Programme
Museum of Mythological Water Beasts: Sinou
Sinou by Ceara Conway explores the fascinating connection between the River Shannon and the work of Greek geographer and musician Ptolemy who mapped Ireland’s rivers circa 90AD. This new commission for the Museum of Mythological Water Beasts is an audio piece featuring the artist singing the Seikilos Epitaph, an ancient chant composed in the Ptolemy harmonic scale, the oldest surviving complete musical composition.
Sinou responds to the artist’s personal experience of walking the river and how this activity can benefit mental and physical well-being. A translation of the Seikilos Epitaph reads: While you live, shine / Have no grief at all / Life exists only for a short while / And Time demands his due. Conway has recorded two versions of the chant which play at regular intervals and are separated by field recordings from the River Shannon.
About Ceara Conway:
Ceara Conway is an Irish artist and singer working in performance, song and traditional folk practices. She has a track record in producing innovative experiential works that utilise elements such as live singing, appropriated texts , testimonies and visual art to explore social and cultural experiences of power and loss in response to issues such as bereavement, exile and migration.
In 2018, she has completed a film commission for Oireachtas na Gaeilge and Waterways Ireland, and has performed for But Still Like Dust, I Rise curated by Vivienne Dick at the Galway Arts Centre, for Taoiseach Leo Varadker and President of the EU Commission Jean Claude Juncker at Dublin Castle, for Christine LeGard at the National Gallery of Ireland, and with Poetry Ireland at the Barbican Centre in London.
