To commemorate the Decade of Centenaries, Mayo County Council’s Arts Service in partnership with the Jackie Clarke Collection, undertook an Artist in Residency programme with visual artist Margo McNulty.
Her project, entitled Keepsakes, is the result of her six-month residency in the Jackie Clarke Collection. As part of the project McNulty has created imagery on billboards currently being displayed in Westport, Castlebar and Ballina. Each billboard features a reference to the collection.
Showing this work on this scale was designed to stimulate public reaction and engagement. The artist envisaged this engagement could take the form of quiet public curiosity on one hand or active engagement on the other. The latter might take the form of members of the public coming to the Jackie Clarke Collection to find out more about Keepsakes or indeed about the wider Collection.
McNulty says of the display: "I came up with the idea of the billboards at the application stage of the project. The whole idea of Keepsakes as a project was to source personal objects or mementoes from a hundred years ago that had significance for family members. Many of these objects would have been small, private objects. In contrast, Billboards are very public and large by their nature. I though this contrast or paradox could work well."
The display of three billboards takes place in parallel with an exhibition of fine art prints and paintings on the theme of keepsakes. Members of the public contacted Margo to share their stories and keepsakes of loved ones who had been involved in the War of Independence, the Truce, the Treaty, and the Civil War. They very generously donated their objects to the Jackie Clarke Collection for the duration of the exhibition.
The next billboard will be on display in Ballina until November 26. For further information on Keepsakes, contact the Jackie Clarke Collection on (096 ) 73508 or email [email protected].
