An Gloine Torthúil - The Yielding Glass
An Gloine Torthúil
Mat Collishaw
Is éard atá in Albam Glass sraith de ghrianghrafanna a tarraingíodh i dtreo dheireadh an naoú haois déag agus ar baineadh úsáid astu sa chás cúirte a bhain le marú an Mháirtínigh i nGaoth Dobhair. Tugann na grianghrafanna seo léiriú maith dúinn ar a bhoichte a bhí pobal Ghaoth Dobhair ag an am agus feictear go sonrach iontu na gabháltais bheaga talaimh arbh éigean don phobal mairstint orthu.
Baineann an taispeántas seo úsáid as na teicnící a bhaineann le gloine dhaite. Déantar bailiúchán de na gloiní daite seo (atá ag feidhmiú mar a bheadh claonchlónna plátghloine ann) a chur i gceann a chéile i gcruth shéipéal Dhoirí Beaga, an áit ar maraíodh an Mairtíneach. Déanann an solas a shoilsíonn os cionn an tséipéil an caorán taobh istigh de a mhuscailt rud a chothaíonn an lustan agus na bláthanna atá le fáil sa tearmann gloine seo.
De réir cosúlachta, bhí gloine iontach costasach i ndiaidh Chogadh Cathartha Mheiriceá. Bhí gloine chomh costasach sin agus gur ghnách le daoine claonchlónna plátghloine a cheannacht lena gcuid tithe gloine a chóiriú leo. Go minic, b’íomhánna de shaighdiúirí ina luí marbh ar bhlár an chatha a bhí le fáil ar na claonchlónna sin. Sna cásanna sin, bhí ar ghathanna na gréine soilsiú fríd íomhánna na marbh le beocht a thabhairt do na plandaí a bhí ag fás taobh istigh.
The Yielding Glass
Mat Collishaw
The Glass album is a series of late 19th century photographs that were used in the Irish courts to protect the lives of civilians on a murder charge and facing the death penalty. The photographs depict the desperately poor inhabitants of Gweedore, clinging to the precious land that sustained them.
The Yielding Glass utilities stain glass techniques to assemble a collection of simulated glass plate negatives into the shape of the chapel, outside of which the original offense took place. Hydroponic light from above the chapel stimulates the peat bog inside it, nurturing the weeds and flowers in this glass sanctuary.
According to accounts I have read, glass was so expensive after the American Civil war, that people were buying glass plate negatives and installing them in greenhouses. Often the negatives were images of soldiers lying dead on the barren soil. This gave rise to a poignant situation where light was refracted through images of the dead in order to germinate the seedlings below.