Don’t Forget to Remember - with Asbestos

From Friday 10 to Sunday 12 January between 12pm and 5pm, in the Education Studio at the National Gallery of Ireland, the artist Asbestos will complete an artistic performance, in which he will systematically erase 15 chalk portraits on blackboards. Each board depicts a memory of his mother Helena, who has Alzheimer’s. The performance will be accompanied by a live degenerative sound installation, created in collaboration with artist and composer, Cian Walker, where Helena’s voice will be played, recorded, and rerecorded, over and over again, onto 49 pieces of vinyl until it has faded into the distance. 
 
The blackboards displayed in the studio, were created for the film Don’t Forget to Remember (a collaboration with director Ross Killeen and Asbestos, screening at the Gallery on Thursday 9 January). During the making of the film, the boards were drawn as footnotes to Helena’s life, and then left out to be altered and erased by the elements and the public. Even though they were partially erased, those memories still endure with Helena’s family.
 
Over the course of this three-day performance, Asbestos will slowly erase one board at a time. The dusters he will use for this, reference the German artist Joseph Beuys, whose work on chalkboards inspired the original drawings. The connection with Beuys goes back to September 1974 when the artist spoke in Dublin. Beuys was well versed on Ireland and the Troubles and spoke about the Dublin Monaghan Bombings, which had happened a few months before his talk. One of the car bombs detonated on 17 May 1974 went off on South Leinster Street, near what is now the Clare Street entrance to the Gallery. Helena, pregnant with her son, walked past minutes before the explosion, 46 days before Asbestos was born. The dusters used in this performance are decorated with brass words, writing out a memory of Helena’s of this time: AT TIMES IT COMES BACK TO ME. I HAD PETER, HAD BILLY. COMING AROUND TOWARDS, THE BOMB.
 
The second part of the three-day performance is a live musical soundscape of Helena’s voice. Created in collaboration with Cian Walker, it comprises a score, coupled with voice recordings of Helena from the film, as she tries to recount memories, grasping at what she can, and remembering of some of the events from the blackboards. This soundscape will be played on vinyl, filling the room with Helena’s voice; each time it is played, it will be recorded onto a new 7-inch vinyl, including all the ambient noises in the room, using an old vinyl lathe that cuts directly into a blank record. This new recording will replace the previous recording, and will be played and recorded onto the next piece of vinyl. Over the 49 recordings, Helena’s voice will gently fade into the sound of the room and those in it. 
 
The three-day performance is a testament to Helena’s memories and their fragility, and will provide a moment for those attending to think about their own memories and how they can live on in oral history. We impart so much importance on the permanence of memory through the physical recordings of them, but our dearest and most important recollections are internal and more resilient when we speak about them and share them. 
 

This free event is part of First Fortnight, the arts mental health festival.

Over the course of this event, Asbestos will be supported by members of the Education Team. The Education Department at the Gallery has a long-standing Art and Dementia Programme, and is committed to working with, and providing opportunities for contemporary artists. 

The Studio is on level 1 of the Gallery and is fully accessible by lift from the Clare Street Entrance. It is at the same level as the Merrion Square Entrance. Accessible toilets and Baby changing facilities are located on the ground floor via lift opposite the studio, and the education team are on-hand to support.

For further information contact Caomhán Mac Con Iomaire [email protected]