Angie Shanahan

Angie Shanahan
22 March to 22 April 2023

Angie Shanahan will use her studio residency to explore The Islands, Six Fictions by Irish novelist, poet and short story writer William Wall. The first Island featured, namely Castle Island in Roaringwater Bay, West Cork, a real place, less than half a mile long, ‘its castle, a ruined watchtower and in the shadow of the watchtower, a cluster of ruined cottages’ Spurred by the way the writer’s stories evoke landscape, the artist was compelled to visit Castle Island, to absorb the writer’s words through sense of place. ‘the rumor of sea among stones, the grinding of pebbles’ combined with the evocative nature and deep ecology of the island as suggested by Wall’s poetic descriptions, created the potential for a sketchbook narrative of the artist’s own journey. All to be explored further in Studio 2.

Angie Shanahan Studio Talk with author William Wall
Saturday 22 April at 12 noon at Studio 2, Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre free event, no booking necessary, all welcome.

Angie Shanaghan has invited William Wall, author, to read excerpts from his novel which were influential in forming work created during her residency in Studio 2. Next Saturday, Angie will finish her residency where she has concentrated for the past month on developing work from ‘The Islands, Six Fictions’ by William Wall.
This book of short stories later became ‘Grace’s Day’.

Her main focus has been on a revealing of place – Castle Island.
Her painting practice is reimagined across drawing, mixed media and found objects, combining observation, feeling and intuition.

William Wall is the author of seven novels, most recently ‘Empty Bed Blues’ (New island, 2023), six collections of poetry and three of short fiction. His 2018 novel ‘Grace’s Day’ (Head of Zeus, London) is partially set on Castle Island off Schull. He was the first Poet Laureate of the City and County of Cork in 2021-22. His 2005 novel ‘This Is The Country’, set in and around Cork City, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and he was the first European to win the Drue Heinz Prize in the USA. He holds a PhD in Creative Writing from UCC and he translates from Italian.

Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre’s Artist Residency Programme is supported by the Arts Council and Cork County Council.