Diane Henshaw (visual art) and Paddy McEneaney (performance art) are Fermanagh based artists who intend exploring the corelation of contemporary drawing and corporal mime through the prism of industrialisation of the ancient landscape of the region.

The region is the host to a Geopark and a broad greenbelt both of which is under threat due to proposals for industrial mining and fracking.

dianeHENSHAW
paddyMcENEANEY

ecoSUNDAY

21 August 2022

Carrybridge/Belle Isle

Co. Fermanagh

actor, theatre maker

visual artist

DIANE HENSHAW

Originally from Islandmagee in Co. Antrim, Henshaw practiced in Belfast at Queen St Studios for just under a decade before moving to Fermanagh where she has been based for 19 years. Over the past two decades Henshaw has exhibited throughout the world in locations in Europe, North America, Asia and Indonesia. She has held numerous artist residencies in Antwerp, New York, Kerala, New Delhi & Orissa, South India, and has been artist-in - residence in Ireland at Annaghmakerrig, Monaghan, Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Mayo and The Model in Sligo. Most recently she has been curating online studio visits (66) and an 11 strand international small works show by 64 Global artists and a major show of A0 drawings in Mumbai in December 21 featuring work by 64 artists in association with the Social media Drawing Box Collective for whom she is the voluntary curator and founding member and also a participating artist. Henshaw is a founding member of Outland Arts. She is also a member of Floating World Books. Her work is in many private collections both locally and nationally including the Arts Council of N. Ireland Acquisition collection.

PADDY McENEANEY

Paddy is an actor and theatre maker from Manorhamilton living in Fermanagh. Since 2016 he has engaged with hundreds of people in the community and collaborated with over 20 local artists at different stages of their careers through 16 low budget productions and workshops as Exit Does Theatre. Much of Paddys work has been socially engaged practice as well as development of professional theatre practice actor /director / producer.

Paddy’s most recent work has included performing and producing a touring show of Donal O’Kellys "Hairy Jaysus"2019-2020.

During 2021 Paddy practised corporeal mime through an online upskilling workshop of Ettienne Crux with Steve Wasson and Corinne Soum, BLRTC Academy.

Paddy also recently directed his first socially engaged short film ‘Group Therapy’ which premiered recently at The Glens Arts Centre where he has ongoing support do develop and present work in association with Exit does Theatre and Explore authenthicity and performance for film.

As a freelancer Paddy has worked with Actor Tom Hickey and toured with him on The Gallant John Joe 2013-15.
Paddy - a graduate of Sligo IT Performing Arts BA

COLLABORATION

Together their aim will be to create work that presents the ancient nature of our landscape and man’s relationship with it over the milllenia from the crannogs on the Erne to the black pigs-dyke and the industrialisation of the past 200 years. As well as exploring the ancient landscape of the geo park including Cuilcagh Mountain that straddles the border and its hinterlands both within an ephemeral & performative context also with a focus on the oral - both song and spoken word within a site-specific walking/drawing performance ethos – call to the land.

Diane intends to draw with sound / line into the land / rock/s / mineral /scape using ephemeral / digital media and also within a collaborative oriel / physical performance installation ethos with Paddy using corporeal mime and movement with and without sound highlighting the need for an immediate call for action in regards-to the preservation of our local ecology.

Shadow / conversation drawing

Shadow collection – The big eye

A modern Irish-English dictionary translates the word dinnṡeanċas as topography (the science of place), but its etymology is more complex. The term originally referred to an ancient genre of mythological geography that gave a poetic account of place (an eminent site or locale); sean means old, and is associated with the figure of the seanchaí or local storyteller, the keeper of lore and memory; and cas means to twist. Poetically, the word suggests the twisting together of strands of collective memory of place perhaps forming a single narrative core (in a more visual idiom), a tapestry weaving together place and people, memory and experience, history and present desire.