Object and Performance July 2007
Bishop’s Quarter Beach, Ireland
When I first started this piece, I intended to sew a beautiful object from the seaweed
found on the rocks at Bishop's Quarter Beach on the west coast of Ireland. When I
began to sew the fibers into a shawl, I connected the visual appearance of the dark
brown dried seaweed with the dark brown skin of the seal, and so connected my project with the legend of the selkies. To me, the legend of the selkie is about a free female
spirit (represented by the seal) that is captured and taken from her source of power.
According to the tale, you can capture the selkie as she comes to shore and sheds
her seal skin to reveal her female body. As long as she is seperate from her skin and
the sea, she is bound on earth.
As the seal skin grew under my hands, I came to realize that this garment was meant
to be worn - most especially in the context it was imagined. I returned to Bishop's Quarter Beach as the seal woman. As she would be returning to her source and power, so would I. Then the unexpected happened. As I descended into the sea, all around me the once dried and brittle seaweed breathed new life. It radiated around me, flush, green, transformed. What was once coarse and clawing against my skin was now caressing me with its softness and life. Enclosed in the ocean, I found my source.
