‘After Completion’ by Monica Flynn

After Completion was a ritual performance devised by artist Monica Flynn in response to content from the LFTT Library and was held at Highlanes Gallery Drogheda on October 5th, while The Library was on residency there. In the artists words…

“After Completion involved 9 performers in a ritual action exploring our innate instinct to bear together.  The piece was developed in response to my interest in accounts of mysticism within the LFTT Library.  My thanks to artist Helen Horgan and Aoife Ruane and staff at the Highlanes Gallery for the opportunity to realise this work and to my fellow performers: Irene Bagnall; Catherine Barragry; Vivienne Byrne; Jessica Foley; Joan Healy; Aoife McKeon; Deirdre Morrissey and Grainne Rafferty.

Interpreting a Chinese shamanic ritual, the repeated movement in After Completion traced the line between ying and yang. This ritual predates the i Ching but is connected to the 63rd Hexagram which signifies climax and completion, a state which hovers on the edge of chaos, a state which requires care and attention to maintain.

The i Ching was codified and developed by a number of Chinese philosophers during a time of strife and crisis in Chinese history. I am interested in the potential of the i Ching as a process of chance and ritual questioning, which taps into our own internal resources to decipher its’ advice.”

 ”That thou mayest attain to that which thou knowest not, thou must go through that which thou knowest not.”  St John of the Cross Pg. 215 in Mystical Phenomena, Compared with other Human and Diabolical Counterfeits by Mgr. Albert Farges, 1926 (a volume from the LFTT Library)

Monica Flynn, Oct 2012
http://monicaflynn.com/