Inniscoole Day Centre, Newtownabbey
Title of Work: Lifes Road Trip
Facilitating Artist: Dr Geraldine Gallagher
The 8 week reminiscence programme via zoom allowed me to get to know a group of men who attend Inniscoole Day Centre.
I used clips of old movies, quizzes, music videos and their own family photographs to mine into their past and learn about what life has taught them on their Road Trip of lifes experiences. The men also learned a lot about themselves and each others life history.
I was presented with beautiful images of different life stages from baby to their intimate wedding day photos. People chopped off wedding photos, created an imbalance and lots of questions as to why. Men spoke of staying in their Bed and Breakfast in Dublin and forgetting their expensive wedding shoes, to one persons son who has been married 3 times and a child in 3 different countries. A sudden death in the group allowed us to indulge in a wake and ask difficult questions about what their wishes would be if they died. For instance one man wanted to be cremated and his song was 'Burn, Baby, Burn. Such is the Belfast black humor. The workshops gave the men a respite from the isolation of covid and offered an opportunity to find out more about each other and have a laugh as well as share sometimes painful memories. The photographs the men brought in tel a valid story of their 'Road Trip'.
