Elizabeth and Susan are working with Coolmine Lodge, a male residential therapeutic community for drug rehabilitation. They are working with a group of males aged from 19 – 42, who they meet twice weekly. Each week numbers have changed which has been challenging for a first time collaboration.
Throughout the collaboration Elizabeth and Susan have worked with the group through media such as photography, painting, drawing, poetry, mask making and sound. One of their initial aims was to encourage the guys to express their sense of selves - their identity. Each workshop brought about new questions to answer. Anonymity, identity, individuality and ceremony were recurrent themes throughout the programme, and they had to find a way to bring them all together in the process of the collaboration.
The voice seemed an important aspect in every session whether it was through conversation, questions and answers, singing, poetry, frustration etc. With this in mind the artists were inspired to bring in a voice facilitator, Colm Nolan, to work with the group in creating a new way of expressing themselves. It was a powerful workshop in which everyone found a new level of engagement. The final piece was created using elements of this workshop, to form a sound and visual installation.
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