Derry February 2012 Site The city of Derry along the Walls, built between 1613-1618 8 Hours. Labour Photographer Jordan Hutchings. Minder Donna.
Three days on site researching the walled city, we enter the red door at Society Street and hear a Presbyterian account of The 13 apprentice boys. We visit Liz in Pilots Row Community Centre and hear about social involvement and get a history of the shirt making and women's work in Derry. We visit Baldies, the men only barbers where young boys and their fathers carry on their weekly ritual. Never have they cut a woman's hair and agree for us to be the first in our male guise.
The day performance includes the walk through the streets and the haircut in Baldies. Brian the barber enquires where the other 'man' is as we are seated at the mirror and does not recognize that we are both present.
We pass the Red door and make our way along the city Wall and find an old graveyard and are held in its location and position overlooking the past and the new city below. Actions include tombstone rubbings and balancing of branches, graves and gravity.
A reel of rope allows street measuring and men’s work to be normalised having witnessed council workers the previous night put cameras through the underbelly drains of society Corner. Motorists stop at our command. We find the broken columns of an old Church now deserted and rope the distance from door to gate.
The Void Gallery holds the space for the other Labour performers as we join them for the final phase of the 8 hour live work. Its previous history as a shirt factory is evidenced in the materials we bring and engage with within the space. Our days work is still being relayed inside the gallery linking inside and outside in the Derry air.
