Lead artist and project coordinator Susan Farrelly spoke to David Larkin from Dundalk FM about the Hidden Abilities Exhibition in Droichead Arts Center.

Audio Transcript

DAVID: And I’m joined now in the studio with Susan Farrelly. Susan is the lead artist for an organization called Art As Exchange. Good morning, Susan. How are you?

SUSAN: Good morning, David. Thanks for having me in.

DAVID: Thanks for coming in. Before we get on to recent events to work out with the Hidden Abilities exhibition, could you tell us a little about the organization? It’s known under its initials as well.

SUSAN: Yes, A-A-E-X.

DAVID: What’s it about, Susan, and when was it formed?

SUSAN: Art As Exchange is an open and all-inclusive group of visual artists and I suppose it must be about nearly eight years old now. I probably got that age wrong, eight or nine. And we came together out of a need to make art a certain way which wasn’t happening in Dundalk. So like musicians, we get together and we jam, but in an artistic way. So we use and sometimes that experimental approach the suits people who are more conceptual artists, sculpture, background, mixed media. And then when we kind of got into our flow, we said we should extend this out to involve other sectors of the community. So I suppose we specialize in doing collaborative work where we work with other community groups and we like to make art accessible and create events in collaboration with Creative Spark and the County Council so that people can try art.

DAVID: Sounds great, great service. And there was an event recently, Hidden Abilities, which was a specific sector of our community, of our disabled community.

SUSAN: Well, the deaf community wouldn’t like to be referred to as disabled.

DAVID: I probably shouldn’t have used that word because I was visually impaired person, I guess. I shouldn’t use the word but…

SUSAN: Yeah, and that’s the thing actually, we wanted to do a project on language and we looked at all the various languages of the members of our group and then we thought that’s grand. We’re really looking after ourselves there, but what about everyone else who maybe doesn’t find normal events accessible? And we landed on ISL, Irish Sign Language, and we decided to run a pilot and a few classes here with the help of An Tain and some funding they had and then we realized we move location to Drogheda and we might be able to open it up more to members of the deaf community and create art classes and workshops that they could come and attend and make their own.

DAVID: Very good, and this was in the Droichead Arts centre.

SUSAN: It was, yeah, which is on Stockwell Street beside the library.

DAVID: And more than painting and art, it covered all genres of artistic endeavor.

SUSAN: It did, at the workshops that we had before we did watercolour, action painting, ceramics, and this time around we focused on installation, which is objects in a room, but built and made by the participants. Photography using Photoshop as well, so digital manipulation. And other processes involved collage, painting, drawing on stones, painting on stones, which was very popular as well, creating really interesting objects that spoke to the experience of being a member of the deaf community. And yeah, we learned a lot as a group and as members. We’ve made a lot of friends too.

DAVID: And with some very specific themes explored on?

SUSAN: Yeah, there was and themes can be a bit hammy sometimes, but sometimes they give you a little bit of guidance and really we’re talking about identity politics and some of the misunderstandings we have, myself included, of what it means to navigate the world without sound. And that was really good set of boundaries for us to work with as visual artists to help people express themselves visually. And that mattered a lot to us as artists, to give that space to our deaf participants to make meaningful work.

DAVID: And some of the themes I’ve seen mentioned, cultural blindness.

SUSAN: Yeah, I suppose we are all guilty of…

DAVID: The words of a different meaning when they put together.

SUSAN: Yes, yes. And you know, maybe we make assumptions that Irish Sign Language is as Gaelige. No, it’s not. Irish Sign Language is different to British Sign Language, BSL and American Sign Language. And we learned a lot by working with our interpreter, also Corinne Dalton, who is a great teacher of Irish Sign Language.

DAVID: Yes, I met Corinne through another organisation.

SUSAN: And currently my teacher, as I have engaged in level one ISL with her. And it’s a very performative language, very beautiful. So it’s, yeah, it was a really positive experience. And we hope to make it as user friendly for everybody. Because there’s another assumption that, you know, being deaf, you’re very reliant on the written word. But the reality is for members of the deaf community, it’s very tiring to be presented with litanies of text. You just disengage. And if events are too long, it’s uncomfortable. It’s difficult for an interpreter to work for long periods of time, because it’s a very physical language. So I suppose as members of the community, we have a duty of care to maybe bring this knowledge into some of our events, to make them more comfortable and accessible. And build that into the design of what we do. When we do it.

