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News, Stories | 16 December 2020
Artist Ben Readman on creating Winter Lights for the Mater Hospital
Ben Readman is a visual artist and educator based in Dublin.
He began working with a group from The National Neighbourhood in autumn and together they created an artwork that is being projected onto the Mater Hospital for the whole month of December, as part of Winter Lights.
Their piece, called Look Out For The Light, is a four-minute digital animation celebrating the power of hope, community, positivity and togetherness.
Here, he writes about his experience of working with the group to create this vivid artwork that's lighting up Dublin.
An explosion of ideas
I’ve always loved participatory art. It gives me a sense of belonging. It heightens my feeling of being part of a community: being engaged and connected with other people and the world through collective, creative activity. Whenever working on a project like this one, I always hope that the participants feel something similar.
Reaching consensus on artistic decisions challenges the often general view that art has to be an individual activity: the recluse on a typewriter or the starving artist who works alone in a studio. Not that I have any issue with solo art-making, it’s usually how I work. Viewing artworks in galleries and museums and elsewhere is a hugely beneficial and underrated activity and one that I’ll always advocate for. However, for those who would normally be the audience to become involved in the art-making process considerably changes things. It becomes a deeply active, as opposed to a mostly passive, experience. Suddenly we are all off the bench and on the pitch, as a team (except there is no opposition side). We collectively analyse each match and make decisions about how the game can be played in such a way that everyone involved, including the fans, enjoy it as much as they can.
Working alongside Brian Fleming (Creative Facilitator with Dublin City Council Culture Company) and Bernie Divilly (Creative Engagement Project Manager at Dublin City Council Culture Company) we started by collectively writing the brief, discussing realistic expectations and possibilities for a project. We worked through the themes and subjects that the group wanted to address and concentrated on the message. We also considered our audience and all of the options for the aesthetic of the final piece, moving from photography to video and finally settling on a slow-moving illustrated animation.
It was beautiful to see everyone’s ideas evolve and change through the process.
No one stuck with their initial ideas, there was an openness and understanding that our inputs can alter other people’s opinions and vice versa. A truly collaborative process. Our ideas for the project were boiled down to the essentials, to what’s really important: to value the beauty of everything that surrounds us: to tune into nature: to appreciate and feel the seasons change: to understand that we are lucky enough to share all of this and that we are all connected.
This project affirmed my views on participatory art. Moreover, it firmly placed my feet on the earth after a particularly testing lockdown. I always looked forward to our hour-long meetings with the group, expertly co-ordinated by Bernie and Brian. These were intense and rewarding sessions with an incredibly engaged group of participants: an explosion of colourful ideas and perspectives that left my head giddily spinning.
Winter Lights is a Dublin City Council initiative.
Bio
Ben Readman is a visual artist and educator based in Dublin. He was formerly the artistic director and chairman of BLOCK T, a multi-award-winning arts organisation which produced over 500 events and exhibitions. As an Artist he has exhibited and completed residencies globally. His work is in public and private collections including the OPW, Mason Hayes & Curran, Key Capital Investment, Deutsche Bank and Petch Osathanugrah. Ben has served as judge for several awards such as the Arthur Guinness projects (a 3 million euro fund for creative projects) and the IDI student awards in 2019 and 2020. He is currently on the board of Visual Artists Ireland. Ben has over 16 years of teaching experience and currently lectures in TUDublin within the Visual Communications degree programme and is an independent artist, designer and creative consultant.
