Pathless Land: A multidimensional collaborative installation by Eleanor Dawson, Ashleigh Downey, Justyna Kosmulska and Sylvia Hill is an ongoing collaboration, first initiated by an ArtNet dlr Metamorphosis project, in Dun Laoghaire, in 2020-2021. The artists then worked together during what they described as the two first, intense years of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Our work represents our own metamorphic process through the Covid lockdowns, exploring the potential, process and transformative power of these times.

“Unable to meet in person, we met regularly on Zoom, and through a WhatsApp chat, sharing thoughts, images, sounds and videos as well as links to other sources which resonated with us on the theme of Metamorphosis. The pandemic allowed us to go inwards; to draw on our inner resources and chart internal changes – the ‘pathless land’ of the title.

“We spent time where we could in nature, and natural cycles became an inspiration, as well as the concept of creating collections from nature, so beloved of the Victorians. We honed in on four key words or concepts: seed, egg, meander and feminine energy, which we each followed in our own way, creating sketches and, ultimately, finished pieces, which come together in a Victorian Hang.”

This ‘Victorian hang’ of visual imagery is accompanied by a a 30-minute soundtrack in four parts. The soundtrack can be listened to in its entirety, as a meditative experience, in conjunction with the visual images, and media work. The work records the team’s response to the times we were living through, and their dialogues as they got to know each other. By the end, each one had contributed both visual and audio work to the final piece, “a wonderful alchemy that leaves us all richer both as creative artists and as human beings”.

The soundtrack, which is also available to listen to on Soundcloud, begins with “an evocation of an arid landscape with dry seed-sounds, seeds of potential, which incubate and develop, allowing for nourishing, nurturing and a final emergence.”

Pathless Land runs from Monday, November 27 to Sunday, December 10. Opening reception on Thursday, November 30, 7-9pm.