Collective Imagination: Eimear Reidy reflects on her Navigator Residency at Source Arts Centre

You leave your own familiar world and willingly plunge yourself in to something unknown for an allotted period of time, and although you know it won’t last, it seems to be your whole world while you're there. The Source Arts Centre is a purpose built centre on the River Suir in the centre of Thurles. The space I was allocated for my residency, the community room, was past reception, through the library, up the stairs, right next to the Tipperary Archives. This meant that every day I met with lots of people working there and I loved it. The community room is a large open space with a wooden floor and a great view out to The Suir and Thurles Town. The sound was really fantastic, and seeing people coming and going, I somehow had a sense of writing a soundtrack for what could be seen through this glass wall at the top of the building.

Through a friend of a friend of a friend in Ireland’s incredible experimental/diy mycorrhizal, musical network I was introduced to Andy Walshe of White Sage. He came from Dublin on one morning of the residency and it was a beautiful thing to play with someone who was so warm and open and generous in his approach. We decided to play a short piece together at the final concert called “of Weal and Woe,” the title taken from a mysterious tome inside a glass case at the Tipperary Archives.

The final concert at the centre was a joy. It was in the gallery space downstairs which again had a great natural reverberance and I always enjoy that vague otherworldly feeling of gallery spaces, with white walls and wooden or stone floors and a long history of holding the outward expression of the inner lives of so many artists. The audience were as far as I know, made up of people who are keen to participate in the events of their local arts centre whatever that might be and so they came with open minds and were so receptive. Before playing I put the idea to the audience that an improvised piece is created by everyone in the room and so invited them to close their eyes and let their imaginations wander and contribute to the collective imagination which I think contributed to the positive audience-musician feedback Loop.

It is very special performing for an audience at the end of a residency as you have the feeling of a deeper engagement with them, they know you have been there as a guest to their town. It was heartening to see the staff of The Source and Aoife Concannon from the IMC at the concert as it confirmed their commitment to the Navigator Residency programme and to the work of contemporary Irish musicians. I would like to thank all at the IMC and in particular Aoife, Caitriona, Kenneth and Louis. The Staff at The Source: Brendan, Annie, John, Ursula and Vincent. And all the staff at Thurles Library and Tipperary Archives.