ALASTAIR MACLENNAN
TEN TO PEN
2pm – 3.30pm, Friday, 27 September
Tallaght Cross (Intersection)
Duration: 90 minutes
My inspiration comes from Zen practice...
A crossroads indicates opposite and differing directions. In Zen practice there is no separation between a subject and an object. Zen engages holistic mind / body interlinks, beyond the splits of binary, oppositional thinking. 'How' to go, to 'get' there, to BE there? One way is by meditative walking, focussing awareness on one's inbreath and outbreath, ongoingly... along the way... interfusing mind / body interlinks through focussed breathing BEYOND separatist, binary mental and physical distractions. A physical crossroads can be used in art as a metaphorical paradox beyond the literal ... revealing sameness in difference and difference in sameness. In Zen practice (and at the crossroads) each step along the way can be an arrival in its own right.
About Alastair MacLennan
In 1997, Alastair MacLennan represented Ireland at the 47th Venice Biennale, commemorating names of those who lost their lives as a result of the Political Troubles in N.Ireland. Over years he's made some long durational performances of up to 144 hours each, some 'non-stop', involving no eating or sleeping throughout. Subject matter dealt with political, social and cultural malfunction. He was a founding member of Belfast's Art and Research Exchange and is a founding member of Belfast's Bbeyond Performance Art organization. He ran the first Master of Arts (MA) fine art course in Ulster Polytechnic and is now Emeritus Professor of fine art from Ulster University. Zen practice has influenced his art-making throughout the last five decades, during which time he's traveled to Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, America and Canada, presenting Actuations (performance/installations). Since 1989 he's been a member of the European performance art entity, Black Market International.
Image: SIBILANT MISCIBLE, McManus Dundee, October 2022. Photo by Jamie Donald.
