Engaging with local artists, and working through a variety of art forms, adults with ID supported by That's Life discover and develop their individual creativity. Our stunning visual art projects have been displayed at a multitude of public events and performances, include art installations, parades, festivals, film screenings, club nights and conferences.

Persona

Interactive Visual Art Exhibition

Black Box Theatre, Galway

November 4-11, 2022 .

Persona, is a free interactive visual-art exhibition created by Martin Maguire in collaboration with adults with ID from That’s Life, Galway.

Through direct collaboration with a hand picked group, Martin explored personality and identity via costume, music and image. The work used Augmented Reality to create a space of multiple possibilities where objects appear, like magic, summoned on demand as spectators interact with the work via smart devices. Persona was a deeply human project which seeks to interrogate our ideas of perceived identity while celebrating an individual’s dignity and worth.

Photo Credit - Geoff Allan

Our adults with ID were involved in a process to interpret specific characters from Greek mythology through costume and performance of their own making.

Over a series of interactions, they selected which persona they wished to become, and how they would like the world to see and hear them in their new imagined forms. Portraits of the participants show them in their natural state making various physical gestures and poses.

Spectators are able to reveal in real time the alter ego/new persona chosen and designed by the individuals themselves. When interacted with, an augmented reality overlay of this new character with costume and props appears, resulting in interactive portraits.

The project began in late 2020 when That’s Life and the Radius project at ATU invited Martin to create a new work which would collaborate directly with their participants.

In early 2021 a series of engagements began with 10 members of That’s Life involving drawing, photography, slow motion videography, spoken word, costume and performance. The idea developed into creating characters as a framework for exploration, focusing on the primordial gods.

Each participant chose one of the 10 main primordial elements to explore out of air, sky, water, earth, day, night, underworld, darkness, love and time.

“The concept I developed was based around the idea of perceived identity – ‘persona'. I wanted to explore the many layers that exist between us and another individual. These often-opaque barriers can be populated with bias, preconceptions and assumptions. What is it like to truly see another human being? What is revealed when we take time to properly look and potentially see past a ‘character’ or ‘archetype’ we have assigned other people in haste?”

Martin Maguire interview with This is Galway

Photo Credit - Martin Maguire

Our group began their exploration physically through movement in collaboration with Sandra O’Malley from Blue Raincoat Theatre in Sligo, then continued with spoken word and drawing. Each individual was then interviewed about the human experience, life, death, love and loss. A unique drawing was created by participants that were then interpreted in textile form by costume designer and project collaborator Sharon Gilham, who created costumes that each participant would be photographed in for the work shown in the exhibition. These layers and other audio elements are exposed by the spectator using augmented reality as they interact with the main work.

Illuminate

Illuminate is an interactive projection installation that allows participants to paint with light. The colours and shapes they create are projected onto a large screen that they face and interact with in real time.

Brendan's Voyage

That's Life art makers explore the Brendan Voyage through contemporary shadow puppet approaches.

Fairyland Forest

Fairyland Forest is the latest of three animation films produced by ‘That’s Life’, an arts and participation programme of Brothers of Charity Services, Galway. The film features artists with intellectual disabilities and visual and sound artists working together to produce a unique film that features original artwork, music and sound.

Fairyland Forest is a tender allegory of how love conquers all and defeats evil. It tells the story of Bumble Bee’s love for a butterfly, Princess Pink. In order to win her heart he has to defeat the dragonfly, Prince Black, and face the dangers of Black’s evil army surrounding Fairyland Forest. It’s an uplifting heart-warming story full of colour and the gentle moral of how love wins out in the end.

Structured Worlds

Structured Worlds is a wonderful piece of work by That's Life Arts Collective with visual Artist Aideen Barry.

"I love the way the mountains soak up the rain." Anne Laffey

Each art maker in this project created their own 3D world in which mini projected images were positioned. The worlds reflected important aspects of the lives of the artists and were assembled as part of one large cardboard structure.

Working on this project with Aideen were Walter Parsons, Clement Moylan, Anne Laffey, Catherine Fahy and Sean Barden.

Jessica Casey

“Jessica Casey” is a collaboration between Away With Words writers, Mary Madec (poet) and Aideen Barry (visual artist). This animated short and collection of writings ‘Jessica Casey and Other Works” is published by Salmon Poetry.