A presentation of work by pitcherzzz resident Cóilín O’Connell, in conversation with Marina Christodoulidou.

On January 7 at 6pm Cóilín will read his text A Phenomenon Only Slightly Strange which explores aspects of the UFO phenomenon as it relates to Ireland and Cyprus. This will be followed by a screening of Looking for Freedom? (2024) by Michael Dignam and Forty-five Seconds (2024) by Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty.

In this moment of an ending order and perceived collapse, what does the UFO mean to the peripheral and post colonial states of Ireland and Cyprus? The “U” in UFO currently means “unapproachable” and “unresearchable” just as much as it means “unidentified”. The UFO does not manifest offering solutions to the periphery, but it arrives to undermine forgone conclusions. With reports of UFO activity increasing, can we really afford to ignore the questions that they raise?

A Phenomenon Only Slightly Strange explores the UFO subculture as it appears in both popular and vernacular media, using this theme to examine the expressive possibilities of archival material while engaging with belief systems, colonial legacies, and notions of sovereignty.

O’Connell’s interest in the subject began during a residency in Limassol, Cyprus, in 2021. While conducting archival research in the city’s newspaper archive, he encountered historical accounts of simultaneous Irish and Cypriot UFO sightings that were later revealed to be covert British military aircraft. This discovery led to an ongoing research project into the topic.

The reappraisal of archival material serves as both the conceptual and methodological foundation of the work. The project navigates the tension between two approaches: the archivist, who arranges documents according to a shared logic of record-keeping, and the collage artist, who assembles disparate fragments into singular, intuitive proposals. Both approaches are treated as forms of authorship that assert ownership over history either reinforcing or challenging prevailing narratives and perceptions of the present.

Using UFOs as a thematic lens, the project probes the intersections and contradictions of belief, power, folklore, and poetry.

Cóilín O’Connell is an artist from Dublin. Through a process of collecting and editing found and original image, object and text his work considers antagonisms between the methodical and the poetic as a means of reworking historical and lived time.
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Looking for Freedom? (2024), 10’54”
Michael Dignam

Looking for Freedom reimagines David Hasselhoff’s 1989 performance at the Brandenburg Gate within the fractured spaces of contemporary geopolitics. Set between Nicosia’s buffer zone and Limassol’s speculative skyline, the work stages a whispered, fragile version of the anthem once hailed as a symbol of liberation.

Forty-five Seconds (2024), 15’14”
Ruth Clinton and Niamh Moriarty

On the 31st March 1993, two Gardaí (policemen) were driving around on late-night patrol in a small west of Ireland town when they witnessed strange lights in the sky above them. At the time, their story was taken seriously, given their social standing, and was reported in Irish media. Now retired from the force, and driving luxury vintage cars for weddings, one of the witnesses tells his story while driving to the location of the sighting.
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Supported by Culture Ireland.