This article is from page 33 of the 2008-04-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 33 JPG
THE future of Kilnaboy’s X-PO projects will be the main topic up for discussion this weekend when international artist Jay Koh visits north Clare. Koh is an expert in the possible interactions between art and society and will be assessing the impact that the Kilnaboy project has already had and what impact it could have in the future.
This Saturday and Sunday Koh will visit and evaluate the X-PO project, culminating in a public discussion on the future of the project at 2pm on Sunday.
“This the first of three evalua-
tive session that Jay will do for the project. He will be giving feedback to myself and to the community. On Saturday he will be available to the local people, to hear what they think of the project and how it is going. I won’t be part of that process at all. People will be totally free to give positive and negative feedback,’ said Deirdre O’ Mahoney, artist and man- ager of the X-PO.
“On Sunday then we will be con- cerned with getting the community involved in X-PO and the future of the project. It takes an awful lot of work to keep this place open and people will have to come on board if it is going to be sustainable.
“There is fantastic community spir- it in Kilnaboy. But we need to reach the people who don’t think they can get involved for one reason or anoth- er. Maybe they are shy or don’t feel that they have anything to offer – but everyone has something to offer.
Following the public talk, a new exhibition from Eileen Healy will be unveiled in the X-PO.
“The exhibition takes the form of videos and still photography piece. The photographs will be something that I think a lot of people will have interest in. It is three aerial photo- graphs, taken over a 40 year period at Eileen’s farm in County Tyrone. The photos show the kinds of chang-
es that have taken place in farming life over the decades. The first pho- tograph shows old pens, hedges and small fields.
“The second photo shows galva- nise steel sheds, the small pens are gone and the hedging is gone. The fields have been tilled in a mechani- cal way. In the third one it has all changed again. There is a slatted house and all the fields have merged into just once huge field. So it is very interesting, in it’s own way it tells the story of Irish farming over the last 40 years.”
This exhibition run until May 15, and like all events in X-PO are free and open to the public.