The project ‘Lost lace’ is a collaborative project between the visual artist Miriam Mc Connon and the poet Jessica Traynor with the engaged participation of the families who have lost loved ones to covid 19 in Ireland.
Miriam Mc Connon’s outdoor installation ‘Lost Lace’ is made up of approximately ten thousand white roses made by the artist
from individual white handkerchiefs. The artist proposes to place the roses around the two fountains at Dublin’s Iveagh gardens. The handkerchief roses will form a delicate pattern of traditional Irish Lace. Each Handkerchief rose symbolizes a life lost in Ireland and Northern Ireland due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Each single handkerchief rose in this installation references the small cloths or ‘clooties’ that were hung traditionally on trees near the site of holy wells in Pagan Ireland. The handkerchief was believed to drive illness away by absorbing it. The artist has chosen to place them in a floral lace pattern hinting at the concept of the man-made object imitating nature in an attempt to find resolve.
The single rose is a symbol of devotion. Here this devotion becomes collective, signifying the national and personal loss. This installation urges the public to not lose sight of the individual life, the single rose. In this installation Mc Connon emphasises the solitary path of individual grief in unison with the national and collective loss, urging the people of Ireland to unite in grief and in the commemoration of the lives lost to Covid 19.
Collaboration with the Poet Jessica Traynor.
The poet Jessica Traynor will be commissioned to write a series of four poems, taking as a guiding principle the ambition to honour those things we have lost in the past two years – people, skills, art, connection. She will explore and respond to themes such as the lost art of Irish lacemaking, the ancient practice of tying ‘clooties’ at holy wells, and the words and messages submitted on the projects website by those who have lost friends and relatives to covid 19 in Ireland. She will weave these themes together through poetry that will also be accessible to the public through the use of QR codes allowing visitors to the Iveagh Gardens access to a transcript of the poems, and a recording of the poet reading them.
Presentation of artwork and poetry
Thee launch of the project will take place on the 15ht October 2022. The installation will remain in place for two weeks. At launch of the project the Families of the victims of Covid 19 will be invited to gather together to hear the recital of the four poems by Jessica Traynor and to see the outdoor installation Lost Lace by Miriam Mc Connon. The Location of the Iveagh Gardens in Dublin provides a perfect enclosed and private setting for the people of Ireland alongside the families of those who have died from Covid 19 to come together and collectively support each other and mourn the individual and the collection loss.
