Stones: whispers from the workhouse is a site-responsive dance for the camera. It is an evocative and impressionistic rendering of sensations and images informed by harrowing stories of workhouses, laundries, and industrial schools in Ireland and the US. Dancers trace the austere outlines of the spare stone-filled interior yard and adjoining fields which become the backdrop for embodied narratives of loss, longing, and hope. Hands and voices whisper of the lives that were forever changed there. Flesh and tears haunt the stones with dreams and shattered hopes of climbing to freedom from grueling labor. The ghost-filled air surrounds the dancers as they wrap themselves in transparent net fabric which is both isolating and protective against the forces at work against them.
In the famine-era workhouse families were separated upon arrival and all were put to work regardless of age or health. The unbearably difficult labor in the workhouse could be momentarily forgotten by eating sand and stones, becoming sick, and finding a moment of rest in the infirmary, which was often an equally dangerous and deadly space. A few young orphaned women could escape the workhouse by being shipped to Australia to become brides and servants. While most perished in the workhouse due to malnutrition, the inhabitants of the castle one mile away dined on a full array of foods. This site in Ireland expresses the turmoil, suffering and devastation of the Irish famine and the subsequent cycles of poverty, discrimination and injustice especially towards women in contemporary Irish history, including the Magdalene Laundries run by the church until the early 1990s. Our project is an outgrowth of our investigation into an infamous workhouse for women and girls that existed in NYC from 1877-1927 called the House of Mercy. This project has had various iterations from live performances to dances for the camera. This embodied history project survived the COVID pandemic and continues to grow. This woman-identified perspective includes a focus on reproductive rights which are currently under siege in our own country while now the once ultra restrictive laws in Ireland have become more open. When we were invited to bring our work to the Irish Workhouse Centre Museum in Portumna, Ireland we focused our video project on the women's stories from the famine era to make connections to the ongoing need to support women's rights throughout he world. Also by focusing on the stories from the wealth divides of the past we can begin an urgent conversation addressing the current staggering space between comfort and struggle in everyday life. Our research and background resources have included: Justice for Magdalenes Oral History Project, Ireland and the Magdalene Laundries A Campaign for Justice by McGettrick, O’Donnell, O’Rourke, Smith and Steed. (A)Dressing Our Hidden Truths-by glass artist Alison Lowry from an Exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, 2019, Lost Inwood by Cole Thompson, Damnation Island by Stacy Horn and Ten days in a Madhouse by Nellie Bly.
Manager Donal Burke and the staff at the Irish Workhouse Centre were extremely gracious and allowed us access to all exterior and interior spaces. They also steeped us in the history of the place with detailed and harrowing stories of those whose lives were forever changed there. Our project honors and remembers the trauma suffered here as a way to acknowledge the many unresolved injustices against people across the globe in the past and present. We were also very fortunate to encounter the work of artist,Kieran Tuohy. His sculptures formed from ancient wood unearthed from the bogs of Ireland express the turmoil, suffering and devastation of the Irish famine.
We are now in post-production and close to the final cut of our film. We were fortunate to collaborate with musician/composers Dana Lyn and Kyle Sanna to create an original sound score. Look for more announcements soon. To support this project click here. Dancer/collaborators: Kelli Chapman, Abra Cohen, Halley Gerstel, Megan Minturn and Cecly Placenti. Video artist and editor: Erica Lessner Concept and photography: Catherine Gallant Costumes: Ivan Drazic
