Over the past number of years we have worked on projects in Japan (Video Shakkei), Italy (Gorchakov's Wish) and Ireland (Eight Rooms). During our visits to each of these locations we have often stopped to engage with places of cultural and spiritual significance including holy wells, cemetaries and burial sites - an act of observation, perhaps contemplation. Relating to this experience, we have just published 'Memento Mori' as a sequence of artists' pages in the latest edition of Performance Research (Volume 15:1) on Memento Mori.
The sequence is a a composite of word-and-image. The images are photographs taken at the following locations:
- Isola di San Michele (‘Island of the Dead’) in Venice, Italy
- Daigh Bhríde (St. Brigid’s Well) in Liscannor, County Clare, Ireland
- A burial site in Tenryu-ji (天龍寺) in Ukyo Ward, Kyoto, Japan
The text, some of which is comprised of found materials from the specific locations, is a poetic meditation on death and remembrance.