CAG.3092 Danny McCarthy, Found Sound (Lost at Sea) 11.1.11, 2011, audio. Purchased, the Artist, 2020. © the artist.

This WORK OF THE WEEK is invisible but can be heard echoing across Cork City on Tuesday!

Found Sound (Lost at Sea) 11.1.11 (2011) is a sound installation by Danny McCarthy which was created as a result of the artist’s interest in acoustic ecology. It functions as an echo of a once ubiquitous, but now lost coastal sound as the last foghorn emanated from lighthouses along the Irish coast on 11 January 2011.

This sound work is also unique to Crawford Art Gallery’s context given that the oldest part of the building was constructed, in 1724, as Cork’s Custom House. McCarthy’s work recalls these ties to the city’s commercial success as a key Atlantic port and one of the largest natural navigable harbours in the world.

The protection that foghorns embody resonates too with Cork’s motto – Statio Bene Fida Carinis – which announces (and still offers) a safe harbour to diverse peoples, seafaring travellers, and inter-continental shipping alike.

One of Ireland’s performance art and sound art pioneers, Danny McCarthy (b.1950) continues to be a leading exponent, exhibiting and performing at home and abroad. In 2006, he founded The Quiet Club with Mick O’Shea, a floating membership sound (art and electronics) performance group. He is also a founding director of Triskel Arts Centre and National Sculpture Factory.

To commemorate its eleventh anniversary, Found Sound (Lost at Sea) 11.1.11 will emanate from the front of Crawford Art Gallery intermittently throughout the day on Tuesday 11 January.

Tune in to The Arts House on Cork's 96FM and C103 Cork every Sunday morning as Conor Tallon chats with assistant curator Michael Waldron about a work from the collection!

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