Etaoin Melville
2 to 28 September 2024

Studio open on Wednesday and Thursday

I’m interested in meeting with folklorists, storytellers and sean nos singers in the area of west cork to look at themes of cross generational trauma and intersectionality.

I will facilitate an informal event; Chats over the kitchen table with a cup of tea, an open dialogue conversation that I can record and use for research. We will talk about their mothers and grandmothers, stories, superstitions and traits passed down through the generations.

Towards the end of the residency I will work with Linda Cullen who is a multidisciplinary artist that merges song, theater and aerial dance. In the Dance studio we will play with ways to represent themes within my research, using body movement and aerial dance. Bringing the stories to life through dance, sound and movement and projection mapping.

I am very grateful to Aideen Barry and Paul O'Colmain who will mentor me through the residency, bringing their expertise to the project will enrich the research and be of great support to me in my practice.

Etaoin Melville received a first class honours degree in Visual Art, (DIT, Sherkin Island) specialising in video and installation.

Building on Ana Mendieta's idea of an approach to a practice as a universal energy, I seek to reflect the strength and fragility of life using situationism, abstraction and multilingual performance, video and moving images to express the complex idea of vulnerability. My work manifests across a number of forms of experimental intersectionality; through live performances, collaborations with circus performers, composers and through experimental lens based media.

My research area is focused on the juxtaposition of modern society and ancient culture; our domestic lives, the land and struggle within which we find ourselves. Often I use humour to create art in a state of play and improvisation to bring a spontaneity and lightness to the work.

Linda Cullen studied aerial dance in Europe, specialising in fusing movement, theatre and dance. Her background is in street theatre and performances that engage topics of body image, femininity and ceremony. Linda specialises in aerial/vertical dance.

Instagram: etaoinsart

WCAC acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Cork County Council in making these residencies possible.