'We all need to make time for our minds to stay healthy...' Artist Tom Meskell introduces his unique contribution to this year's First Fortnight Mental Health Art & Culture Festival - a luminous landscape of lanterns at Dublin's National Botanic Gardens. Crafted by artist Tom and fifty community participants, these lanterns embody hope, community, and collaborative journeys.
When First Fortnight CEO Maria Fleming contacted me in early 2023, she explained the mission of the festival, and how she thought the way that I had worked on a project in Philadelphia entitled Lights In The Darkness would complement what First Fortnight did. I saw the potential for myself to home in on the fusing of facilitation and studio work.
The process of creating is a core part of the project, because it included an eclectic bunch of people, via a series of workshops, leaving their individual mark on each piece. I then had the opportunity to spend time in the studio working with these community-made elements and to form them into finished lantern sculptures – the Silva Lumina.
The making of lanterns allows me to work with people in a quick and immediate way; lanterns are very alluring and magical, and when we illuminate them there is a sigh of wonder that I never tire of. This wonder draws people in and creates an energy and excitement in the art-making process that seems to have a universal appeal. The multiple stages of lantern-making also ensures everyone will find a role which will really suits them - it takes a village to make a lantern. The showing of the work is the celebration and sharing of the bonding that happens in a workshop.
For me, the real joy in this form of art making is in the collective sense of purpose and achievement that I share with the people I collaborate with it. This allows me to shout about the work, because I am not shouting for myself, I am shouting for us: "We are great, we are doing amazing things and we can do more."
I have been involved in creating spectacles and working in a community engagement context for over 30 years. It’s been a fascinating journey and the sector has changed so much in that time; we had few blueprints and had to develop these methodologies through trial and error. I was always trying to find the magic formula that not only created engaging artwork, but engaged with the public as makers and creators in a meaningful way.
My first major engagements were with parade-making in a community context; I was lucky to meet people with the same vision to create art with the communities we lived in. The limitations of parades in their ability to convey a complex narrative led me to developing lantern installations which, for me, achieved the ability to tell a visual story in a gentle and thought-provoking way. They allow the viewer to absorb the spectacle at their own pace, and to allow us - as makers and creators - time to spend time not only with our own creations, but with the spectators.
Lanterns are very alluring and magical, and when we illuminate them there is a sigh of wonder that I never tire of.
The other part of my practice has been the facilitation of art in a workshop context; I have been heavily involved in arts and health, and arts in education throughout my practice. This important work has been a constant in my life since 1998, particularly in care settings and working with residents, as an artist shining a light on them as creatives.
I was always coming at this as a collaborator with First Fortnight, which has been a very positive and enriching experience for me. With Silva Lumina, I am fusing my arts in health experience with public spectacle - it's is the closest I have come to bringing both sides of my practice together. This work allows me to gather these skills into a cohesive event that will hopefully reach people and inspire them with hope - for that is the ultimate goal.
Silva Lumina is at The Botanic Gardens, Dublin from 5th - 14th Jan (excluding Monday Jan 8th) - the event is free, but booking/registration is essential - find out more here, and take a deeper dive into this year's First Fortnight programme here.
