aemi and EVA International present Emily McFarland’s Curraghinalt on 'aemi online'

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For this edition of ‘aemi online’ aemi is partnering with EVA International, Ireland’s Biennial of Contemporary Art, to present Emily McFarland’s Curraghinalt, a remarkable work in documentary form that aemi had the privilege of screening in real life in 2019 in partnership with AMINI as part of ‘No Longer Peripheral’, an event that explored artist moving image cultures in Ireland, Northern & Scotland.

In Curraghinalt we encounter the disembodied voices of seven members of the Greencastle Peoples Office, a community group working together to oppose the plans laid out by Dalradian Gold Limited, a company seeking to mine the Sperrin Mountains in Tyrone, Northern Ireland for gold. In the mix, Stormont is suspended, Brexit is on the brink and the local media avoids airing concerns about the nuclear waste and human DNA-changing effects of the forthcoming land-altering process. The voices of this community group fill the empty valleys we see onscreen; they speak warily of the future, ahead of the potential damage to their immediate surrounding environment.

The introductory text, by EVA Director Matt Packer, strongly articulates the layers of humanity and politics within Curraghinalt, and the complex atmosphere that the film evokes.