2020
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the 2020 Festival was unable to proceed as planned. Despite this we were delighted to be able to present some digital and socially distanced events as follows:
Translating Linen
Highly Commended – Arts & Business Awards 2021 – New Sponsor Category
The genetic code determining the shape, structure and function of every organism is written in the codex of DNA. Patterns of 4 bases clustered to form chains of 21 amino acids that form the proteins that govern everything in a process known as translation. This process has an architecture that lends itself to further translation into the mathematical principles that underly music and overlaying a musical interpretation onto the fundamental genetic basis that determine the morphology of flax, Linum usitatissimum. This music video features the finished digital music piece overlaid with the sights and sounds of Northern Ireland’s Linen Mills.
Translating Linen featured in the NI Science Festival 2021. This project was kindly funded by Arts & Business and Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and supported by partners Fusion Antibodies PLC, NI Science Festival and Northern Ireland Screen.
Visual Artist Robert Peters was invited to respond to Dr. O’Kane’s translation of Linen DNA pictorially. He created an image that attempts to encompass the historical use of flax and linen from neolithic times to its demise in post-industrial Ireland. You can read more about the ideas behind his work here. The image will be printed onto linen to form a wall hanging.
Three new pieces designed and created for the 2020 Linen Biennale by Wilma Kirkpatrick and Helen O’Hare. This work was displayed in Belfast Cathedral from August – October 2020. Helen explained that for this project they, “took inspiration from the stories about linen – historical, cultural and social. We enjoy working with the properties of linen, especially the firmness, crispness and how it lifts the texture of hand and machine embroidery”.
Making Millie – Journeys In Design
In 2020, ‘Making Millie’ came on tour to R-Space Gallery, part of Our Linen Stories 2020 from Journeys in Design. Linen Millie Dolls made using a template by illustrator Sue Shields were displayed in the Gallery windows, the focus being an exploration of the working lives of women in the linen industry, In this video, Linen Biennale Director Robert Martin talks to curator John Ennis about his professional journey to the town of Lisburn and about material cultures, linen in particular.