In Corn Work (Corrib) 2020 four local folk figures, the Straw Boys, remade virtually, perform a symbolic wheel of production. Changing with the seasons, each character walks a quarter wheel, turns across one spoke, emerges and walks another quarter, in time performing a synchronised solar wheel through day and night across the year. They dance alongside and in dialogue with the strong flow of the River Corrib which once provided energy for the city’s many dismantled flour mills.
To achieve the work dancers, wearing motion capture suits, originally walked, danced and performed in a studio setting. This series of motions was captured and converted into data. In time motion matching and neural networks generate the ongoing infinite choreography for the characters we see in the work. The performances were developed in close dialogue with movement analyst Esther Balfe, alongside input from the dancers themselves: Stephanie Dufresne (Spring), Ursula Robb (Summer), Justine Cooper (Autumn), and Raymond Keane (Winter). Each season sees a different historic grain of Ireland represented in the straw suits, developed by Gerardine Wisdom: Spring uses barley, Summer uses oats, Autumn uses rye and Winter uses wheat.
The portrait of Galway city and the River Corrib emerged from a 3D scan of the scene. This base material was modelled into a careful representation within a game engine, which produces the work in realtime across day and night and throughout the year. At night the characters are illuminated by a virtual spotlight.
Corn Work (Corrib) 2020 was commissioned by Galway International Arts Festival for Galway2020, European Capital of Culture.
The work was presented at Claddagh Quay, Galway upon a substantial Mirror Pavilion with
three sides and roof clad in a mirror polished metal and the fourth wall a high–resolution LED wall 3 - 26 September, 2020.
In February 2021 Corn Work travels to the Gwangju Biennial, South Korea.
Producer: Werner Poetzelberger
Programmer: Helmut Bressler
CG Character Modelling: Max Loegler
CG Character Rigs and Skinning: Arx Anima
Environment development: Werner Poetzelberger
Movement Analyst: Esther Balfe
Dancers: Stephanie Dufresne (Spring), Ursula Robb (Summer), Justine Cooper (Autumn), and Raymond Keane (Winter)
Development Dancers: Siobhan Manson, Lucy West and Ben Sullivan
Drone Photography: The Drone Guys
Straw suit development: Gerardine Wisdom
Grain Farmers: Dan Fogarty (Wheaten straw), Gunther Falkenthal (Rye Straw), Ruairiadh and Marie Deasy (Barley and Oat Straw)
Associate Producer (Galway): Declan Gibbons
Line Producer (Vienna): Caroline Ecker
3D Realtime Engine: Unigine
Installation development: Jakob Illera / Inseq Design
GIAF Chief Executive: John Crumlish
GIAF Artistic Director & Mirror Pavilion producer: Paul Fahy
Financial Controller: Gerry Cleary
In 2022 Corn Work (Corrib) was presented upon a sculptural Exchange Table in beech and steel custom designed by the artist in dialogue with Elements of Action as part of Field Exchange.
Presented on Brookfield Farm on the shores of Lough Derg, Co Tipperary by farmer and climate ambassador Ailbhe Gerrard, Field Exchange was an initiative facilitating people to exchange creatively on topics around regenerative agriculture.
Every week for 12 weeks, Brookfield Farm hosted an Exchange to share expertise and knowhow on: soil fertility; trees on farms; welcoming all to agriculture and more. The project welcomed 30 farmers, food producers, experts, interested publicand artists coming together each week to address selected topics at exchange tables on Brookfield Farm, facilitated by NOTS.ie (Organic Agriculture Training).
The Exchanges were further contextualised and amplified by Model Plot, a sculptural planting by artist Deirdre O’Mahony in collaboration with the Loy Association of Ireland.
Field Exchange engages vision, knowledge and practical action to encourage people to come together to solve our urgent challenges in agriculture, biodiversity and climate.
https://www.brookfield.farm/pages/field-exchange-2022-learning-resource
https://www.elementsofaction.net/community-actions
https://deirdre-omahony.ie/portfolio/field-exchange-model-plot/
Field Exchange is presented by Ailbhe Gerrard and co-produced by Ailbhe Gerrard and Culture Works. Funded by Creative Ireland with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications | Creative Climate Action Fund
Corn Work was originally commissioned by Galway International Arts Festival for Galway2020, European Capital of Culture. https://www.giaf.ie/tours/mirror-pavilion
3 - 26 September, 2020
CORN WORK (CORRIB) 2020 was presented at Claddagh Quay, Galway upon a substantial pavilion with three sides and roof clad in a mirror polished metal and the fourth wall a high–resolution LED wall
As the viewer approached the Mirror Pavilion structure, they saw themselves reflected in the mirrored walls. On the LED screen they experienced a virtual representation of the landscape in which the structure is situated overlaid by four local folk figures, the Straw Boys, remade virtually, who perform a symbolic wheel of production. Changing with the seasons, each character walks a quarter wheel, turns across one spoke, emerges and walks another quarter, in time performing a synchronised solar wheel through day and night and across the year. They dance alongside and in dialogue with the strong flow of the River Corrib which once provided energy for the city’s many flour mills. Through digital means ideas of flow, exchange and sustainability are performed into perpetuity and in dialogue with the immediate landscape.
Mirror Pavillion / Corn Work was commissioned by Galway International Arts Festival for Galway2020, European Capital of Culture.
-2020-John-Gerrard---image-Brendan-Keogh-.jpg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
-2020-John-Gerrard---image-Brendan-Keogh-_tn.jpg)
_tn.jpeg)
_tn.jpeg)
_tn.jpeg)
Share