Drink down deep: Three acts of exchange | Performance

Aftermatter is a collaborative project developed by Theo Hynan-Ratcliffe and Parmenides in relation and dialogue with the landscape and matter of Co. Clare. The project weaves fiction, music and field recordings from sacred sites on the Burren in Co. Clare where many of the materials and cast objects are collected and made. The field recordings of stones, insects, wind and water from the Burren are used to create the foundation and rhythm of the work. Drink down deep is the second iteration of this project and presents three acts of exchange between body and place as the protagonist encounters a disappearing lake, tries to change their accent by drinking down the knowledge of place contained in foraged and homemade cordials, and spends a night sleeping out in the stones in order for the sale of her land to go through, in order to become from place. Accompanied by live music and field recordings devised and performed by Parmenides. The protagonist will tell us stories of these exchanges while making a series of clay casts of the interior of hagstones, these casts of hagstones will go on to be fired and incorporated into new iterations of this work.

During the performance homemade elderflower cordial will be served. Viewers are invited to consume place by drinking down the same liquid held in many of sculptures featured in the exhibition.

The first iteration of this project was shown as part of the Liminal Landscapes at the Courthouse Gallery & Studios in Ennistymon Co.Clare in September 2025. The work asks; how do you become from a place? how do you prove belonging to place? is place preserved in the bodies of matter produced there? Proposing the myth that through the consumption of physical matter from a place you can become of and from the site of the matter.

BYOB but elderflower cordial will also be provided!

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Host or Publisher Catalyst Arts