in the proposal. They chose to use stone. Wood was used as a structural aid in one of the Shelters and for doors. Glass was used for windows.
A small book, 'Shelters1', was published in 1999 containing images of the Shelters together with poems and an essay by local poet John O'Leary. Full text and pictures.
|
| | |
| Alan Counihan's Shelter of the Bay | Alfio Bonanno and Chris Drury's Mountain Shelter |
'Shelters1' was supported by The Irish Arts Council, The EU Kaleidoscope Fund, The Danish Embassy, The Beara LETS, The Guinness Group and a number of local businesses.
Three men having participated in Shelters 1, it is appropriate for women to create the next two Shelters. The brief is fundamentally the same as for Shelters 1 except for the range of materials. Although these should directly relate to the place - reflecting the local geological and social history - they need not all be found on the site and can include sensitive use of manufactured materials such as cast copper (In the middle of the nineteenth century Allihies had one of the biggest operating copper mines in Europe).
Three shelters are currently under consideration for this next phase:
An Eye Open to the Night by Anna Hill
The Falaing Shelter (Meaning mantle or little hut) by Carolyn Vernon
Another project under consideratiion that is not a shelter as such is the Labyrinth of the Bull by Sean Taylor