EL Putnam crawls out of a hole in a castle wall

Dissolution (2019)

Dissolution is a geographic, historical, and material exploration of the Irish border through the imagining and reimagining of Castle Roche in County Louth, Ireland. This video exploits the alchemical qualities of digital media in order to open a new ways of relating to political landscape through embodied exploration. Incorporating documentation of performed actions along with macroscopic footage shot from the site, the gestures of Dissolution allude to the gentle caress of the interface as the body melds to the remains of the castle that are slowly being reclaimed by its landscape. Crawling through a crack that was once a window (later sealed off) I explore the permeability of borders through a construction that was formally a site of fortification for the British Empire in what is now Ireland. At the same time, Dissolution relates to the current state of the border in the lead up to Brexit, where an improbable technological solution has been promised as a means of facilitating the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. Such claims are made by politicians who are detached from the physical and psychogeographical state of the Irish Border, making their promises threats of dissolution to the region’s current state of relative stability.

Screenings: Cyberarts Gallery, Boston, MA, USA (October 2019); Performance is Alive at the Satellite Arts Show, Miami, FL, USA (November 2019); 126 Gallery, Galway, Ireland (November 2019); Assemblage, Boston, MA, USA (January 2020)

Square grid with pink, green hues, and yellow with overlay of abstracted hands