Underswim is a film work commissioned by Sligo Corporation. The piece is the end result of a year-long process. This involved working with members of the Sligo Living History and Heritage Group (now the Irish History Company) to develop ideas through a series of workshops exploring how women inhabit space through bodily movement. It also involved finding an apt film location for realising these through film.

Shot in 16mm, the work depicts in close up a middle-aged female figure situated in the Old Gaol in Sligo. Her body sways back and forth in and out of the film frame, the eyes opening for her gaze to shift rhythmically in space. The additional soundtrack, composed by Ronan Coleman, acts as a subtle counterpoint to this movement. Together, these elements invite viewers to delve beneath the surface and take soundings of its possible depths. There are allusions to hidden depths of character, of strength and resistance. Given the laden prison context, Underswim can be read as a choreography of dissidence.

Placing Art Catalogue, published in 2000 by Sligo County Council

Laura Gannon, based in Dublin and Limerick, received a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from the University of Ulster in Belfast in 1994. She attended the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts Cergy Pontoise, Paris, France in 1993. She participated in the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s residency and artists’ work programme between 1996 and 1997. She was commissioned in 1997 by the Sculptors’ Society of Ireland for a Video Symposium and has received awards from the Irish Arts Council’s Macauley Fellowship (1997) and Film and Video Award (1998).

Laura has had solo exhibitions at Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin (Work in Progress) in 2000 and in 1997 she exhibited The Spinning Room at the Jo Rain Gallery, Dublin and The Blue Nerve at the Context Gallery in Derry. Her work was shown recently at the Med Film Festival in Rome, Italy and the Static Gallery, Liverpool, U.K. (2000). She has exhibited in Irish group exhibitions such as The Challenge of Power at Limerick City Municipal Gallery and Thinking Drawing, at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1998. Her work is held in several Irish corporate and government department collections.

The film was made with members of the Sligo Living History Project following a series of workshops led by Laura Gannon. 

Ronan Coleman - composer
Professional film crew and editor