The iconic national monument of Cloughoughter Castle, sitting on its tiny island in the heart of Cavan's lake lands, will soon premiere a collaborative event-based artwork The Waking Walls by Cavan artist Alan James Burns.
The initiative comprises theatrical artwork that reawakens and equips everyone with age-old methods of coping with loss. The Waking Walls is an invitation to reframe environmental grief - not in a disconnected and isolated state, but as a unifying experience to collectively process climate disruption.
In The Waking Walls, the central historical 13th century building of Cloughoughter Castle now stands in disrepair as physical evidence of the effects of entropy, decay, human destruction and environmental degradation.
Both evenings at dusk - Friday the 8th of September and Saturday the 9th of September - audiences will embark upon a once-in-a-lifetime boat trip. Immersed within this breathtaking location, they will witness the castle personifying collective trauma connected to the climate catastrophe and ecological degradation.
Cloughoughter Castle channels this grief and cries out - in a call to arms - for us to fight to protect ourselves against our inaction; embrace necessary change; and live in harmony with the land once again. The Waking Walls has been developed by Cavan-born environmental artist Alan James Burns in collaboration with writer Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan, NYAH; Cavan Arts Office; and Cavan Adventure Club.
Alan James Burns, the artist behind the projects says Climate change affects everyone and everything. "As the realities of the climate emergency become more apparent, feelings of grief are some of the responses people are experiencing," he continued.
"Consciously or subconsciously, many people are mourning ecologies and futures we thought were guaranteed. I started creating 'The Waking Walls' as an artistic encounter with our grief around the losses people are anticipating or have suffered, and the changes society must make as the world navigates uncharted waters.
"Much is asked of us to let go of practices we know as being the foundation stones of who we are. The Waking Walls connects the mourning artforms of past generations with contemporary emotions of ecological grief. These mourning traditions have strong connections to the heritage of Ireland's border region, bringing together keening rituals, oral traditions, and storytelling.
"The Waking Walls restores these skillsets of processing grief and the events offer us an experience, and tools through which we can re-engage with and reframe environmental loss - not disconnected and isolated - but as a collective, unifying action that can be channelled as a catalyst for change."
For further information and tickets please see the Townhall Cavan website Townhall Cavan | Townhall Street, Cavan https://townhallcavan.com/
