Current and recent work
In 2015-2016, Gothicise have worked on several projects, two of which, Remembering Wildgoose Lodge (2013-2016) and Death Cafe Limerick (2015) are profiled below.
Death Cafe Limerick (2015)
The intention in running this Death Café Limerick is to open up what has been a hidden conversation about the end of life and even what comes after, through a variety of guided art interventions. The project will be run in a way that encourages people to explore their own feelings, beliefs and hopes for what the end of life can be in a social but also safe and structured way. These conversations are carried on through a series of modalities including the expressive arts, art workshops and meaningful conversations. However, Death Cafe Limerick also adheres to the philosophy of international Death Cafes in that it is conducted in a convivial fashion, over cake and celebratory refreshments.
The project has focuses on using creative strategies to unlock conversations that may often be considered difficult or taboo subjects.
This project is run by Dt. Tracy Fahey, Jennifer Moran Stritch and Sinead Dinneen.
The project has focuses on using creative strategies to unlock conversations that may often be considered difficult or taboo subjects.
This project is run by Dt. Tracy Fahey, Jennifer Moran Stritch and Sinead Dinneen.
Organiser Profiles: Jennifer Moran Stritch
Jennifer Moran Stritch is the director of the Loss and Grief Research Group which is part of the Social Sciences ConneXions research collective at Limerick Institute of Technology. With a background in social care and social work, she lectures in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at LIT and brings her expertise in therapeutic practice to this project.
Death Café Limerick draws on her current PhD research, which examines how college students manage bereavement. Jennifer’s international practice in both Ireland and the US makes her a frequent keynote speaker and workshop facilitator on aspects of death education, grieving, and experiences of loss, resilience and recovery across the lifespan.
Jennifer Moran Stritch is the director of the Loss and Grief Research Group which is part of the Social Sciences ConneXions research collective at Limerick Institute of Technology. With a background in social care and social work, she lectures in the Department of Applied Social Sciences at LIT and brings her expertise in therapeutic practice to this project.
Death Café Limerick draws on her current PhD research, which examines how college students manage bereavement. Jennifer’s international practice in both Ireland and the US makes her a frequent keynote speaker and workshop facilitator on aspects of death education, grieving, and experiences of loss, resilience and recovery across the lifespan.
Organiser Profiles: Sinead Dinneen
Sinead Dinneen is a visual artist and lecturer at Mary Immaculate College. Sinead works variously in video, print, sculpture and drawing. Her remarkable body of work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, the most recent being includes her series “Whisper” which has been exhibited in the National Centre for Arts and Health, Tallaght, Limerick School of Art and Design, Mary Immaculate College and at the Ovacare conference, Cork. Informed by her practice as a visual artist and her experience of illness, Sinead has constructed participative art workshops to assist patients and carers to express complex and difficult ideas about loss, grief and death.
Sinead Dinneen is a visual artist and lecturer at Mary Immaculate College. Sinead works variously in video, print, sculpture and drawing. Her remarkable body of work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, the most recent being includes her series “Whisper” which has been exhibited in the National Centre for Arts and Health, Tallaght, Limerick School of Art and Design, Mary Immaculate College and at the Ovacare conference, Cork. Informed by her practice as a visual artist and her experience of illness, Sinead has constructed participative art workshops to assist patients and carers to express complex and difficult ideas about loss, grief and death.
Organiser Profiles: Dr. Tracy Fahey
Dr. Tracy Fahey is director of Gothicise. Her interest in Death Café Limerick links with her research into the area of fine art and medical Gothic. This research includes recent articles in the Gothic Studies Journal (‘Blood Sugar: Gothic Bodies and Diabetes’, 2015) and the Media Culture Journal (‘A Taste for the Transgressive: Pushing Body Limits in Contemporary Performance Art’, 2014) and recent papers ‘What Lies Beneath: Unveiling Occluded Patient Narratives’ (Manchester Metropolitan University, October 2015) and ‘Revealing and Revoicing: Patient Narratives in Contemporary Irish Art’ (Trinity College Dublin, February 2016). She is working on a number of research and creative projects that explore the cross-connections between chronic illness and the Gothic. She runs the Department of Fine Art and the ACADEMY research centre at Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT.
