A participatory loom artwork invites the public to take part in a collective act of remembrance at The Dock
A collective artwork centered on quiet remembrance is taking shape at The Dock this winter, inviting visitors to slow down, reflect, and participate in a shared act of making.
Titled “Bhí mo chuimhneamh ort. I was thinking of you,” the work forms part of Waking the Land, an exhibition by the Leitrim-based ^ collective, running from December 6, 2025, to February 14, 2026. The piece is dedicated to the memory of Manchán Magan, whose work engaged deeply with language, place, heritage, and attentive listening to the land.
Manchán Magan was an Irish writer, broadcaster, and documentary-maker known for his focus on language, landscape, and the cultural memory embedded in place. Much of his work explored the Irish language, traditional knowledge, and pre-colonial Irish life, continually questioning how people might live with greater awareness of land, history, and one another.
Across books, television, radio, and public talks, he argued that modern Ireland had lost something essential through its separation from native language, ecology, and inherited ways of knowing. Blending research with personal reflection, his work drew on folklore, etymology, archaeology, and lived experience to reconsider Irish identity beyond simplistic or commercial narratives.
At the heart of the installation is a loom, presented not as a static exhibit but as a shared, participatory space. Visitors are invited to learn basic weaving and add a single thread to the growing textile, with each contribution carrying a personal memory or intention in remembrance of someone or something meaningful.
The artists describe the loom as an entry point into “a space of quiet attention,” where care and slowness shape the experience. The materials are carefully chosen: undyed wool from native Galway sheep, combined with plant material gathered from Benbo Mountain and five meadows tended by the artists. This grounds the work firmly in place, both materially and emotionally.
The textile is intentionally unfinished, evolving over time through the involvement of many hands. Each added thread becomes part of a collective gesture, reflecting themes central to Magan’s work connection to landscape, memory held through language and craft, and the value of shared knowledge.
The ^ collective is an artist-led group based in north Leitrim, comprising Tara Baoth Mooney, Shane Finan, James Kelly, Laura McMorrow, and Sonya Swarte. Working from an experimental studio in Manorhamilton, they have spent the past three years collaborating closely with local communities around themes of environmental grief, care, and land stewardship.
Their practice emphasizes collaboration with one another, with communities, and with the natural world, which they regard as an active participant in meaning-making. This has taken shape through rituals, workshops, symposia, shared meals, walks, and storytelling gatherings rooted in attentiveness to place.
