Pilgrimage
Artist(s): Tom Meskell
Location: Aughagower.
Title: Pilgrimage
Medium: Temporary sculptural Installation.
Date: 19th June 2010
Materials: willow, tissue paper
Dimensions: various.
'Pilgimage’ is a collection of temporary figurative sculptures made by the artist and a wide selection of people from in and around the Aughagower area. The artist’s inspiration came from the historic pilgrimages to Croagh Patrick, which passed through Aughagower.
He wanted to produce a creative and beautiful legacy, paying homage to the history of that pilgrimage, of people passing and of the hospitality shown to those on their journey.
The artwork was launched by Mayo County Council’s Cathaoirleach Cllr John Cribbin onSaturday 19th of June 2010. The event started with an exhibition showing the background to the project and documenting the many workshops which took place to create the artworks, on display in the Community Hall.
Once the sun has set the artist then led everyone in a short walk to the centre of Aughagower to see the special installation of sculpture. There was a huge turnout to mark this wonderful event in the town.
During the project Tom delivered a large number of workshops with many people in the town and visited people at their homes and even brought some of the figures to a local older peoples nursing home to give the residents a presentation about the project as part of Mayo County Council’s Bealtaine project.
As part of the commission Tom produced a special limited-edition art publication, which captured the essence of the project and artistically presented the documentation from the event and the whole process in a contemporary public art publication. These are available to loan from all Mayo County libraries.