Million Dollar Ideas

Under The Palms(working title)

There is a man who lives in a city on a Mediterranean island. The city is filled with decaying villas and casinos that were built with the wealth of the once prosperous port. years ago the city was full of diplomats from the Boshporus, Adriatic bankers and even coffee merchants from as far as Ethiopia. Now the port has fallen into obsolescence as bridges and railways began to circumvent the island. Now the stucco peels from the facades of grand hotels and the colourful ensigns of merchant navies no longer fly along the pier. the stevedores sit in the cafes by the water waiting for work to trickle in from the last remaining ships. The last bastion of the city's former opulence is the Museum or Fine Art where tourists still come to see the famous painting under the palms. The painting depicts a young stevedore sitting at a cafe in a piazza that is shaded by palm trees, the man is smoking a cigarette and seems to have forlorned expression. The painting is very famous and now is found on cheap postcards at every souvenir shop, it is reproduced onto textiles and ceramics and tourists can often be seen wearing ill fitting shirts depicting this wok of art. This story is about the man in the painting, who everyday sees his own image worn by strangers or hung in the windows of bars. and everyday his sense of self is eroded by the mass production and saturation of his own face. He no longer feels as if he lives in the same city anymore because the city has turned to revolve completely around himself.

Image References

Stinging Nettles

I used to think that nettles were only found in Ireland and Britain but in fact these plants can be found all over Europe and parts of Asia, Africa and The Americas. Being stung by nettles on a bare calf seems a right of passage for a child. I am interested in the ceremonial connotations of this plant.Urtication, or flogging with nettles is the process of deliberately applying stinging nettles to the skin to provoke inflammation. An agent thus used was considered to be a rubefacient (something that causes redness), used as a folk remedy for treating rheumatism - wikipedia. In Ireland and Britain there is a common belief that Dock Leafs, a plant that often grows near nettles can cure the pain from a nettle's sting. As kids, if we had been stung, we would begin the ceremony of searching for Dock Leafs to alleviate the pain from the nettle sting. I would also like to explore the wider uses for nettles, I want to try make nettle tea and soup, the plant can also be used to make textiles I would like to experiment with the materiality of the plant, I'm curious to see if it can be made into paper.

This is the project I am considering developing for the Eye Research Lab. I would like to write my own nettle stinging ceremony and record myself being stung by the plant. I have imagined a time-lapse of the nettle rash erupting across my bare skin. I associate the nettle with Ireland. The concept of a weed is interesting too. A weed is but an unloved flower! - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Together, me on my racer and Dec on his ma’s martello, we leave his gaff. Declan follows me mutely. What spot will it be tonight, our bikes clang and skid down by the pungent canal and through paths guarded by stinging nettles. We head towards the infinitely dark Phoenix Park. - This is an extract from a short story I wrote last year Short Stories