Clouds and Boulders: mapping terrain

A salvaging, a repurposing, a remembering or a reimagining. Following the cancellation of Clouds and Boulders, his ambitious, large-scale, concert-inspired work with original music by Eoin French, Ross Dowling and Peter Power, Luke Murphy – the work’s choreographer, director and sole performer – now acts as witness and survivor in a living archive of the unrealised work. Luke will take up a three-day residency at the Butler Gallery to present an installation performance, mapping, examining and rediscovering the planned, developed but unfinished material for the original show.

Mapping Terrain offers audiences a voyeuristic window into the process of conceiving, developing and dismantling a project. When the pieces are torn apart what remains? What lingers? And how do you respond? Luke invites an intimate audience in to observe the process of repurposing and re-embodying.

Clouds and Boulders was originally conceived as a large scale, concert inspired show for festivals; a show to be presented outdoors as the sun was setting and that would bring the audience on stage with the performers at the end for a joyful celebration of dance and music. Restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic saw Luke and his team unable to complete or perform the show as planned. We are however delighted and grateful that Olga Barry and the team at Kilkenny Arts Festival have created the opportunity for us to salvage, repurpose and reimagine some of the original material for the intimate setting of the Digital Gallery in the Butler Gallery.