Multidisciplinary Performance: Unseen at West Cork Arts Centre

West Cork Arts Centre is presenting a  multidisciplinary performance Unseen on the 27th and 28th of October.

UNSEEN is a multidisciplinary hour long performance looking at the notion of things that are invisible but vital parts of an ecosystem: from benevolent microscopic organisms, to hidden disabilities, and the invisible forces that change the course of lives.

A collaboration between abstract painter Stacey White, and contemporary dancer Tara Brandel, Unseen is a live performance and visual arts installation layering video projection, contemporary dance, sound, text, and mixed media paintings to make the invisible, present and felt, with video design by Luca Trufferelli and sound design by Niall O’Caroll.

Focusing on the invisibility of plankton (a life giving microscopic organism that produces 50% of the world’s oxygen) and the unseen forces of nature, both benevolent and malevolent, Unseen is an examination of what gives life.

Since 2019 Stacey White has gathered waters from multiple global locations to develop microscopic images of plankton which she used to create an extensive body of abstract paintings of plankton. Spanning 4 years of interdisciplinary collaboration between dance and visual art, and extensive research on plankton, including working with UCC plankton scientists at Loch Hyne Marine Reserve, Unseen is finally premiering as a performance as part of Uillinn Dance Season 2023.

Friday 27th of October | 8.00pm – 9:15pm
Saturday 28th of October | 3:00pm – 4:00pm

Head here for booking and more information

ABOUT the artists

Tara Brandel is a Contemporary dancer and choreographer originally from West Cork. She has been choreographing extensively since 1990. She created Square One for D-CAF 2017 in Cairo, Egypt; and her dance film CAR was Director’s Choice at the CDIFF in Toronto 2017. Tara holds a Masters in Interdisciplinary Performance from UC Davis, where she was awarded the Della Davidson Award 2019, the Mondavi Fellowship, the Provost Fellowship, and the Women’s Research Center Fellowship for her show Circus, which toured to San Francisco International Arts Festival, Seattle International Dance Festival, Cork Midsummer Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival and FRESH San Francisco 2020. Tara has been Artistic Director of Croí Glan since 2006.

Brandel crafts some sublime moments defined by power, elegance, and beauty The Arts Review.

Croí Glan produces innovative, engaging, high calibre productions highlighting the value of diverse bodies in creating performance. Croi Glan is currently Arts Council Company in Residence 2023-5 at Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre, and most recently toured In Place, choreographed by Tara Brandel, with music composed by Ray Harman, which premiered at IMMA Sept 2021. And TILT which toured to Cork Midsummer Festival, Tipperary Dance Festival Dancer from the Dance Festival and Uillinn Culture Night 2021.

Stacey White is an abstract visual artist from Northern California. Stacey graduated in 1989 with a BA in Art from UC Davis, and UC Davis’s advanced painting summer programs. Influenced by the natural world, historical botanical prints and raw textured surfaces; her paintings present a dialogue between abstraction, botanical and microscopic imagery. She has had six solo shows and numerous group shows in Davis and Sacramento California. Her work is in many private collections. She recently relocated to West Cork, Ireland.