Come Into the Garden Maude (2001)
Medusae (2003)
Come into the Garden Maude and Medusae are projects that informed each other between the years of 2001 and 2003. Both grew out of the life and work of Maude Delap.
Come into the Garden Maude was commissioned by Public Art Development Trust in London for the 4th Wall series of projections on the wall of the National Theatre, South Bank Centre, London. It was a homage to an extraordinary woman named Maude Delap, who lived on Valentia island off the coast of Kerry from 1866- 1953.
Medusae was made in receipt of a Sciart Award from the Wellcome Trust, given for an artist to work with a scientist. Working with Professor of Zoology, Tom Cross, Medusae investigates the memory of Maude Delap and the scientific study of the swimming technique of the jellyfish chironex fleckeri.
Maude Delap (1866–1953)
Come into the Garden Maude
2001
National Theatre, South Bank Centre, London
Come Into The Garden Maude, 2003, Video Projection, 60 minute loop
Come Into The Garden Maude, 2003
Come Into The Garden Maude, 2003
Come Into The Garden Maude, 2003, Video Projection, 60 minute loop
Maude Delap and her sisters Constance and Mary on Valentia Island. Courtesy of the Delap family.
Natural History Museum, Dublin
Maude Delap lived on Valentia Island in County Kerry from 1866–1953. In 1902 she succeeded in breeding jellyfish in bell-jars in her father’s house.
In Come into the Garden Maude fragments of her life were told amongst footage of the underwater world which she never had access to. The logistics of breeding jellyfish required Maude to go to sea every day in her small punt, drag-netting for plankton to feed the jellyfish. She kept exact and detailed records. Before she died she was honoured by The Linnaean Society for her work. The soundtrack of Come into the Garden Maude was recorded underwater. A tenor sang tunes and hymns that would have been popular during Maude’s lifetime … ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ and ‘Come into the Garden Maude’ …
Medusae
2003
Church of Ireland, Valentia Island, Co. Kerry
Medusae, 2003, Video Projection, 43 Mins
Medusae, 2003, Video, 43 Mins
Medusae is a confluence of the story of Maude Delap, whose life has entered memory, and the scientific study of the swimming systems of the very venomous box-jellyfish called chironex fleckeri. The box-jellyfish, found off the east coast of Australia, are so transparent that they are often first seen as shadows on the sea floor. More people have died from their sting than shark and crocodiles combined. Footage was also taken of the swarms of Rhizostomae jellyfish in the lakes of Palau, Micronesia .
Medusae moved from 1902–2002, from memory to science. The first screening of Medusae was held in the Church of Ireland on Valentia Island where Maude’s father had been the minister.