Distillation - a sensory journey to the Irish Midland bog

Luke Casserly: Distillation

Irish multidisciplinary artist Luke Casserly will bring his acclaimed, multisensory performance Distillation to Abbotsford Convent from 1-4 October, as part of Melbourne Fringe, marking the work's Australian debut.

Part performance, part interactive lecture and part sensory journey, Distillation invites audiences to experience the Irish Midlands through spoken word, original video, sound, digital projection, scent and touch. Rather than sitting in rows, audiences gather around a large table covered with organic material standing in for Irish peat, handling materials from the landscape as Casserly tells the story of the place where he grew up.

And there is one particularly unusual souvenir: every audience member receives a sample of a custom-made perfume distilled from botanicals from the Irish Midlands bog.

Casserly was raised in County Longford, in the heart of Ireland's Midlands, where his father worked in the peat industry. For generations, peat harvesting provided fuel and livelihoods for rural communities. Today, Ireland's peat industry is being phased out as the ecological significance of peatlands becomes increasingly understood.

For Casserly, the story is as much about people and belonging as it is about ecology.

"Distillation looks at that tension between the closure of that industry and what happens next, both ecologically and socio-economically for the communities who were impacted by its closure," says Casserly.

The work emerged from Casserly's own return to his hometown as an adult. Returning to a landscape he had once felt compelled to leave, he found himself seeing the bogs differently.

"I had a bog renaissance, if you will. They might not make the postcards, but peat bogs are some of the world's most extraordinary and beautiful landscapes."

"By the end of Distillation, audiences will feel like they have been transported there in some way."

The question sits at the heart of Distillation is how can art help us develop empathy for landscapes we may never have visited? The answer, in this case, is through the senses.

Distillation
Abbotsford Convent
1-4 October | Melbourne Fringe
50-minute sessions, 2pm-8.30pm