News
News, Stories | 16 December 2020
Artist Alan Dunne on creating Winter Lights for City Hall
Alan Dunne is a visual-artist based in Ireland, working in painting, graphic printmaking, paper-craft.
This Autumn, he worked with residents at The Croft Nursing Home and Hollybrook Lodge Care Centre to gather their stories and hear some of their thoughts on living through Covid-19.
He transformed them into a graphic short story named Home Truths - a four-minute animation that shares their reminiscences and messages of hope. This digital animation is being projected onto City Hall for the month of December as part of Winter Lights.
Here, Alan reflects on the process.
Capturing stories
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us all to learn new ways to connect with one another. It’s a basic human need to have your voice heard and be listened to.
The residents of The Croft Nursing Home and Hollybrook Lodge Care Centre were particularly affected by the pandemic lockdown experience, and so I truly felt the significance and the responsibility to advocate their stories.
Remote online engagement was tricky at times but the enthusiasm of the Dublin City Council Culture Company and the staff at The Croft and Hollybrook Lodge saw this as a challenge that could be overcome. In the end it was through reminiscence sessions and interviews through a tablet or through sessions by arts activity coordinators that we collected the stories from the residents.
Their stories were often bittersweet. They were about their childhood experiences, memories of their parents, friends and siblings, their jobs, raising families, happy moments, challenges and personal tragedy.
We learned how they managed to persevere through the pandemic, with an impressive strength of character and often a sense of humour.
I felt it was important to maintain the authenticity of their voice; their accents, colloquialisms, and wit in their language, and so I did my best to preserve the integrity of their words and I hope that comes across in the final piece.
Winter Lights is a Dublin City Council initiative.
Bio
Alan Dunne is an illustrator and author based in Ireland. He is passionate about vernacular history and uncovering stories through cultural historical archives. This is reflected in his practice through his comics, heritage-based commissions and through re-appropriation of vernacular graphics and typography. He teaches illustration part-time at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin.