Dr. Tracy Fahey is director of Gothicise. Her interest in Death Café Limerick links with her research into the area of fine art and medical Gothic. This research includes recent articles in the Gothic Studies Journal (‘Blood Sugar: Gothic Bodies and Diabetes’, 2015) and the Media Culture Journal (‘A Taste for the Transgressive: Pushing Body Limits in Contemporary Performance Art’, 2014) and recent papers ‘What Lies Beneath: Unveiling Occluded Patient Narratives’ (Manchester Metropolitan University, October 2015) and ‘Revealing and Revoicing: Patient Narratives in Contemporary Irish Art’ (Trinity College Dublin, February 2016). She is working on a number of research and creative projects that explore the cross-connections between chronic illness and the Gothic. She runs the Department of Fine Art and the ACADEMY research centre at Limerick School of Art and Design, LIT.
Other Recent Activity
In April 2015 Gothicise got the good news that it was the successful recipient of funding from Grants Under the Arts scheme to run Death Cafe Limerick next November to mark Day of the Dead. The Death Cafe phenomenon is a global movement that aims at helping people to make the most of their (finite) lives, to acknowledge end of life as part of life and to destigmatise conversations about death. Death Cafe Limerick will involve conversations, refreshments, a special workshop and some other surprises! Gothicise would like to welcome new members for this project - visual artist Sinead Dinneen and director of the Loss and Grief research group in LIT, Jennifer Moran Stritch.
Gothicise also continues to work on the Remembering Wildgoose Lodge with the final fieldwork for the project taking place in April 2015.
Gothicise also continues to work on the Remembering Wildgoose Lodge with the final fieldwork for the project taking place in April 2015.
From 2014-2016 Gothicise worked on several projects in Limerick and Co. Louth that examine the relationship between site and story in the Gothic and have a focus on memory, community and identity. In March 2014, Tracy Fahey of Gothicise was interviewed about both projects by Louise Dooley of WIRED FM. You can hear the full interview here at the WIRED FM site.
'Remembering Wildgoose Lodge' is a folk memory project based near Mills of Louth, Co. Louth. It seeks to capture the family and community folk memories of a traumatic historical event. Fieldwork and interviews are in process at the moment with members of the local community. Collaborators include Jim McArt and Pat Drumgoole of the wonderfully named Hell Street, near Wildgoose Lodge. This project will move into its second phase in May 2014. You can also read the short story by Tracy Fahey of Gothicise inspired by Wildgoose Lodge as part of the Impossible Spaces anthology, or read the blog post about it at editor Hannah Kate's blog.
'Waking St. Munchin' (2014) is a fine art site-specific piece that engages with the folkloric tradition of the Curse of St. Munchin, and focuses on the folk memories of this curse. It uses an ethnographic method of collecting and retelling these stories, and the cathartic rites of song, music and performance to exorcise this curse. Collaborators include Marian Sheehan (ACADEMY Research Centre, Limerick School of Art and Design) and Dr. Niamh NicGhabhann, Director of MA in Festive Arts, the World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick). This project ran in conjunction with Open House Limerick 2014, and Limerick City Council.
In the meantime, if you have a proposal for a future project, please contact us at [email protected].
'Remembering Wildgoose Lodge' is a folk memory project based near Mills of Louth, Co. Louth. It seeks to capture the family and community folk memories of a traumatic historical event. Fieldwork and interviews are in process at the moment with members of the local community. Collaborators include Jim McArt and Pat Drumgoole of the wonderfully named Hell Street, near Wildgoose Lodge. This project will move into its second phase in May 2014. You can also read the short story by Tracy Fahey of Gothicise inspired by Wildgoose Lodge as part of the Impossible Spaces anthology, or read the blog post about it at editor Hannah Kate's blog.
'Waking St. Munchin' (2014) is a fine art site-specific piece that engages with the folkloric tradition of the Curse of St. Munchin, and focuses on the folk memories of this curse. It uses an ethnographic method of collecting and retelling these stories, and the cathartic rites of song, music and performance to exorcise this curse. Collaborators include Marian Sheehan (ACADEMY Research Centre, Limerick School of Art and Design) and Dr. Niamh NicGhabhann, Director of MA in Festive Arts, the World Academy of Music and Dance, University of Limerick). This project ran in conjunction with Open House Limerick 2014, and Limerick City Council.
In the meantime, if you have a proposal for a future project, please contact us at [email protected].