Re-imagining a line, 2023 (Joe Laverty, Aidan O’Neill, Ruby Wallis)
Re-imagining a line is a collaborative project with photographic artists: Ruby Wallis & Aidan O’Neill. The work was commissioned by Architecture at the Edge Festival and was exhibited during the festival in October 2023 at the Festival Printworks gallery in Galway.
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The Esker Riada / An Slí Mhór – is an ancient route, East-West, across the centre of Ireland, loosely following the geographical Eskers that were deposited from glacial riverbeds at the end of the last ice-age. Following the route mapped out by Hermann Geissel in his book: A Road on the Long Ridge, photographic artists Joe Laverty, Ruby Wallis and Aidan O'Neill have walked a section of the route, seeking to re-imagine the line across the map by paying close attention to the geological materiality of the land, exploring a multiplicity of possible meanings and layers.
Encountering this path is to find sites of social and political trauma, dereliction but also connection and belonging. Following Geissel’s meticulous maps, the artists have visually excavated hidden and buried signs of the ancient path, and explored its intersections with the contemporary, including the M6 motorway which criss-crosses the old road.
