High Strangeness: An exhibition
Times & Dates
Dublin City Council has commissioned High Strangeness, an exhibition by artist Lucy McKenna curated by IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) for children, schools, and families at Cabra Library Creative Hub.
The exhibition runs until 15 June and viewing times as per Cabra Library opening hours.
Lucy McKenna’s exhibition explores High Strangeness, ideas and stories at the edge of our understanding of the universe. For this show, Lucy was particularly interested in the phenomenon of magical lights appearing in the Irish landscape, documented through generations of storytelling in the National Folklore Collection in UCD. These folklore stories were documented by children from 1937 to 1939 in the School’s Collection segment of the National Collection. Their accounts relate to many subjects. The artist’s focus in this exhibition is specifically on stories of mysterious lights that were reported in the Irish landscape, across every county in the country, and behave in autonomous, patterned ways, at particular times or dates. The stories were collected by children from adults in their locality; some are first-hand witness accounts while others are stories passed along from others, spanning many generations.
The artist uses these stories of magical lights as an entry point into thinking about magic, science, and our place in the universe. The beauty in these stories is the magic of the descriptions, the respect for and the holding of belief in the otherworldly, and the role of children as the primary investigators, gatherers and passers-on of these phenomenal lived-experiences for the future generations of Ireland. Children were the ideal capturers of this precious, ephemeral information. They were open-minded, unbiased and uncynical, curious and interested; these accounts are part detective work and part documentation.
Lucy McKenna’s exhibition places today’s children in the position of children of the 1930s – giving them a doorway to think critically, to investigate the works using active ‘looking’ to draw their own conclusions. A new generation of children will be introduced to stories of the phenomenon of magical lights that existed in Ireland (and may still exist!). This exhibition knits together actual, documented stories of personal experiences and physical places in the Irish landscape, with drawings based on photos from the Hubble telescope, near-Earth objects and asteroids, and sculptures of mysterious objects that may or may not be from earth, fragments of objects mentioned in the stories, bound together by magical forces. A sense of intrigue surrounds the lettering on the wall that presents a message in a code yet to be deciphered that seems to be pulled by an unseen energy force in the room. Lucy’s artworks are inspired by data collected through the children in the folklore collection, observations of space and journeys through the landscapes mentioned in the stories, operating at the edges of what is known, what we are curious about and what just feels unexplained unless perhaps by magic.
We invited poet Enda Wyley to write a new poem in response to the exhibition. Speaking about it, Enda said “I wrote this poem because I was inspired by stories from The National Folklore Collection and by the artist Lucy McKenna’s beautiful short film of a ring fort called High Strangeness. The white flowers swaying in the breeze made me think of a ring fort as a magic place where fairies are woken by strange lights at night and dance – but also as a place where we can dig deep into our hearts and memory and imagine those people we love.”
Sheena Barrett, Head of Research and Learning at IMMA said “We are delighted to partner with Dublin City Council on this exciting opportunity to show new work by an artist made especially for children and to present that in the context of Cabra library, which reflects IMMA’s values of being incredibly welcoming as a space for children. Over the next few months, our Engagement and Learning and Visitor Engagement Teams will be facilitating art workshops for families and schools to support moments for children to explore their creativity and curiosity and Lucy’s exhibition provides a rich context to consider other realms and magic, to consider far reaching connections from Irish folklore to explorations of space, fairy potatoes to magical labyrinths. We’re looking forward to hearing what the children think and what new stories might be written.”
Further information on the Artist
Lucy McKenna's work is concerned with the observation and interpretation of data relating to our understanding of the universe. She looks at the systems that attempt to explain our place in it, who owns them and the perspectives that those systems include or exclude. In 2023, Lucy McKenna began self-directed research with the National Folklore Collection, and was subsequently awarded the UCD Joseph M Hassett Creativity Bursary to officially partner with UCD on making new work relating to the collection, beginning in early 2024. www.lucymckenna.com
Further information on the Poet
Enda Wyley is a poet and teacher. She has published six collections of poetry from her debut Eating Baby Jesus, through to New and Selected Poems and The Painter on his Bike, Dedalus Press. Her children’s books include I Won’t Go To China! and Boo and Bear, O’Brien Press. She is a member of Aosdána.
Further information on Creative Hubs
Dublin City Libraries and Arts Office work in partnership to support key four Creative Hubs within Ballyfermot, Cabra, Central and Coolock libraries. Creative Hubs sustain high quality arts experiences for children, schools, and families to access in their Library and locality, through the development of enhanced educational, community and cultural partnership. The year-round multi-disciplinary Creative Hubs programme is delivered by The Ark. www.dublincity.ie
Further information on IMMA
IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, is Ireland’s National National Cultural Institution for Modern and Contemporary Art, based at in its historic home at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. IMMA’s principal funder is the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media. Our Vision is to be the most dynamic and welcoming cultural destination in Ireland, collecting and presenting modern art, and recognised internationally as a thought leader in contemporary art practice. IMMA’s Engagement and Learning team and Visitor Engagement team will deliver a full programme of workshops during the exhibition. Ask your librarian for more details. www.imma.ie