Samuel Arnold Keane and Kasia Kaminska, Language and light: foraging and cyanotype workshop

Galway Arts Centre

Galway Arts Centre, Ireland

What I am hoping to capture is that luminance that arises from the depths of languages - the way they shine a faint light on the past and illuminate some of our murkier memories and practices - Manchán Magan Guided by the words and work of Manchán Magan, we will shine a light on the plantlife that surrounds us through this bilingual foraging walk and cyanotype printmaking workshop. We will work with light in all its many forms - the light that the Irish language shines on the past, illuminating older, often more ecological ways of relating to our environments, and the natural light of the sun to create cyanotype prints celebrating our native and naturalised plants and words. Beginning with a walk in the areas surrounding Galway Arts Centre, we will gather and learn about the wild plants growing in the city and what their names as Gaeilge reveal to us about their uses for food, medicine, crafts and art. This will be followed by a cyanotype workshop in Áras na nGael. Cyanotype is one of the earliest photography processes and utilises a special solution that is sensitive to sunlight to create beautiful cyan blue images. Inspired by Manchán's Gaeilge Tamagotchi, which saw participants of this performance receive a unique and endangered Irish word to nurture, nourish and take guardianship of, we will invite participants to care for a chosen plant name as Gaeilge, and in turn to care for the plant whose name is written. After the workshop we invite participants to stay a while to chat and enjoy some wild nibbles and refreshments. Please note, all levels of Irish (including none) are welcomed.