Crocosmia ×
Artist: Clodagh Emoe
Collaborators: Hallah Farhan Dawood, Ragad Farhan Dawood, Papy Kahoya Kasongo, Fatemeh, Mohamad, and Romeo Kibambe Kitenge
Community Partners: Spirasi, TU Dublin, D7 Educate Together Primary School with senior infants coordinator Anna Donnelly, St. Paul’s Secondary School Brunswick Street with transition year coordinator Val Roe, St Joseph’s Secondary School Stanhope Street with transition year coordinator Siobhan Earley, Mary Conlon, OPW, Head Gardener of IMMA/RHK, Generous gardeners who donated their plants from Co. Kerry, Co. Clare, Co. Wicklow, Co. Louth and Dublin
Date: 2018 – 2021
Website/Social Media: http://www.clodaghemoe.com/crocosmia-x
Commission type: Open call
Commissioner name: Grangegorman Public Art Working Group; Grangegorman Development Agency
Per cent of art: Yes
Gallery
Background
Crocosmia × is a cross cultural, intergenerational participatory art project brings poetry and horticulture together to explore a new reading of community that is inclusive and centered on relations between race and culture. This project developed from The Plurality of Existence in the Infinite Expanse of Space and Time (2015–2017) a collaborative project with individuals seeking asylum in Ireland. Crocosmia x aims to cultivate Crocosmia x croscomii flora, (known as Montbretia) common to Irish roadsides and native to South Africa as a new metaphor for diversity in Ireland. By involving the wider community in the creation of two public artworks for TU Dublin Campus Grangegorman and IMMA (Irish Museum of Modern Art) the project aims to question received notions of what is ‘native’ and what is ‘foreign’. Introducing large clusters of these wild flowers transformed previously overlooked, neglected sites into intimate places for people to sit, gather, and meet. Crocosmia x is located in TU Dublin by the stepped area beside the playing fields and along the edge of the front lawn of the main museum building of the RHK, IMMA. Crocosmia x is cyclical artwork that comes to life every year when the wild flowers bloom. Crocosmia x was launched in TU Dublin as part of Culture Night on Friday 21 September 2018. The event was launched by Jacquie Moore, Grangegorman Public Art Working Group with Ragad Farhan Dawood and Paula Quirke, Spirasi, Charlotte Salter Townsend, National Botanic Gardens and reading by Marie Claire Mundi Njong, Jean-Marie Rukundo Phillemon and Siniša Končić. In September 2018 poems written and recited by individuals seeking asylum were transmitted above the artwork.
Cover image: Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora in bloom, photo courtesy of Eoin Mac Laughlainn, http://emacl.wordpress.com/
- Artist Bio
Clodagh Emoe
Clodagh is interested in experience, perception and the transformative capacity of art. Her collaborative projects seek to create spaces that invite thought and instil agency. Emoe’s work has been commissioned both nationally and internationally; Serpentine Gallery, London, Taipei Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, Nýló, Reykjavik, documenta XIII, Kaisel, Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Project Arts Centre, IMMA, Visual, Centre for Contemporary Art and Maynooth University. She has initiated multilayered collaborative projects that include Mystical Anarchism (2009-2013) with philosopher Simon Critchley, Creating the Common/The Unveiling (2010) a theatrical event parodying a failed unveiling of a monumental sculpture and The Portal (2019), with playwright Shane Mac an Bhaird, a play written, produced and performed by thirty young girls. Clodagh has received awards from the Arts Council of Ireland, Culture Ireland, Dublin City Council, South Dublin County Council, European Cultural Fund and AHRB, UK. She has recently been nominated for the David and Yuko Juda Award UK.
Her full bio and works can be found on her website here.
- Contributors
Collaborators/Poets
Jean-Marie Rukundo Phillemon, Siniša Končić, Annet Mphalele, Saida Umar, Peter Rukundo and Marie Claire Mundi Njong.
Artists/Gardeners
Hallah Farhan Dawood, Ragad Farhan Dawood, Papy Kahoya Kasongo, Fatemah Bastanalam, Mohamad Fadaie and Romeo Kimabe Kitenge.
Associated Collaborators
Andres Mokake, Integration & Psychosocial Coordinator, Spirasi Paula Quirke, Rehabilitation Coordinator, Spirasi, Dereck Bowden, Grangegorman Estates.
Coordinator, Himzo Kazar, Grangegorman Estates Gardener, Mary Conlon, OPW, Head Gardener of IMMA/RHK and her gardening team: Derek Doyle, Therese Thynne and Cathal O’ Suillivan, Janice Hough, Assistant Curator: Residency & Artists’ Programmes, IMMA, Charlotte Salter Townsend, National Botanic Gardens, Anna Donnelly, Senior Infants Year Coordinator, D7 Educate Together Primary School, Val Roe, Transition Year Coordinator, St. Paul’s Secondary School Brunswick Street, Siobhan Earley, Transition Year Coordinator St Joseph’s Secondary School Stanhope Street and Terry Finnegan, AAL Ltd.
- Project Supporters
Special thanks to the kind folk who donated their plants to the project;
Thomas Quearney of Mr. Middleton, Declan O’ Donahue Head Gardener Farmleigh House and Gardens, Elizabeth Addison, Naimh Walker, Bríd Keegan, Claire Connolly, Cecilia Kelliher and Pat Lavery, Marie Savage, Geraldine O’ Halloran, Mary Mc Inerny, Maire O’ Hagan, Nuala O’ Hagan, Holly Pereira, Maire O’ Hagan, Nuala O’ Hagan, Anne O’ Leary, Mary McInery, Anna King, Bríd and Pat Larkin and Sr. Noelle Jennings.
