Songs and Stories are three short works for radio, extracted from hours of conversations that took place over tea and biscuits with Visual Artist John Conway and visitors to Naas Care of the Aged Centre, during his Age & Opportunity Artist Residency there. Listen to the third instalment above, while John Conway writes for Culture about the project below.
I am very excited at the prospect of building on the material gathered through conversations which took place at the centre to develop a site-specific theatre work there. The script I am writing draws heavily on the audio recorded during our conversations, and my observations as an artist in the centre. The theatre work is an opportunity to continue collaborating with the men and women who visit the centre, alongside professional theatre-makers, in order to further develop this script and shape the dramaturgy. By having a work built around the experiences and insights of the visitors (participants), and by collaborating in way that supports creative agency, I am hoping to support participants to engage directly in the production of the artwork. I am also hoping this engagement might constructively challenge the participants to ask new questions of art, and to use art to ask questions of us as a prospective audience.
Most of the men and women I worked with attend there for the social aspect - the pace they play bingo at is so intense that I could hardly take it.
Artists in Residence embed in different contexts as observers tasked with responding to communities or settings. Every aspect of a setting has the potential to impact a work. Day to day features become important and are processed with a level of acuity that can be exhausting. Hosting artists in non-traditional settings is a valuable thing. It can bring curiosity and refreshing new perspectives to well-established routines and normalities. Importantly, it can help people in those settings to reconsider the importance and value of the things that they might take for granted – in our case it was the stories of the lives of the people I worked with. The key for us was in providing a space for listening, and a curious outsider - the artist - to listen.
This insight brought by an artist as an outsider, can also focus on the impact of illnesses, which may present in health settings. Naas Care of the Aged Centre is an important part of many people's lives. Most of the men and women I worked with attend there for the social aspect - the pace they play bingo at is so intense that I could hardly take it. They even have their own rhyming slang for the numbers – for example there's "65: The Ballymore Bus" and "61: Daniel O'Donnell's year". Some people in the Centre also receive personal and health care. This can range from getting a haircut, to care for varying degrees of age-related illness and stroke, as well as care for those with Alzheimer's or dementia. In some instances, people's capacity to participate, or consent to participation, was approved by families in consultation with staff from the centre.
Listen: Songs & Stories # 2
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This idea of consent and the capacity to participate or be represented in art projects such as this, brings up a number of interesting questions that can inform how a work is resolved. Trust and understanding between the artist, participants, staff, and families, is important for this. As an artist, you are very often covering unexplored territory while grappling with creative, conceptual and ethical issues. These types of challenges can arise when working in non-traditional settings. I have had insightful curatorial conversations about this with Carolann Courtney O'Malley, Kildare County Council Arts Service's Arts and Well Being Specialist, who, alongside Age & Opportunity, has supported me in this project. Discussions and discoveries around these types of issues are what helps to shape the field of community arts and arts and health.
It is important not to shy away from these harder aspects of older age. To do so might even be a disservice to the experiences of people with whom I have worked.
As we move forward to produce a theatre work which will be set in Naas Care of the Aged Centre, consideration around abilities and consent to participation, and how we work with and around this, is important in relation to the representation of groups and authenticity of context. This also raises ethical questions in terms of the use of recorded material, how it is processed and how/if it is delivered as a component of a piece of art. Embracing the challenging aspect of 'ownership' while striving to maintain artistic integrity, allows peoples' experiences and conditions to be faithfully represented. It can also put us as an audience in a position to empathise with other peoples’ experiences, perhaps challenging us to reconsider our perception and understanding of older communities. It is important not to shy away from these harder aspects of older age. To do so might even be a disservice to the experiences of people with whom I have worked.
Listen: Songs & Stories # 1
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This is the third and final installment of Songs and Stories as part of Bealtaine. The series is intended as a way of reconnecting with the people I worked with in Naas, while we necessarily keep apart due to Covid 19 restrictions. I'm really looking forward to getting back to work with those people and seeing where we end up on our journey together. Sincere thanks to the men and women at Naas Care of the Aged Centre for sharing so much and trusting me, and the staff for taking care of us all. Stay safe. Share this track with an older person in your life, whether it is a neighbour, a family member or a friend. Make a cup of tea and spend time listening.
Find out more about Age & Opportunity here.
