COMHRÁ:
RUÁN
This, more than any of them, is the result of Gabriel, and your influence
on the whole project. Not only did you bring us the word Ogigia, but
you also christened it Mise Ogigia, after Pearse's Mise Eire.
SEÁN
Physically the picture is the Rock of Cashel. It's the most Irelantis-like
thing, in that I thought, it should be most Utopian. But it's a dystopia,
which is a Utopia that is the nature of the world as we find it. It's
very complex. The possibility of marvel is also the possibility of terror.
Also there is a circular that human beings keep doing the same things
over and over again.
So, the basis is a photo of the rock of Cashel, which was the old seat
of religious power, political power. Placed on top of it is this incredible
pyramid-topped confection which is the new Ulster Bank, which is the
new seat of power. Money Power.
It's
covered with diggers. It's set in a cosmic landscape, which is that
we realise that the earth is a blue bauble in the middle of the universe.
A tiny one. At the same time we are there and we up to whatever the
hell our stupid life is. We're at the controls of this digger. Is it
agriculture or is it archaeology? Is it development or is it disaster.
What I realised is that it is may be personal, in that I have this skin
disorder that is fairly neurotic and is about discomfort. It's about
scratching at the self. It doesn't actually know where to go. It wants
to scrape and scrape. It's kind of self-destructive which is not exactly
healthy. It's a disorder that's about discomfort.
RUÁN
The purpose of having so many diggers there is the idea that we can't
leave well enough alone. A characteristic of human evolution seems to
be that we can never stop. And now that we have all these wonderful
devices at our disposal, we just go further. Go longer, go higher, go
bigger.
SEÁN
Did you ever see Vic Reeves, the fantastic comedian in Britain. He was
originally doing kids theatre stuff, and eventually got on telly. He
had a catch phrase, which was; 'You couldn't let it lie!' Which is terribly
human. We can't leave anything good, well enough alone.
GABRIEL
If we think of the landscape physically and physically as a living entity,
how can it breathe with all this concrete?
SEÁN
This is where we are now.
RUÁN
It is. This is our world. There is great magic there as well. There
is the sense of activity and possibility. These sort of anthropomorphic
machines that we can now make. The wonderful thing about a micro-digger
is that it can go anywhere. It can go through your front door. You can
dig a 400-ft hole in your living room. At this stage we can do anything.
We can go to Mars and dig like this.
GABRIEL
If you look at Cashel, going back to the time of Elizabeth, you had
a bishop there, McGrath. He was called the Rógaire Easpaig. The
rogue bishop. He was a very sophisticated man who realising the shift
of consciousness in Europe and the powers behind the reformation, was
actually a Catholic bishop and a Protestant bishop at the same time.
Milo McGrath. The time of Elizabeth the First. He could see that, while
we talk today about Ecumenism and that kind of thing; stretching across
the table to our brethren. This guy did it. He was two in one.
SEÁN
I think the church could be our role model. We'd all love to take over
the world and mould it to our own ideas.
GABRIEL
You notice how also in history how referential pointers are really non-native.
When I was trying to place the Rogue Bishop of Cashel, I had to identify
with the ruling queen of England at the time to place that man in history,
because who has heard of whatever local chieftain might have been in
that area at the time. So, the Rogue Bishop held sway at the time of
Queen Elizabeth the First - a strange admission, but that is geo-politics.
RUÁN
I feel that this picture is about possibility. If we can do that, if
we can go beyond the atmosphere, if we can build these machines, if
we can build buildings like this, if we have so much ability, then surely
it is a small thing to try and resurrect the culture. Perhaps the first
thing we can do is recognise that it is dead and then do a Lazarus on
it.
|
