"TALK SOFTLY"

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           Talk softly is a new site-specific work in response to the architectural space of Swords Castle. An immersive soundscape envelops the Chapel room, accompanied by a text piece and thirty durational paintings. These pieces were constructed with a sensibility and subtlety, to allow the architectural space become a visual component of the work in its totality. This body of work was created on a year long residency with thanks to the Fingal Arts Council graduate award in partnership with BlockT.

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The starting point for these new works began upon the discovery of an archival black and white photograph of Physicists John Ratcliffe and Ernest Rutherford in conversation in Cavendish Physics laboratory of Cambridge University, taken in 1932. A neon sign which reads,‘Talk Softly Please’ can be seen in the background of this photograph. The sign was installed within the laboratory to remind the scientists of their environment and to be mindful of the micro-phonically sensitive particles they worked with, as the slightest vibrations could greatly impact the outcome of their research.

 

Emerging from a questioning of the statement ‘Talk Softly Please’, research commenced into the philosophy of sound, architectural spaces and our heightened sense of perception in silence. The architectural structure invites listening, not only a physiological fact, but as an act of engaging. Equally, hearing may no longer be treated as just a receptive mode, but as a method of exploration, a way of navigating and noticing subtle details otherwise overlooked within ours environments. We become aware of our bodies in silence, as it is not an absence of sound, nor an awkwardness, but an opportunity which holds potential for exploration of the Self and prompts further curiosity. 

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