01.08.2025

In Carrick-On-Shannon the Renault 4 went through a car wash and the seemingly mundane or quotidian act of emptying the car, unpacking and cleaning it, led to an interval of restoration, renewal and catharsis at the midpoint of the six week tour de force. Recontextualising the car as an artwork, we reflected on how the tour thus far had taken shape through evolving processes and the accumulation of objects.

To celebrate the midpoint, we wanted to spruce up the car as much as possible, washing it and fixing a platform to the roof rack, because we would be joined by two very special surprise guests. The car would become a moving stage for a collaborative performance taking place through installation, storytelling and music. This day last year we prepared the car in advance of the event titled, CKD* Completely Knocked Down. With Liliane’s art works, a short story of my own and objects from the tour, Edwina Guckian and Ultan O'Brien would be performing on top of the car as part of a theatrical event where tour de force partnered with The Dock, Leitrim’s flagship centre for the arts.

Edwina Guckian hails from outside the village of Drumsna in Co. Leitrim. Coming from a family steeped in the tradition of music and dance, her style is greatly influenced by the style of local music she grew up with across Leitrim and Roscommon. To see Edwina dance is to understand that great lightness and wit can be carried forward from a rich and dense repertoire of steps, rhythms and refrains.

This day last year, we chatted with Edwina, who is also a cultural preservationist working with strawing traditions, harvest knots, strawboy hat and costume making. Materially, the preservation of straw techniques prompts questions of value, what we deem worthy or important and why. Straw, it’s historical use as a material used ubiquitously on small holdings and homes, might be considered fragile or ephemeral when in fact it is versatile and robust.

Edwina’s care and celebration for objects of intangible and material heritage prompted us to ask would she be interested in dancing on the car. We’d seen pictures of her dancing on a wooden barrel in the rapids of a river, so we were hopeful. She got back to us; yes, she’d happily dance on the old Renault 4. When we met in person, Edwina told us a story about dances and tunes performed on horse-drawn jaunting cars during market or fair days and speculated that dancing on a car would be a natural progression of this town square tradition. Such events have faded with the disappearance of traditional horse-drawn transport and local market fairs, from daily community life. Edwina asked Ultan on board for musical accompaniment….

Ultan O'Brien is a fiddle/viola player and composer from Miltown Malbay. Listening to Ultan’s playing, of both traditional tunes and melodies he’s composed himself, transports you; takes you somewhere, across a vast expanse of time and space. His otherworldy album, Dancing the Line opens with an evocatively titled track, Iron Mountain Foothills. One of his own stunning compositions, it is perhaps a descriptive piece of the landscape of Sliabh an Iarainn, Iron Mountain, east of Lough Allen and northeast of Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim. Deriving its name from iron ore deposits found within its rock strata, the mountain was mined for ore that was used for the creation of the Ha'penny Bridge, built in May 1816 over the River Liffey in Dublin.

CKD* Completely Knocked Down, was a meditation on obsolescence and endurance; an embodied response and expression of the dovetailing between old and new worlds, between industry and tradition. This day last year, we had the car spruced up by the specialists at AIC CAR WASH for our collaborative event that would take place the following day at The Dock. Photos of the event will appear here tomorrow. In the meantime you can watch footage of the cathartic car moment below…