Tattered Outlaws of History
Dan Dubowitz and Fearghus Ó Conchúir
A twelve-screen installation of performances filmed from the gun turrets of each of Fingal's Martello towers. A reunion of the towers built to defend against a Napoleonic invasion that never came.
It was commissioned by Fingal County Council 2007-2009 as part of their Percent for Art scheme, and is a collaboration between Dan Dubowitz of Civic Works and choreographer Fearghus Ó Conchuir.
The Martello Towers are part of an international family of defence forts built in the 19th century throughout the then British empire. They were inspired by the Genovese tower at Mortella point in Corsica which successfully resisted British attack in 1794. The towers were round, with thick walls to resist cannon fire. They were built to accommodate a garrison of 30 men and a single roof-mounted cannon that could rotate 360 degrees.
About 50 Martello towers were built on the Irish coast, twelve of which are in Fingal. The Fingal towers were built between 1804 and 1806 in expectation of a Napoleonic invasion; but that invasion never happened and new, more powerful artillery rendered the towers obsolete. It is said that the towers were built within sight of one another to make possible communication of an impending attack, although not all are.
Communication and failure of communication are a strong guiding principle for Tattered Outlaws of History. The Martello Towers were built to function as a defensive unit, but never fulfilled that function and never found a unified purpose again. Each tower has developed an individual and distinct history evidenced in their current states of ownership, use and repair. Tattered Outlaws of History acknowledges that individuality in the particularity of each performance; but it also re-establishes a tentative communication between the towers, as one performance echoes another and family resemblances become apparent.
For this project, we placed a tripod where the cannon would have been on the roof of each tower and built a motor that enabled the camera to rotate continuously through 360 degrees. The camera does 12 revolutions in one hour and in that time, it films solitary performers whose activities are sometimes seen, sometimes missed by its impassive rotation. Each performance was filmed in one take, and the 12 synchronised films have been brought together in a semi-circular installation of screens in the Skerries Tower. In assembling Fingal's towers for this reunion, Tattered Outlaws of History also signals to the wider international family of Martello towers to which this collection belongs.
Fearghus Ó Conchúir is an independent choreographer and dance artist. Brought up in An Rinn, he completed degrees in English and European Literature at Magdalen College, Oxford, before training at London Contemporary Dance School. His current creative preoccupation is the relationship between bodies and buildings in the context of urban regeneration, a preoccupation that has manifested itself in film and live performance in Europe, North America and China.
www.bodiesandbuildings.blogspot.com
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