November – December 2014
Following an open submission competition through Limerick City of Culture, my project Dogs’ Tales was selected as the first project to inhabit the Kiosk in Peoples’ Park, Pery Square, Limerick. A key aspect was to interact with the Park and it’s users, and having observed first hand the many dog walkers all year around, I wanted to create an additional link between them, while also introducing an element of humour to the proceedings.
From 12-4pm Monday – Friday, November 17th – December 5th I was resident in the Kiosk and the park environs. From there I invited the many dog walkers who use the park facilities to drop in for a chat and a cuppa with their canine friend, and relate stories about them. At that stage I took some photographs/drawings of the dog, and then we retired to the park to take a portrait of the dog.
I had a great time and many good, sincere chats with a very diverse group of people. The dogs themselves ranged from chihuahuas, to French Mastiffs to mongrels, shy to extrovert, sedate to extremely hectic (!). As the project progressed I photographed the dogs around different areas of the park, culminating for the presentation day only, in a 360 degree portrait of the park itself in it’s Autumnal glory.
At the end of the project I collated all the information and presented it to the public and the participants on Saturday December 15th. Similar to my other projects, each participant received a memento of the project in gratitude for their time, in this case an unique A3 print.
Below is a taster of the completed works, which were available from the Culture House for collection the following week, along with a personalised letter of thanks to the dog(s) and owner.
Hopefully (fingers crossed!) we’ll publish a book later this year with the stories and illustrations to the fore, of which all the participants will receive a complimentary copy.
