Mosaic project moves forward with energy

Artist Katy Palmieri and her Bridge Camphill team.

The five mosaics in development for the Bridge Camphill's Thornton Lace commemorative project will offer artistic 'energy' points to facilitate people building their own stories from them, writes Brian Byrne. That's the concept from the artist commissioned to create the mosaics, Katy Palmieri, who says the project is also an exercise in inclusion of various groups in the community of Kilcullen.

The five pieces will be placed around Kilcullen, at different premises, under the Brigid 1500 initiative by the Camphill group. At the final of four workshop talks carried out as part of the development process, the artist told the Diary that the pieces will all be abstract in form, 'playing with colour and energy'. "I want people, when they look, to feel an energy inside them, not just see a piece of art. That when they view it at different times, or in different light, they will see something different each time."

She says visiting each of the five pieces will hopefully illustrate 'continuity of life'. "The first will be the starting point, and through the others there will be a sort of energy line. Visiting them all will tell a story, but not a specific story, one that is your own story ... which may take some time to complete."

The four workshops have included participants from Scoil Bhríde and CPC, who together with members of the Camphill community have considered various aspects the project. The connection with the Thornton Lace social enterprise of the 19th century and this 21st century initiative is, according to the artist, 'humanity and inclusion'. She references how, in her native France and also in Ireland in the past, people would bring their chairs out on the street on fine days, 'have a chat, doing some stuff together' — "whether making lace or knitting, or the men playing games, they shared their unique passions and techniques." She hopes the mosaics will have a similar effect.

For the Camphill service users who are working with her in the development of the artworks, that they are themselves designing parts of them is important so that they are not just the work of one person. "It is important for inclusion that a part of the mosaic represents yourself as a human being. From the process, people change, they gain more knowledge, more creativity. It's a connection of people making the work all together. It brings respect and a sense that 'I'm moving with my life'."

The project makes connections going all the way back to Brigid 'because she was a caring person' and to the work of Mrs Martha Roberts who cared enough about the poverty of Famine times to initiate a local industry so women could earn from craft work to feed their families. Thornton Lace was named after the townland between Kilcullen and Dunlavin where Mrs Roberts and her rector husband lived.

Although the Kilcullen of today is in many ways much better off than in the mid-1800s, Katy Palmieri argues that it faces its own challenges, especially for children now growing up. "The world will be more difficult for them than it has been for us. Individuality, the digital world, climate change, all present a need to bring the community to understand this creativity again. We need to have this kind of interaction between all of us."

The project has been facilitated by a grant from Kildare County Council.

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