LMFM interviewed Emma Brezing 5th October 2016 in connection with the new project.
Please click on link and it will play.
Please click on link and it will play.
Out Too Far (Wishing Too Many Things), a short film directed by Liam McGrath and a book designed by Feena McCarthy, photographed by Davey Moor, with an essay by writer Peter O'Neill and a collaborative text by David Newton and myself is out now. The publication is available to buy at Artist-Run-Gallery 126 Galway, NUI Gallery Galway, Molesworth Gallery Dublin, the Library Project Temple Bar Dublin and Tourist Office Balbriggan. |
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The new work will be shown at Artists-Run-Gallery 126, (http://126.ie/) in a three person show with Gary Robinson and Sean Cotter.
Additional work including a new short film is on show at NUI Galway, during the Galway Arts Festival, from 17 - 31st July 2017.
http://www.giaf.ie/events/memoryhasapulse
Film still, Out Too Far (Wishing Too Many Things)
When is too much too much?
Could using trash from the bin as one’s art materials in some way become a display of an emerging social conscience?
Will a whale skeleton made from burst GAA balls somehow become re-animated with all the balls’ past playful movements still present somehow, even if only in the mind of the viewer?
How can we consume less somehow and be more mindful of our actions and how they impact on others?
Might a tossed-away carpet lift itself up and become, perhaps, a magic carpet in its own way with its own set of questions and hopes, walking its sad, lamenting path whilst it searches for warmth and love?
Will we be known by the tracks we leave? Could we un-train ourselves as consumers, little by little, and stop turning a blind eye on so many things that are obviously harming us?
Could an art shaped out of the flotsam of our throwaway culture, the leftovers of our highly-plasticised world, maybe represent the high speed of our experiences whilst still speaking up for the forgotten people, the homeless, the worthless and the wounded?
Might there be a hope there for us all in the art, too? Will Carpet Man as a living sculpture be moving and carrying his suitcase, so he may finally reach his hoped-for destination – a place with a warm hearth and a set of kind people who will love him yet again?
What are we doing to the environment we live in and why are we behaving like a throwaway, careless society and when will we stop treating our environment like a commodity?
Might renewal and transformation prevail for the GAA-ball whale, too, for this whale is shaped like a giant cocoon and, inside, like a Gastrolith, is a smaller cocoon?
These are difficult questions, yes, yet art should be difficult. Art gets to the core of our being, because art is tasked to present the world as the difficult place and imperfect place if it actually is a difficult and imperfect place. Art, too, is tasked to show how the world might become better in some way, somehow, yes. Art always leads us beyond where we are. Perhaps it can take us from this current difficult and imperfect place and time and lift us up toward an emerging place and time with more warmth and more love, yes.
Collaborative text by Thomas Brezing and David Newton, May 2017
May 1st 2017, filming of Out Too Far (Wishing Too Many Things) at Loughshinny Beach, Fingal, Co. Dublin.
Photo by Lucy Brezing
Photo by Lucy Brezing
POLLUTION
Marine pollution, is the spreading of harmful substances such as oil, plastic, industrial and agricultural waste and chemicals in to the ocean.
On average humans use over 300 million tonnes of new plastic every year and only half is used once. A huge amount of plastic waste finds its way into the ocean annually. Over years the plastic breaks into tiny pieces, so much now that in some places plastic particles outnumber plankton.
Marine species suffer directly from plastic pollution, 90% of sea birds have plastic in their stomachs. Plastic attracts toxic chemicals released from industry and agriculture and so the concentration of toxins increases as it moves up the food chain. Entry of plastic toxins into the human food chain is a concern and have been suggested to contribute to some cancers, infertility and behavioral disorders. Recently microplastics have come to the forefront of concern, small particles and fragments, typically less than 5mm in size, are split into Primary and Secondary classes. Primary microplastics are small pellets produced as base material for plastic production and added to cosmetic products and industrial cleaning machines. Secondary microplastics arise from the breakdown of larger plastic waste (carrier bags, fishing equipment or ‘ghost gear’, food packaging, fibres from clothes) and accumulate into huge zones entangling sea creatures. Fish ingest the waste mistaking them for prey and filter feeders ingest them alongside food particles.
Oil (liquid petroleum hydrocarbon) enters the ocean from oil spills, routine shipping, run offs and dumping. About 12% of oil in the ocean is directly from oil spills. Oil directly affects the water repellency of bird feathers and destroys the insulating ability of fur-bearing animals exposing them to the harsh elements of the environment and the creatures often die from hypothermia. Another example of marine pollution is run off from agricultural waste and products. Pesticides are toxic to water systems however fertilizers are not directly toxic but their presence in water alters the nutrient and species composition of an ecosystem. Eutrophication is a rapid growth of algae from an excess of nutrients, this depletes the dissolved oxygen concentration and in turn fish and aquatic life die from hypoxia.
Source: http://www.underwatersculpture.com/environment/environment-threats/
Drone hovering on film day, Loughshinny Beach, May 2017. Photo by Lucy Brezing
