Time for poems and jazzy tunes in Bailieborough

Culture Night REVIEW: Launch of Time

You create a book of poetry and images, but can't invite anyone to the launch due to the Covid restrictions, what do you do? Lesser mortals would call it a day. Undeterred, Fidel Hogan Walsh and Julie Corcoran got a host of people they would have liked to attend the launch of their new book Time, and asked them to make a brief video message to be a part of a strangely memorable event.

Recitations of Fidel's twilit poems are dotted through-out the half hour show, while Julie's companion pieces - are projected over the performances.

A background to how the two ladies' paths crossed, their friendship blossomed and with the catalyst of the Lockdown, resulted in Time. Julie explains that they turned to their creativity "as a form of escapism, but also as a means to record their experiences". Although Julie's artworks and Fidel's poems were created independently, they chimed so eerily, that the pieces seemingly demanded a collaboration.

A good example of this is the ghoulish poem 'Omen' with such lines as 'I see the one eyed child dancing on her grave'.

Over the poem Julie's artwork titled 'Connected' is displayed in which a giant's hand retrieves a drenched girl, above a lake. Is it saving her? Is it too late? Was the hand the one that put her in there in the first place? Does the hand represent society - peer pressure or support?

The launch was further elevated by the a bluesy contribution of the Two Five Ones AKA singer Dara MacGabhann and guitarist Andy Hogg bringing covers of jazz standards, but the stand out track was their original song, Slave to the Moon. The stationary camera and chilly acoustics in courthouse didn't help, but the duet are undeniably talented - check out their recorded version of Slave to the Moon and look out for a Celt interview in the coming weeks.