Unique artwork by Cleary Connolly and the students of Marino Community Special School.
Marino Community Special School is delighted to welcome Paris based artists Denis Cleary and Anne Connolly to the school in Autumn 2018 to work with the students on the creation of an exciting new artwork, funded through the Percent for Art Scheme. This is a very exciting inclusive art project for our school community and one that will enable participation from all students at their own ability level.
Working closely with Deirdre Murphy, a Dublin based choreographer and yoga teacher, Cleary and Connolly used colourful and dynamic interactive projections, that they designed originally for an exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, to encourage the children to express themselves through movement.
The final artwork included a series of portraits of each child in the school, reflecting and echoing the child’s spirit by capturing their interactions with this media. The forty portraits were displayed as a large wall mounted installation in the main entrance area in Marino School. Each family was given a personal copy of their child’s portrait.
Cleary and Connolly have previously worked with children with special needs and have witnessed the power of this interactive media that uses colourful light projections to engage and captivate children. They are often attracted to the technology at first but the inclusion of movement in the process, introduces a playful aspect that encourages teamwork and appeals to the children.
The project took place throughout the autumn, with the final artworks installed in February2019.
2019.01.29 IRISH TIMES ARTICLE How a digital art project offers an outlet for autistic students.pdf