Cuairt, 1979 (2024)

Cuairt (2024)

Concept: This video is my personal interpretation and artistic rendition of a story that my mom wrote.* My mom grew up queer in Ireland when the country was extremely conservative and the Catholic Church played a huge role in social/political conditions. She moved to the States when she was twenty years old and has been relearning Irish for the last few years. I find her use of Irish very powerful – both in that she's reclaiming the language for herself and is writing her own stories. 

The video specifically deals with her queerness. The title, “Cuairt,” translates to “Visit” – a reference to the Pope’s visit to Ireland in 1979. On that day, my mom and her girlfriend skipped the widely attended papal Mass and went to the beach together. On their way back, they were seen holding hands by someone in the town. It was a massive scandal and she was ostracized afterwards by her family and the larger community. 

The primary theme of this piece is temporality and generational change, from my mom to myself. This is in the context of queer histories. Much of the process centered on my translating and interpreting her story. There’s also a positive tone towards the end because of the perspective that I'm bringing as a modern viewer. In 2015, Ireland was the first country in the world to legalize gay marriage by popular vote, and I am grateful to exist in this social context.

Process:

I bring physical relics into the video using a scanner. Items include a necklace gifted to me by my grandmother, my Claddagh ring, a key from the flea market, and sea glass. I appreciate the texture and dimension that they bring. I also sourced some found footage from an Irish documentary made in the 1970s. I then projected this footage onto an acrylic sheet and re-recorded it. I did 3D panning/modeling in Adobe After Effects to create additional footage and also hand-drew animations within Procreate. Within Adobe Premiere Pro I compiled all this source material, layering found objects with video footage and animations. The narration is done by my mom.

 *https://splonk.ie/2024/04/04/cuairt-1979-caitriona-ni-eireamhoin/