The Invisible City
Artist: Laragh Pittman
Medium: Video
Through film and sound recording I set out to explore sites of speculative historical and contemporary complexity, to share traces of cultural diversity from the past, present and future. Inspired by Italo Calvino’s poetic prose work from 1972 ‘Invisible Cities’, I believe that each of us experiences the same place differently. I would argue that the city of Dublin has an undocumented and largely unseen infrastructure that exists outside of the English and Irish languages. The experience in recent lockdowns to remain within a short distance from our homes has given me a precise focus and lens of study for this project. For me as a resident in the old dock workers neighbourhood of East Wall in Dublin 3, my circle covers many areas of interest; from Georgian Squares like Mountjoy, many inner city social housing areas, Trinity College, The canals coming into the river Liffey, areas of derelict warehousing as well as new building sites of international commerce and the busy hub of the container port. I have engaged 8 intercultural guides; Selema Letsie, Alma, Shanaya Ahmed, Tian Yu Lloyd, Nora Garvie, Nita Mishra, Martyna Bogaczyk and AïdaBangoura; who explain their own journeys through the city and who become like Calvino’s Venetian cities, 8 female cities in their own right.
Biography
A visual artist with BA and MAs in Fine Art and Digital Media, she uses multiple media for socially engaged and participatory art making and builds spaces for creativity, dialogue and exploration of the fluid and transcultural nature of life in Ireland today. Laragh also works as a curator and project manager with Art Nomads. She is currently starting research for a new project about the global connections evident in the container port near her home in inner city Dublin. She recently exhibited ‘Invisible City’ in CHQ Gallery for 5 Lamps Festival in July 2021. Her artwork includes ‘A Perfect Global City’ a collaborative and participatory project with WEMIN: Migrant Women Empowerment and Integration, a European funded project in 2019 and ‘The Invisible Museum’ in Kilmainham Courthouse as part of the ‘Citizen Artist’ project with Common Ground in April 2019 www.invisiblemuseum.ie. She worked on a long-term participatory project ‘Travels Into Dublin’ between 2011 and 2013 with the International Women’s Support Group in the Lantern Centre, Synge Street, that was funded through CREATE’s Artist In The Community Scheme; this culminated in an installation and website www.museumoftherefound.ie