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Clare Milledge Interview (still)

Motel Picture Company2022

Biennale of Sydney

Biennale of Sydney
Sydney, Australia

‘Imbas’ on its own is often taken to stand for ‘imbas forosna’, great knowledge which illuminates.  As well as the name of a metre, it is also described as a technique associated with the highest grades of poets.'—Isolde ÓBrolcháin Carmody

The installation Imbás: a well at the bottom of the sea draws on the Story of Sinann, an Old Irish story/dindshenchas about the forming of the river Sinnan/Shannon. In the story, the woman Sinnan, a highly accomplished poet seeks imbás/inspiration. She journeys to a well at the bottom of the sea, surrounded by nine musical, magical hazel trees; there she draws imbás from the well in the form of bubbles released by the resident wise salmon, who chew on the hazelnuts fallen from the trees. This imbás/inspiration, previously jealously guarded by magicians is then released for the benefit of the community and forms the river Sinnan.

The connection between rivers, inspiration, poetry, truth-telling and ecology is explored in this work. Suspended glass paintings evoke the story of Sinann using poetic techniques; nine cauldrons stand in for the nine hazel trees at the well; and research notes appear as text on silk fragments. Music and voices of poets and ecologists are combined in a complex sound work triggered by the depth of the water under the floorboards of Pier 2/3.

—Clare Milledge, artist statement, 2022

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  • Title: Clare Milledge Interview (still)
  • Creator: Motel Picture Company
  • Date Created: 2022
  • Location: Sydney, Australia
  • Provenance: Courtesy the artist.
  • Type: Video
  • Rights: Biennale of Sydney
  • Medium: Video
  • Edition: 23rd Biennale of Sydney (2022): rīvus
Biennale of Sydney

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