FLOAT
Video duration 9mins
3 lambda prints, 2021
Emma Finucane
Artist In Residence at UCD Parity Studios
Supported by UCD Colleges of Science and Health Sciences
From Future Happiness at Lynders Caravan park 2021
FLOAT explores a local community's historical affiliation with mental healthcare and the sea through a site specific communal action.
FLOAT invited the people of Portrane / Donabate to consider the patients and staff of St Ita’s psychiatric hospital, past and present, as well as the existing and future patients and staff of the new National Forensic Mental Health Service Hospital.
The project culminated in a communal swim which took place on Sunday 3rd October at 11am where the local community entered the sea at Tower Bay beach.
The cold water held us as we floated united in our thoughts and actions to acknowledge and care for our individual and collective mental health.
Documentation from this event was was compiled and screened for the participants and wider community in Future Happiness exhibition at Lynders Caravan Park on Friday October 9th 2021 for Resort Revelations3.
The video presented in Beyond the Studio is selected footage from this film.
Emma Finucane has been researching and making art, in health contexts for 20 years. Her residency at UCD Parity Studios led to the development of an undergraduate module in Arts and Health in the UCD School of Midwifery. She works in community contexts through dialogue, process based, participatory and collaborative practice. Her work addresses how we connect and communicate through place and each other and how this ultimately contributes to the quality of our lives.
FLOAT was supported by;
Other People’s Practices (OPP), an artist residency and research project which brings socially engaged art
practices to bear on the context of the National Forensic Mental Healthcare Service (NFMHS) in collaboration
with current and former service users of the Central Mental Hospital (CMH).
Resort Residency an annual Public Art Programme based in Lynders Mobile Home Park, Portrane, North County Dublin, funded by Fingal Co. Council.
