For their project at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Lena Skrabs and Paloma Sanchez-Palencia transformed the exhibition space into a mini golf course, where they installed a series of seven holes connected to meteorological phenomena.
The Minigolf Weather Forecast was open to the public to interact with the works and with each other, the artists as the main employees welcomed and introduced the players at the entrance of the gallery. At the end of the game, Lena and Paloma evaluated the results of each player and handed out a personalized weather forecast for tomorrow.
People love to talk about the weather. It’s a safe way to get in touch with strangers and, even if the topic might seem mundane, to get to know something about their personality, attitude and mentality. It’s usually not the content but the way someone is talking about the weather that can tell about a person’s relationship to nature, society, location and life itself.
Exhibition curated by Séan O'Reilly.
Lena and Paloma used this clichee of small talk as a strategy to get in touch with the inhabitants of Manorhamilton, to approach a foreign place as outsiders. During their stay the two joined several local events, such as the Manorhamilton Agricultural Show, the Ping-Pong Club on Mondays, the Bingo Night on Wednesdays, and the Farmer’s Market on Fridays. This approach gave them the opportunity to get an authentic insight into the Irish’ relationship to the weather, to collect local meteorological phrases and expressions, and to offer the public a space to complain about the heat, the rain, and the wind.
Lena Skrabs and Paloma Sanchez
Lena Skrabs and Paloma Sanchez both studied the MFA program Public Art and New Artistic Strategies at Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany and are regularly collaborating ever since. In their artistic practice they try to investigate the oddity of the human species. They feel committed to the celebratory possibilities of the ordinary. Touching topics such as leisure, work and play, the artists enjoy translating their daily observations into unexpected ventures.
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