Kinship Winter Weekend at Tramore Valley Park, Cork

Discover the skills of our ancestors as a series of free, creative and informative talks, walks and workshops will take place from November 18th to 20th in Tramore Valley Park as part of the KinShip Winter Weekend in Cork. 

 

Enjoy the Cork City skyline from a novel perspective as artist Helen Horgan is bringing a life size Campera Obscura to the City View Summit of Tramore Valley Park. Constructed from a converted camper van that has become the vehicle of Horgan’s art practice, participants are invited to enter and view the surrounding Cork city skyline from inside her campervan. By creating a dark space within the van and allowing light to enter through a small hole, the external world is projected on the inside walls upside-down. 

 

Alexander O’Brien, Permaculture Designer and Educator will lead a two-day workshop constructing a Living Willow Dome in Tramore Valley Park. Workshop participants will use willow from the park to create a living sculpture, a shelter made from the park itself. Just like weaving a basket but on a larger scale, participants will learn how to manipulate this natural material to create beautiful spaces in nature. 

 

There is so much to do and see in Tramore Valley Park during the KinShip Winter Weekend! Hear about the topography of Tramore Valley Park from visual artist Ann Burns, learn about the creative work Colette Lewis has been undertaking in relation to waste management, watch basket maker Rosemary Kavanagh as she demonstrates the art of basket weaving, meet members of the Cork Beekeepers Association and listen to Keith Payne, the current Cork City Library Eco Poet in Residence who will read from his new book of poems ‘A Different Eden: Ecopoetry from Ireland and Galicia’. 

 

Botanist, herbalist and forager Jo Goodyear will explore the medicinal and edible plants of Tramore Valley Park. During this hour-long walk, members of the public will discover the wealth of health benefits in the “weeds”, trees and wildflowers of the park.

Visual Artist Maeve Lynch will present a sculptural work Preservation / Plasticisation in the park.  The sculpture takes its form from bog oak retrieved by her father from the bog at Tramore Valley Park in the 1980’s and places it within the park as a monument to the existence of these ancient natural relics submerged beneath. 

 

Members of award winning Fuinneamh Workshop Architects + Civil and Structural Engineering Advisors Ltd, will be on site to answer questions about The KinShip Eco Lab which they are constructing using clay, Irish oak and thatch. When it is finished it will be Ireland’s first public rammed earth building.

 

Tramore Valley Park is a site of great historical significance for Cork Travellers and be sure to keep an eye out for the new signage that’s been installed in the park to mark this relationship.

Finally join KinShip artists Marilyn Lennon and Sean Taylor as they reflect on the development of the KinShip Art Project over the last year. The artists will also introduce their own creative project ‘The Midden Chronicles’, a large illustrative map of the KinShip activities in Tramore Valley Park to date. This artwork will be on show from Friday 18th November in The Atrium at Cork City Council’s Civic Offices. It will be launched by Cork City’s Deputy Lord Mayor Cllr Damian Boylan together with the Winter Weekend Programme at 1pm.