This ongoing, evolving series of group walks for artists and arts workers is an offering of shared creative practice and a stealthy, ephemeral, and experiential form of object-free art in itself.
With an emphasis on silence, contemplation, and togetherness, each walk is shaped for a particular location and intention, and may be repeated. The walks are an intentional opportunity for participants to be fully present, without digital distraction. Most walks culminate in the invitation to eat and drink together. The structure of each walk is a continuation and development of the last, following my personal research interests in the tensions between artistic labour and pleasure, as well as collective learning gathered through conversation with participants.
The simplicity holds deeper resonances. The emphasis is on how structured walking can interrupt how we see familiar places and can create conditions for deep contemplation, as well as noticing how we strangers are knit together by moving in quiet, physical unison. The deeper experience includes how quietly performative the group becomes. In our collective silence we are a benign, perplexing sight for those that pass us.
You think differently when you walk. You see differently.
We are newly aware of our gait and musculature.
We might get strange looks, and that’s ok. It might feel unsettling for us to walk like this, and that’s ok too.
Group walk I
July 2019, Paris
Silent walk and discussion as part of Burning The Bush, a three-day invited residency and cultural think-tank at the Centre Culturel Irlandais. Curated and organised by Nora Hickey M’Sichili and Aria Ungerer.
Group walk II
February 2020 + September 2022, Phoenix Park
Cross-artform community growing walk and home salon.
Group walk III
March 2022, Bray
Contemplative and generative walk and pub gathering to imagine structures for international creative practice. Drawing on the importance of pubs as collective spaces in the building of creative community. With the support of Mermaid Arts Centre.
Group walk IV (Out the gap)
Winters 2022-2025 (9 iterations), Bray, Galway, Cork
Silent walk and pub gathering offered for reflection and future thinking. Often at the turn of the year, the walk draws on the image of two-faced Janus, Roman god of gates, doorways, transitions, auspicious entrances and exits. With the support of Mermaid Arts Centre.
Group walk V (Thinking time walk)
Summers 2023 & 2024, Offaly, Galway, Drogheda
Silent walk and picnic offered for time to think about creative practice and develop place-based creative relationships. With the support of Droichead Arts Centre and Irish Theatre Institute.
Group walk VI (Join the dots)
Jun + Oct 2024, Sligo, Belfast
A walk initially structured to meet new potential creative collaborators, and expanded into a group-led tour of an unfamiliar city. With the support of the Irish Society of Performance Designers.