DAVID: The theme of accessibility. And I know it’s a wide ranging area, even, as you rightly said, the terminology, persons with a disability, I’ve heard it’s been acceptable in some quarters. I hear it’s not acceptable. Even an organization that you and I met on before, we call ourselves disABILITY Louth, because that’s what they wanted to call themselves. Others call themselves ability. But the accessibility options that were exercised in the Hidden Abilities exhibition was a primarily
through communication support and interpreters?

SUSAN: Yes, but it was also facilitation of carers. We have one person who lives in sheltered accommodation, who wanted a space that I suppose had accessible information as well. So content also needs to be accessible, not word heavy material. Sometimes we have motor skills, challenges as well. So sometimes deafness co-presents with other challenges. There’s a lift in the building too. That’s good.

DAVID: That’s something that’s not always at every building.

SUSAN: No, and even if it’s there, the lift might not be working. Which can be frustrating.

DAVID: We actually had a lady in here a few weeks ago, and I can’t remember the lady’s name, but she was from an organization that called themselves a Dundalk Deaf Community. And the interview here on radio was done through support from her communication support person who was with her. And it went well. She got all the issues forward that she wished to, and she’s very happy with the outcome. But a learning experience for everybody.

SUSAN: Absolutely. And I was thinking about that from last week, how would this program be accessible to the deaf community? Would it be something that would be subtitled? Or is that something that has been over the years maybe not regarded by radio stations?

DAVID: That’s a very,.. I can imagine the technology needed to have the means of subtitle. The output would be phenomenal. It’s a very good thing.

SUSAN: I know Zoom has voice to text software now and things.

DAVID: Perhaps there’s some third party software that can be added on to take the sound and turn it into text.

SUSAN: It would be a lovely project for a communications graduate.

DAVID: You’re quite right. The whole world should be accessible and unfortunately the world that we came into wasn’t. Although we have made advances with lots more to do. As regards to the Hidden Abilities exhibition again, there was explorations from photographs and the environment. What did people garner from that?

SUSAN: I think it was a wonderful combination of something we do ritually now because we’re all on devices, which is take photos. No one has to be an expert at all. But that and walking through the space of Drogheda and seeing how not being able to move through the street with sound not available, your safety changes. Julie who was the photographer who facilitated these classes, they found a lot of kind of symbols around the town which the group gravitated towards like the sunflower which is the kind of symbol for hidden disabilities. There was a lot of nice coincidences that allowed the participants to create their own narrative through the photographs. I don’t have any images here that you might be able to comfortably see but there’s a few ones or hands against red fabric and they were tied up with string. This was a story from one of the ladies, her experience of learning sign language in the 70s where they were trying to promote oralism, lip reading, etc. They used to tie the hands of the participants behind their back so they would be forced to use lip reading as opposed to the hands. I thought that was a really interesting exploration of a topic we wouldn’t actually know of.

DAVID: Pretty severe…

SUSAN: Absolutely. We’re pretty good at that sort of thing in Ireland aren’t we?

DAVID: We were…

SUSAN: We’ve since rebelled against it all.

DAVID: The mural trail as well. I’d say that’s similar to the murals that we have here in Dundalk.

SUSAN: It is and when you’re working in a gallery space you can’t help but be inspired by that space. So every week the participants were coming there was an exhibition there and then walking around Drogheda as well. They’re all mythological, Irish mythological stories represented in pictures which is well worth going to go and walk around and Droichead were involved in creating that with Anthony Murphy who’s one of our greatest, he’s like a modern day, a seanchaí, keeping the tradition of Irish myths and legends especially to the Louth area alive.

DAVID: Very good. I know that the murals we have here in town also tell our own story.

SUSAN: Yes.

DAVID: From an accessibility point of view, thank goodness for online because that’s the only way I can appreciate it. But I can’t actually see them naturally.

SUSAN: Yeah, interesting. One or two designs could easily be vision appropriate, couldn’t they? If the contrasts were right.

DAVID: I guess there’s so many different options of visual impairment to address and it’s not likely that every painting can address every one of them but nonetheless the tech is a substitute. So they learned a lot from the social and from the street environment, the urban environment.

