Stephen Rennicks is moving on to another address in Co. Leitrim and leaving apartment complex which was his home in Carrick-on-Shannon for the past 18 months. He has created a new sound piece inspired by his stay there and as a parting gesture to his fellow residents is depositing a CD of the piece, entitled ‘TEMPORARY RESIDENCE', into each of their letterboxes. A limited number will also be available to the public free of charge from the reception area of The Dock. His artists statement can be found below.
http://www/thedock.ieBLACK LOUGH became a trilogy with a new installation at the lost lake itself. View images and text of this final incarnation of ‘BLACK LOUGH’ at
http://www.freewebs.com/blacklough/blackloughatblacklough.htmA new long term project by Stephen Rennicks entitled ‘EVERYDAY ACTIONS’ has begun with a series of line drawings. These drawings will be available to purchase at a very reasonable cost, full details of this and the aims of the project explained at
http://www.freewebs.com/everydayactionsSome details of a low key but very permanent work by Stephen Rennicks can be viewed at
http://www.freewebs.com/6thjune2006There is a new SECRET SOCIETY album out now called ‘THERE’. This is the fourth full length album from Secret Society so far and also marks the 20th release for Ancient Records. Check out the whole catalogue and buy online at
http://www.freewebs.com/ancientrecordssiteDREXCIYA RESEARCH LAB goes from strength to strength having received well over 18000 hits to its main page alone since its launch just 18 months ago. Amongst the usual Drexciya related stuff I am gradually working my way through the recorded output of the 'other half' of Drexciya, Gerald Donald aka Heinrich Mueller. Don’t be Afraid of Evolution at
http://www.drexciyaresearchlab.blogspot.comRare and exclusive interview with Vector Lovers recently posted at Hidden Classics. Check it at
http://www.freewebs.com/hiddenclassics/interviews.htmA LIFE OF TEMPORARY RESIDENCE
All the sounds used in ‘Temporary Residence’ were recorded as heard from the courtyard area and can be seen as an audio snapshot of a typical summer here this year. It starts with the dawn chorus and is followed by, amongst other things, children playing - one of their number being a persistent basketball bouncer - and even the sounds of the grass being mowed. All of these parts make up the whole as they do in real life also, itself another temporary state.
Marymount was originally a school set up by the Marist Sisters, French nuns who originally came to Carrick in 1883, establishing themselves here at Mount St. Joseph in 1891 where they can still be found largely in retirement today. Marymount in its time catered for both primary and secondary level school children so the sound of children playing has been a constant here and from an old photograph I found that even basketball courts were here at one stage too.
In this context I see my piece as very much about history, but not just the history of the past, more a current living history which we all create and are responsible for simply by our existence no matter where we reside, no matter how temporary that may be.
When I first moved here I was struck by how many foreign and, to me, sadly incomprehensible languages I heard drifting pass my window or along the stairwells but more importantly how quickly many of these voices and faces disappeared to be replaced by others as people moved on. Of course there are also people here who have made this their permanent home but these would be very much in the minority. There are therefore many voices in my piece, now made even more anonymous and disembodied in this context. During the 2004 Dublin Fringe Festival I had a piece included in the visual arts section which that year had taken 'Transit' as its theme. Within my piece I used the phrase, 'Home is on the move, home is where-ever you exist.' Two years later and certainly for the foreseeable future I see that statement as truer then ever. Home, by necessity, is becoming more of a state of mind than an actual location. Which is no bad thing, better to have it truly as a state of mind than no sense of it at all. Perhaps some of the adult residents of Marymount and its many duplicates throughout the country see them as just a place to exist while they work and dream of the day they have their own home, having at best held the door or said hello to their neighbours as they passed each other in their time here. But it’s quite obvious from how the children of these places behave and interact so well together that for them it is far more than that.
So make yourself at home, everywhere, where-ever you exist.
Stephen Rennicks
1/11/06
"Man must develop positive consciousness. He has reached his present position on the evolutionary scale through his power to turn his mind into a microscope and concentrate on small things. But this has made him into a victim of the small and the negative. Human history is the history of childishness, of silly quarrels for small reasons."
Colin Wilson
