Dublin's Living Canvas screen goes gothic with a spooky series of short films for this year's Bram Stoker Festival - Gemma Tipton, Cultural Projects Manager at IPUT, introduces the programme below...
Strange goings on, ghosts, ghouls and things that go bump in the night… We've never been short of imagination in this part of the world, which is why Halloween, Samhain – or whatever you like to call it yourself – plays such a special role in the seasonal calendar. Sure, you can bewail the commercialisation, but strip back the layers, and you find at its heart a festival where we mark the passing of the seasons, the darkening of the days; and we also get the chance to press our noses up against the uncanny, and enjoy a good old fashioned spooky thrill.
Programming the Living Canvas screen at Wilton Park, we’re always mindful of what’s going on around us. After all, it isn’t just the largest screen for digital art in Europe, it’s also a destination in Dublin – an enormous free open-air gallery that happens to be on the banks of the beautiful Grand Canal. It’s a spot with strong literary associations. Mary Lavin lived in these parts, Patrick Kavanagh was a fan, and Thomas Kinsella too. So, of course we wanted to mark the Bram Stoker Festival!
The best part about programming art is finding the astonishing array of ways that artists approach an idea, and we’ve thoroughly enjoyed finding old favourites and new things to give you the shivers, and to make you smile. The Spooky Shorts Programme shows four brilliant animations in rotation, and demonstrates why Irish animators are famous around the world.
We all know the story of Sleeping Beauty, but when Nicky Phelan re-told it for Brown Bag Films with his Granny O’Grimm, it was no surprise to find it quickly nominated for an Oscar. Anyone who thinks fairy tales are all about reinforcing stereotypes of pretty pliant princesses should take a look. Then there’s Aidan McAteer’s Deadly - voiced by Oscar winner Brenda Fricker with Love/Hate’s Peter Coonan, it’s a delicious little story about the veil between worlds.. you may need your hankies at the ready.
Halloween is also a time to look at things sideways. As pumpkins become lanterns, and sheets turn into spirits, we also loved Josh O'Caoimh and Mikai Geromino’s Empty Little People. Animation innovators, and maps and plans, are always worth looking at, and here we’re introduced to the dangers of running out of tea on All Hallow’s Eve.
But it wouldn’t be the Bram Stoker Festival without Dracula himself, and the final film in our quartet is Abe’s Story by Adam H Stewart. "Everyone knows who Bram Stoker is, but I am one of the lucky few who is related to him," says Stewart, whose origin story of Abraham Stoker is alive with ideas – and the undead. The Spooky Animated Shorts play on a loop that runs for just under 20 minutes, so stick around and you can catch them all.
We were also thrilled to team up with the Museum of Literature Ireland (MoLI) for their brand new Ghosts of Dublin, where actors and activists read short stories and extracts by Dublin writers, including Stoker and more. It’s part of their Dublin Gothic project. Watch them from the Canal-side viewing platform, sync up the sound via your smartphone and you may never want to go into a creepy abandoned dark house on your own late at night ever again!
Living Canvas Goes Gothic screens at Living Canvas from 8am to 10pm from October 28th - 31st 2022, for the Bram Stoker Festival - find out more here.