SUSAN: Absolutely and it’s also a lot about feeling welcome in places. One of our wee walk abouts we had was down to the Highlands Gallery.

DAVID: That’s a nice venue.

SUSAN: It is and people hadn’t been in it before and that as an artistic person and my dad used to serve mass in there so it has a kind of family history for us. It’s important that people feel welcome in our public spaces and to think that they walk past this building every day but they’ve never at any point felt invited in. That to me is a big eye opener.

DAVID: That’s a very good point. I’d say in the past when I was driving I drove and really appreciated that it wasn’t the church anymore. It’s a gallery and I was in it for the first time earlier this year. A similar themed exhibition, Breaking the Mold it was called.

SUSAN: That’s right and that was a series of workshops with three artists from last year. They came from a wide expanse, there was John of God’s and there was different… I know one of the artists, Caoimhe O’Dwyer, who facilitated on that and it was very successful.

DAVID: Oh yes, Annette from our organisation made a great success at that. She certainly did.
So, there was another venue here closer to town.

SUSAN: Yes, on Clanbrassil Street.

DAVID: I shouldn’t call it Commiskey’s but that just shows my age. That’s how we remember it. People were wondering why would you call it that? That was the name of the shop. The Creative Spark Downtown Hub in Clanbrassil Street is now based in it. Tell us about that.

SUSAN: The Downtown Hub is a remote working space but would have close ties with Art As Exchange because Creative Spark was, I suppose, one of our patrons and provided us with the space as a group. So for Culture Night this year we decided that a couple of our members of our group put on an event that combined digital technology and spray painting and are to create a really interesting interactive workshop for adults because sometimes the adults get forgotten. These days there would be lots of activities for children.

DAVID: True.

SUSAN: And they created a brilliant piece where an image of your face is digitised, printed out on a stencil and then used, so a great combination of analogue and digital art methods. I suppose using technology and printing things off to enable art production which is really interesting.

DAVID: So the future for AAEX or Art As Exchange. What’s in Visage now for the next few months? What have you planned?

SUSAN: Well, we’re always interested in working with different community groups. So if you’re a member of a community group listening in today and would like to reach out to us, we’d love to provide any expertise at all. We have a project coming up with Louth County Council, Bridget 1500 because we’re celebrating the anniversary of Bridget’s death next year. We can’t let Kildare take all the kudos because she was born here and there will be a series of workshops with a few artists who are members of Art As Exchange popping up around the country in the county, Carlingford, Drogheda, Dundalk. That’ll be coming through.
I suppose we’re looking for storage because we’ve all these artifacts, Art As Exchange. So if anybody has a space they might be interested in sharing or renting or whatever, we’d love if someone could get in touch, because you amass a good bit of equipment. It’s mostly in my garage at the minute. So that’s not sustainable.

DAVID: You mentioned Creative Spark there a few times. Yes. They’ve been integral to the success of your group.

SUSAN: Yeah, I think no person is an island and you have to work and create a network for yourself. And whether that’s with BIDS here in the town, disABILITY Louth, Chime, we’ve always fostered reaching out and connecting with other community groups. And like yourself, we’re involved in the PPN, which is another way of lynch pinning everything together and sharing information and supporting each other. I think it’s a great way to motivate and foster change and to always have different ideas around the table, not just the same idea. So yeah, Creative Spark is very accommodating of that way of working.

DAVID: That’s good to hear. Susan it has been lovely speaking with you. If people are interested now in pursuing their interests with your organization, how did the contact you?

SUSAN: Yes. I suppose visit the website and that’s aaex.artspark.ie.

DAVID: Okay. So we remember the initials AAEX.

SUSAN: Yeah, even if you just go on to Google search and put in AAEX. It’s going to come to the right place as well. And we’re also on Facebook and Instagram. So we could be reached through many platforms.

DAVID: That’s great. Well, I wish you well and all congratulations to all you’ve done. I wish you well on the events you’re holding in the future.

SUSAN: Thanks very much. And thanks to Dundalk FM for always supporting our projects.

DAVID: Thanks for coming in to speak with us.

SUSAN: Okay. Thanks.

DAVID: THat was Susan Farrelly, a lead artist from AAEX, Art As Exchange. So look out for that.