The Hands of Sligo – An Introduction

I’d like to introduce you to The Hands of Sligo project, if you follow me on social media you’ll have seen a few posts about it. My interest in hands goes back to a few years ago when I was doing some documentary photography work for the Sligo Arts and I was in a care home.

There was a lady there who didn’t really want to join in with anything, but one day some musicians came in and her whole demeanour changed. She put one hand on her heart and one hand up in the air as if she was feeling the music and she had her eyes closed, the image stayed with me, even though I didn’t take a photo of it, I can just still it very clearly. This got me thinking about what our hands say about us, without even looking at a facial expression.

This week has been all about spreading the word and looking for volunteers to be involved. I’ve had a great response so far, I was on Midwest Radio and Ocean FM, and the Sligo Champion also featured the project. You can listen back to the Midwest interview here.

Update August 2023 – I now have enough volunteers but I do have a waiting list, in case people drop out.
I’m looking for Sligo based volunteers aged 65+, I will meet with them and find out more about their lives and the things that interest them, I’ll take a photo of their hands, it could be holding a tea cup, making bread, farming, gardening, knitting etc. Or it could just be the hands on their own.

I’ll be doing short voice recordings of the volunteers chatting to me too, but this is not compulsory, it’s really up to the people taking part as to how much or how little they’d like to be involved. If people don’t feel comfortable with me calling to their homes I can meet them somewhere, and I have a space I can use in Tubbercurry. Volunteers can also remain anonymous if they so wish.

As the project progresses I’ll be putting up some photos and possibly some clips of the recordings on the blog. The end result will be an exhibition later in the year. I’m very excited about the project and it’s a real privilege to be involved in something so special.

The ‘Hands of Sligo Project’ is part of the Creativity in Older Age project run by Sligo County Council, Healthy Sligo, supported by the Creative Ireland Fund 2023.