THE WINNOWING BASKET: Art, Loot and The Commons

“ …
An elsewhere world, beyond
Maps and atlases
Where all is woven into
And of itself, like a nest
Of crosshatched grass blades ”

Extract from A Herbal by Seamus Heaney

Narratives are a complex fabric woven of strands of truth, knowledge, history, perception and perspective. In trying to know a place we find strands from different sources and begin to weave these together to build up our own story. Each weaving and understanding is thus uniquely personal, we never have all the threads and we are personally drawn to some aspects above others.

The project Seaweed and Saris represents a personal journey to understand the place of Moville. Ropes and fishing nets are made from recycled Indian sari silk and are interwoven with seaweed, foraged from the adjacent shore.

The installation is suspended from a hexagonal pavilion, a modernist architectural gem built by the renowned Donegal architect Liam McCormick in 1947. The project is echoed in the 6 sister pavilions, also by Liam McCormick, which accompany the shore walk.

The Sari silk represents text based research into the history of Moville; in particular with its relationship with the Montgomery family and their links with the British East India Company in modern day Pakistan. These threads of colonial narratives play a counterpoint to the foraged seaweed. This seaweed represents a deeper, more rooted history and natural heritage, the seaweed grows irrespective of the human constructs of leaders, politics and borders. One cannot learn the secrets of the seaweed from books, instead one must connect personally with the place, walk the shores, learn the tides, observe, touch and smell.

These threads are woven through the loom of the Bath Green pavilion, their ends left free to wave in the wind

Lisa Collomb (1984) IRL/CH

Lisa Collomb is an Irish/Swiss artist and architect living and working in Chur, Switzerland.
Drawing on her background in philosophy, filmmaking, architecture and creative coding, Collomb’s work transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries, resulting in projects that are both visually compelling and conceptually resonant.
Existential undertones run throughout her practice as she examines themes such as the relationship between humans and nature, diaspora, embodied wisdom, and perception. Building upon her architectural training, Collomb creates site-specific installations that amplify the inherent energy of a space, offering fresh interpretations and new meanings to the places she inhabits.