Super Gairdín | Irish Artist's Film Index

Super Gairdín

Michelle Doyle, Cóilín O’Connell


View the trailer

https://youtu.be/i0Ek2id7XkU

External links

Link 1

Artist's biography

Michelle Doyle, Cóilín O’Connell

Contributors

Michelle Doyle & Cóilín O'Connell - Directors/Writers/Producers
Eimear Keating - Voice of an Cailleach
John Barrett - The Man
Sean Fitzgerald - Tour Guide
Text edited by Eva Richardson McCrea
Ross Coleman - Irish Translation
Emma Conway - Lettering, Graphic Design
Jennifer Moore - Soundtrack
Diarmuid MacDiarmada - performer, arranger and producer of ‘The Greenwood Sidee’

Special Thanks to:
Sarah Simpson
Padraig Tully

Synopsis

Super Gairdín is a new video work by artists Cóilín O’Connell and Michelle Doyle about divine spirits, landscape, language and nature. Taking cues from the folk horror tradition, the film is set in a desolate garden centre, a space where landscape is held indefinitely. A figure wanders the aisles of saplings, chancing upon a long forgotten rock deity; the Cailleach. The Cailleach is capable of great forces, summoning nature at will and throwing rocks from her apron. She contemplates the various narratives that surround her existence in lore and the difficulty of translating her powers into Béarla. She views mankind with hatred and will soon enact her revenge. The film explores art making through Irish and is the first bilingual piece by O’Connell and Doyle. In the Irish government’s 20-Year Strategy for the Irish Language (2010-2030) policy, they define administration, education and technology as being areas of action, yet do not discuss support for arts and culture. The Irish government fails to outline support of visual art or music through the medium of Irish in their move towards a bilingual society. Super Gairdín posits Irish as a perfect language for cultural production and artistic experimentation. Recently the video piece was selected for next year’s junior cert syllabus for Irish.

Concept & Technique

The film combines original and found footage with DIY animations, all soundtracked by a blood curdling composition by Jennnifer Moore. The Cailleach’s monologues borrow from sources including 7th century laments, the writings of Irish revolutionary poet Padraig Pearse all combined with common expressions from genre film. In Irish culture the Cailleach has been used as a stand in for for the landscape and even the nation of Ireland itself, in a contemporary Irish context industrial agriculture has made made Ireland one of the least biodiverse territories in Europe and the Irish language has declined in popular use under the watch of an indifferent nation state. After generations of ill treatment the Cailleach of Super Gairdin is dismissive of her conflation with Ireland and is vexed with her ill treatment, she seeks retribution on an ignorant victim.

Screenings

2022 - Artists Initiated Projects - Pallas Projects, Dublin 8
2023 -XXL Dreams - Laak, Den Haag, the Netherlands
2023- Visual - Carlow
Details
Title

Super Gairdín

Year

2022

Genres

Animation, Narrative, Surrealist

Topics

Arts, Environment

Key phrases

Landscape, gardening, folkhorror, folklore, genre, curse, national identity, cailleach, Gaeilge, Irish language, Padraic Pearse, revenge

Language

Irish

Subtitles

English

Duration

23:29:00

Original formats

Digital 4k, Digital HD

Screening formats

Digital HD, HD

Aspect ratio

16:9

Colour

Colour

Sound

Yes

Supported by Kildare County Council Arts Service, the Arts Council of Ireland and Visual Artists Ireland.
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