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The Veils of Connemara
Inspired by Michael Hartnett’s poem ‘A Necklace of Wrens’, I like to refer to my many, many pregnancy losses as ‘A Necklace of Wounds’. Whilst it broke me apart, it was the beginning of the evolution of the soul. I would never be the same again, you can never be the same again. And that is a thing of profound beauty.
The deeper the suffering, the deeper the desire I had to come home, and by home I mean to nature, to Connemara. A place that heals all wounds, a place of mythical metamorphosis.
During this time I began to work with precious metals.
This dynamic inception phase, is when I’m most alive. It’s a time when your whole self awakens - all that came before you, all that you are (and are not), your existential self, your past, and your full presence, is in the room.
Working with metals was an interesting experience. I find it beautiful that what emerged from this period - solid mass structures of symbolism, will exist in the world when I am dead and gone, and may be dug up from the earth, some time in the future, with a hope that it’s finder will excavate further meaning from this object.
These wearable metal objects incantations, explore the notion of love, grief, transcendence, conscious awakening and resilience in the face of adversity. We will launch them later this year.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.
By Robert Frost
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Studio Ramblings & Reveries
January will see our studio prepare to travel to Scandinavia. ’Ascension’, our award-winning tapestry created in partnership with UNFPA, will be exhibited in the Irish Embassies in Copenhagen, Helsinki and Stockholm.
Ascension
Blanketed under peat for 4000 years, this bean feasa, or wise woman, inspired by fellow Connemara muse Olwen Fouéré, summons us to rise with her as she emerges from an enduring antiquity, into a world where the past is banished through our collective rising. Hair flows through electric timelines, voyaging through the celestial veins of women in Ireland, Iran, Gaza, and elsewhere, entwining our collective desire for life & freedom. This textile, narrated through thousands of kilometers of transcendental threads, with veiled symbolism, is a global call to action against war, misogyny, sexism and violence against women.
I will be accompanied by my dear friend and collaborator, writer & anthropologist Sara O’Rourke, and together we will give a lecture on St. Bridget to coincide with the ancient Celtic festival of Imbolc, and our new national St. Bridget's day holiday.
We will look at our pagan goddess and christian saint through the lens of human rights and agency, ecology and land-based mythologies and the significance of the renewal of Bridget in the contemporary world.
Mentorship Programme
Responding to the challenges faced by those navigating the ever evolving fashion industry in Ireland and abroad we have been developing a unique mentorship programme. My experience as a designer, creative director, curator, stylist and educator has given me an overarching perspective on the industry as a whole. This year I aim to support and guide brands and designers to navigate this complex industry. But before one begins to navigate, my gift is to draw from a fledgling designer or brand their unique vision, voice & aesthetic. I see real creativity as an expression of the self, an extension of the soul.
Expressions of interest can be registered on our website alisonconneely.com next month, from the 8th of February.
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Meditations, and the rest.
Long before I moved back home to Connemara, one woman’s vision, a Connemara native, stole my beating heart.
Cliodhna Prendergast’s Connemara is one of staggering beauty. I see her as a majestic Red Kite twisting and turning in the sky with remarkable agility bringing to us, all that is mythical in Connemara. Her images speak more than words ever will.
To see more of her enchanting work from food to travel, nature to portraits - cliodhnaprendergast.com
And on this beautiful day, the 8th of January, I will leave you with an excerpt from Sam Harris’s New Years Message on his app Waking Up. I recommend listening to it in its entirety…
…a real understanding of our predicament, requires meditation, and by meditation I don’t mean some strange practice propped up by stranger beliefs, I mean an actual awareness of what your mind is doing in each moment. The ability to pay attention, the ability to stop talking to yourself so that you can recognise what the mind is like prior to being distracted every waking moment by thoughts. Real meditation isn’t a life-hack, it isn’t a hobby, it isn’t even a solution to a problem, its the recognition of what the mind is like prior to solving any specific problem…
Until next month I wish you a kind and restful January.
Alison x