 Really delighted to have documented and curated this photo exhibition at Nenagh CTC calld The Salmon’s Wake whic is part of the Ilen Project’s 2019/20 Community and Schools Educational Programme. Summer 2019 saw an epic ocean voyage from Limerick city to the west coast of Greenland with woodcraft created by a group of Learners at Nenagh Community Training Centre (CTC) crossing the Arctic Circle. Under the supervision of the expert boat builders of the Ilen Project, and their woodwork and Art instructor at our John’s Lane facility, since March of this year, the Learners of Nenagh CTC have been assigned the task of restoring the ‘Angling cot’ and creating the poles, paddles & oars, which were gifted to the local community in Nuuk. So if you are the hood please do come along this Friday night 6-8 pm in Nenagh and see a the expo and a short movie I created documenting the project.
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 Once again after everyone has left the site, we see the same scenario at the Electric Picnic as previous years. It is heartbreaking to see the utter waste and total chaos after the departure of festival goers. Is the Electric Picnic going to confront this problem - or once again stick its head in the mountain of rubbish whilst counting its soiled profits.. Here's an idea...As it seems that many of the folks attending EP have a total and utter disregard for their own space, then let's throw the responsibility back at the Electric Picnic itself. To tackle the cheap tents, cheap sleeping bags and throwaway culture - charge an entry deposit of 25 Euro per person, returnable when evidence is shown on departure, of sleeping bags, mats and tents being taken away. Yes, yes but how much more time and money this would take... You have the profits and even if you lose a number of previous customers, you may well gain new ones who will only admire the stance that EP has taken to tackle its dirty post-festival image.  A great weekend meeting lots of good people at The Global green @ Electric Picnic 2019! Thanks to my wonderful crew at TITS UP and to Global Green! Here is a small selection of the fun but please go to www.peopleagainstplastic.ie to see the lot and download your portrait if you stopped by........  As we paint the signs and get the team ready for some festival fun with our photobooth that is designed to highlight the obvious avoidable waste on our island/planet….. it strikes me how ironic it seems to be talking about living more sustainably at a music festival that seems to showcase what a disposable nation we actually are…… a place where tents are becoming almost as single-use as plastics bottles. I could have collected tents in their hundreds on Monday morning after ATN festival a few weeks ago …… This year our hope is that we can help to be part of the change in attitude to plastic and campsite waste, to help make events sustainable in every sense of the word – environmentally, socially and economically. So if you coming to Laois next weekend – DO Stop by at- TITS UP@Globalgreen at the Electic Picnic and have your portrait taken and maybe even share a beverage in a real cup!
We each have a role to play. The show must go on, but not at this cost.  Delighted to be invited to the Elements of change Festival at Cloughjordan Eco village last Saturday. We brought our TITS UP Photo booth ( acromym for This Is The Single Use Plastic Photo Booth) to the event, and it was great to see old faces and meet lots of new ones. Got conversations going about ways to edge our way out of this plastic crisis and had lots of fun too too! Thanks so much to Cloughjordan Eco village for hosting such a great event and to the wonderful Tina Claffey, Mimi Doran and Freya Holland-Rome for all their help on the day! Portraits can be viewed at www.anniehollandart.com on the homepage.  Well one again I find myself very happily BLOWN AWAY by the creativity and enthusiasm of young people at Stepaside Educate Together. YES there is an environmental crisis going on IT'S REALLY HAPPENING RIGHT NOW! Not only did these young people really grasp the nature of the head-dress workshop (i.e. making head-dresses from their own single use plastic), but they also organized a fashion show where participants wore their head-dresses and paraded in front of their school to the backing sound track of Talking Heads - "Road to no-where" and recited a poem they created from a play on David Byrne's lyrics about global warming and the current plastic crisis that the world is experiencing. The whole schools end of year festival was a zero waste event and a joy to be a part of! Thanks to Alice O' Conor (teacher), Mimi Doran (creative associate) , all the staff and young people at Stepaside educate- together and Creative Schools Ireland http://www.artscouncil.ie/creative-schools/. Further thanks to the RTE team who are shooting a documentary on the creative schools invaluable programme which has afforded me the opportunity to work in this capacity because although educators value creativity in the classroom - they don't always have time to prioritize it!  Well privileged once again to work with wonderful enthusiastic young people as part of the Creative School programme , this time I was a St Marys school in Edenderry, Co. Offaly. I met a very energetic art teaching team -Fiona Farrell and Niamh Casey and worked with their two first year groups....where we create headpieces whilst at the same time have really meaningful conversations about how to edge our way out of the current plastic crisis!  Well as the bank holiday draws to a close and I am packing my tools and getting ready to start another creative workshop at St Marys's secondary school in Edenderry in Offaly tomorrow.
No doubt we will be discussing the report released today by the UN's Global Assessment which has highlighted the distressing impact that humanity is having on the natural world - species are being lost at the fastest ever rate, mainly driven by the changing use of land. As a society we are overwhelmed by media stories with their sad images of death and choked oceans and it’s easy to feel as if individual and local actions won’t matter. It’s sometimes hard to have these discussions with young people without upsetting them but I aim to offer hope through creativity and discussion. Without doubt rapid action is needed at a political level to avoid an ecological disaster however I firmly believe individual actions can still matter. REDUCE, RE-USE and REFUSE TO USE Single Use Plastic.  Oops just realized that I never actually posted about this wonderful exposure for our recent snake project . Really relevant when we consider that Ireland is the top producer of plastic waste in Europe; generating an average of 61kgs per person every year - almost double what the UK produces. - We produce the equivalent of nearly 2,000 water bottles per person per year- these young people were particularly shocked and really want to do something about it! Great to be in a position to give them a voice and to have it heard!
Please check out the link below. http://www.rte.ie/news/player/2019/0403/21534488-students-say-no-to-use-of-plastic-in-school-lunches/  Half term........ loved it so nice to switch off the engine and just kick back in the garden .... but seeing as I am already sitting at a computer again preparing to start a new project next week here's a few pics from most recent creative residency at St Fintan's High School Sutton where I met a wonderful art teacher called Ruth Barry who was hosting a school arts week. I was invited to create some new single use plastic headdresses with the TY students and we even made it out for some fresh air and a short beach clean up too. |
AuthorAnnie Holland is an Irish artist and photographer currently engaged in artworks that tackle and highlight, the growing problems of plastic pollution. Archives
September 2019
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