Michael John Whelan
Video Installation
Film
Photography
Objects
Paper & Sound
Info
News
The Reserve
AGGREGAT
Primary Organs
Exit Pupil
The Good Soil
From the Mountain
The Reserve
2024
4k video, 1.78:1, colour & monochrome, sound
65:00 min
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A journey to a remote corner of Ireland where an invisible border delineates a reserve that is both a refuge for life, and a beacon of environmental responsibility. A place where pre-Christian beliefs share the magical landscape with traditional Catholic ceremonies. Where Ireland's rare indigenous lizards walk across ancient fossils made by the first ever life to walk out of the sea. But mostly, this is a place of refuge: From the first peoples that landed on its shore's millennia ago, to the Ukrainian refugees escaping the war. Whether physically through experiences of blindness, or metaphysically through our relationships to death, this is a film about exploring what's on the edge of our perception - what lies in the darkness. Weaving together experiences of zoology, spirituality, astronomy, music and performance, 'The Reserve' joins together a diverse tapestry of animals and people that call this place home.

Funded by the Arts Council of Ireland