‘Unremarkable, Forgotten, Cast Adrift’: Feminist Revolutions in Irish Visual Culture
This creative essay examines how visual culture and Alice Milligan’s re-animation of the Tableaux as a radical form of theatre practice operated as a link between ideas of national culture and revolutionary feminism in Ireland. But the tableaux had other elective affinities too. Theatre, photography...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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European Federation of Associations and Centres of Irish Studies
2018-10-01
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| Series: | Review of Irish Studies in Europe |
| Online Access: | http://risejournal.eu/index.php/rise/article/view/1888/1495 |
| _version_ | 1818059918967570432 |
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| author | Catherine Morris |
| author_facet | Catherine Morris |
| author_sort | Catherine Morris |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This creative essay examines how visual culture and Alice Milligan’s re-animation of the Tableaux as a radical form of theatre practice operated as a link between ideas of national culture and revolutionary feminism in Ireland. But the tableaux had other elective affinities too. Theatre, photography and the magic lantern were the most immediately obvious of these; but cinema and art installation are by now also recognizably among them. The moving cinematic image is in fact a series of still pictures which give the effect of movement. As silent films became more popular in Ireland in the early years of the twentieth century they were called ‘living pictures’, the name also used to describe tableaux. But even in the era of the early silent film, directors often suspended action to jolt the viewer into another interpretative realm. We see this in Griffith’s 1909 film A Corner in Wheat — where a shot of a bread queue looks like the film has stopped. Early photography was vital to Alice Milligan’s practice: she raised funds for the first magic lantern for the Gaelic League (first used in Donegal); travelled the country taking photographs of people and sites; projected glass slides as part of community tableaux shows; and Maud Gonne’s early play Dawn uses 3 of her tableaux. During the 1897 royal visit to Dublin, James Connolly, Milligan and Maud Gonne used a magic lantern to project onto Dublin’s city walls photographs of famine that they had witnessed in the west of Ireland. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T13:24:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1cff2f041b4541768d1c74c68a35340c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2398-7685 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T13:24:10Z |
| publishDate | 2018-10-01 |
| publisher | European Federation of Associations and Centres of Irish Studies |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Review of Irish Studies in Europe |
| spelling | doaj.art-1cff2f041b4541768d1c74c68a35340c2022-12-22T01:47:14ZengEuropean Federation of Associations and Centres of Irish StudiesReview of Irish Studies in Europe2398-76852018-10-01227088https://doi.org/10.32803/rise.v2i2.1888‘Unremarkable, Forgotten, Cast Adrift’: Feminist Revolutions in Irish Visual CultureCatherine MorrisThis creative essay examines how visual culture and Alice Milligan’s re-animation of the Tableaux as a radical form of theatre practice operated as a link between ideas of national culture and revolutionary feminism in Ireland. But the tableaux had other elective affinities too. Theatre, photography and the magic lantern were the most immediately obvious of these; but cinema and art installation are by now also recognizably among them. The moving cinematic image is in fact a series of still pictures which give the effect of movement. As silent films became more popular in Ireland in the early years of the twentieth century they were called ‘living pictures’, the name also used to describe tableaux. But even in the era of the early silent film, directors often suspended action to jolt the viewer into another interpretative realm. We see this in Griffith’s 1909 film A Corner in Wheat — where a shot of a bread queue looks like the film has stopped. Early photography was vital to Alice Milligan’s practice: she raised funds for the first magic lantern for the Gaelic League (first used in Donegal); travelled the country taking photographs of people and sites; projected glass slides as part of community tableaux shows; and Maud Gonne’s early play Dawn uses 3 of her tableaux. During the 1897 royal visit to Dublin, James Connolly, Milligan and Maud Gonne used a magic lantern to project onto Dublin’s city walls photographs of famine that they had witnessed in the west of Ireland.http://risejournal.eu/index.php/rise/article/view/1888/1495 |
| spellingShingle | Catherine Morris ‘Unremarkable, Forgotten, Cast Adrift’: Feminist Revolutions in Irish Visual Culture Review of Irish Studies in Europe |
| title | ‘Unremarkable, Forgotten, Cast Adrift’: Feminist Revolutions in Irish Visual Culture |
| title_full | ‘Unremarkable, Forgotten, Cast Adrift’: Feminist Revolutions in Irish Visual Culture |
| title_fullStr | ‘Unremarkable, Forgotten, Cast Adrift’: Feminist Revolutions in Irish Visual Culture |
| title_full_unstemmed | ‘Unremarkable, Forgotten, Cast Adrift’: Feminist Revolutions in Irish Visual Culture |
| title_short | ‘Unremarkable, Forgotten, Cast Adrift’: Feminist Revolutions in Irish Visual Culture |
| title_sort | unremarkable forgotten cast adrift feminist revolutions in irish visual culture |
| url | http://risejournal.eu/index.php/rise/article/view/1888/1495 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT catherinemorris unremarkableforgottencastadriftfeministrevolutionsinirishvisualculture |