Thanks for all your hard work today helping me plant the field.

Sweet dreams

Sinead

“…….On and on they walked, and it seemed that the great carpet

of deadly flowers that surrounded them would never end…..”

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum

Join artist Sinéad McGeeney in creating a field of poppies in

the Walled Garden in Marlay Park. Through workshops Sinéad

will show participants how to make and plant their own paper

poppies which will be added to the artwork. Later that night go

online to see the field of poppies glow in the dark.

Sleeping Fields is a project that aims to enter the childlike world

of imagination and play with what is real and what is fictional.

Site-specific to the ‘almost fictional’ Walled Garden at Marlay Park,

the project involves a large participatory element in making and

planting a magical poppy field. As the evening approaches the

participants literally watch the installation ‘grow’. However, when

the evening has set in and everyone has gone home and the park

closes for the night, the poppies illuminate, secretly transforming

the park’s space within the darkness.

Marlay Park Walled Garden

Sun 23rd – Sun 30th August 2009

Admission Free

Workshops

Sun 23rd August 1pm (3-5yrs), 2pm (5-7yrs) & 3pm (7-9yrs)

Call (01) 271 9532 to book your free place (places limited).

All materials will be provided.

www.dlrcoco.ie/arts

Sleeping

Fields

Sticky Tape was a temporary initiative, site specific to Riverbank Centre in Newbridge. The main objective of the work was to physically represent the presence of a collective community back within the space. The centre had previously been closed and remained off limits to the public during that time. Each participant designed a motif from adhesive vinyl and I installed the 4000 pieces in a ‘Wizard of Oz’ type of trail. The trail began at the front door, which led the viewer through the foyer [around chairs, tables] along the floor, into the Gallery space and up along the ceiling and walls.

There is a temptation to engage with the artwork through touch. The project introduced children to eclectic materials allowing them to re-imagine the spatial possibilities of a gallery with consideration to what a garden could be.

At the moment I’m half way through a ten week residency at The Hugh lane Gallery, Dublin 1, working with a group of very energetic local children. We are working with the tangible theme of ‘garden’ while considering how the gallery space can be used.

This artwork allowed the children to physically interact with the gallery space, developing their sense of accessibility. Urban living can often mean being without an outdoor space. I aim to create a representative ‘urban garden’ as site-specific installations around the gallery.

In addition to accessibility, the children are watching the ‘garden grow’ and in essence they are participating in realising an artwork.

The work in progress is open to the public during opening hours and will be completed by April. The final work will be on exhibition for the following six months.

‘Starry Garden’ a piece in Celbridge Scoil Brid, girls school, where all 600 students took part in painting the wall in the playground.

Commission by Office of Public Works as part of the Percent For Art Scheme for the launch of Castletown House in Kildare. Its a spooky place, steeped in history and ghost stories. This piece was for the Cafe extension and bookshop in the West Wing.

THE WISH PROJECT

…..was funded by Dublin City Council’s Events Department as an outdoor art-based event. Although free, the event was ticketed and structured into 8 workshops held over 1 weekend, the result being the white flowers left standing on Merrion Square Park hill for 1 week. Each flower contained a person’s wish. Each flower was made out of polyproplene paper, the kind used in ordnance survey maps, to remain weatherproof for the week.

The concept of the piece derived from the Japanese custom of The Wish Tree, where the public write wishes onto paper before folding and tying it around a branch of a tree. The trees can be found outside Japanese temples. Over time the trees become covered in what appear as hundreds of white ‘paper’ flowers/blossoms from a distance.

So within the workshop, everyone was invited to write a wish down on paper before folding the sheet into an origami flower and then placing it into a white wooden stem. The stems were then individually secured into the ground.

SUMMER

…this project was commissioned by the Education Department at The Hughlane Gallery, Dublin 1.

Simple shapes were cut out of coloured polypropylene sheets by workshop participants and hung to represent tree tops suspended in air. The workshops were held at the gallery and opened to the public/ passers by who wished to participate.

The resulting shapes were then individually hung by nylon from the ceiling.