GIANTS

Lugh O'Neill, “GIANTS”, 2025. Still image from the multichannel video installation version of “GIANTS” at the installation An Uaimh Bhinn, at BRUTUS, Rotterdam with Temporary Pleasure, curated by Orpheu de Jong. commissioned by S+T+ARTS EU.

"The piper retraced his steps to the entrance of the cave, closely followed by the fairy. She agreed that when he saw the light, he could go in peace. He staggered along in the dark, almost overcome by exhaustion, but bravely pouring out his breath, in hopes of reaching his haven. The notes became harsh and discordant, the drones began to groan and the chantes to screech. In spite of the struggle, the contest was too great. The music ceased, and then the fairy attacked and slew him. The harsh notes of the pipe warned the party over the cave that some calamity had befallen the explorers, and unsheathing their swords they rushed to the rescue. Just as they gained the entrance the piper finished his last bar. They found the mangled body of the piper beyond which were the bodies of his companions."

Lugh O'Neill, “GIANTS”, 2025. Exhibition images taken by Jeroen Verrecht at the exhibition An Uaimh Bhinn, at BRUTUS, Rotterdam with Temporary Pleasure, curated by Orpheu de Jong. commissioned by S+T+ARTS EU.

Lugh O'Neill, “GIANTS”, 2025. Still image from the multichannel video installation

Lugh O'Neill, “GIANTS”, 2025. Exhibition images taken by Jeroen Verrecht at the exhibition An Uaimh Bhinn, at BRUTUS, Rotterdam with Temporary Pleasure, curated by Orpheu de Jong. commissioned by S+T+ARTS EU.

Exhibition text by Orpheu de Jong, for An Uaihm Bhinn, an exhibition at BRUTUS Rotterdam in Jan-Feb 2025, at which GIANTS was premiered

In “An Uaihm Bhinn”, Scots Gaelic for “The Sweet Sounding Cave” artist and spatial sound composer Lugh O’Neil and experimental design and performance practice Temporary Pleasure create an ephemeral space for versatile forms of music composition, expression and experience.

As a composer and spatial sound designer, Lugh O’Neill has focused on emphasising the potential of spatialisation in sound and music composition - while composition is traditionally conceived over the spectra of frequency and time, Lugh’s work utilises space as another dimension in which sound and music composition is written.

With a focus on spatial, ambisonic formats for music composition and sound design, and a persistent crossover with installation arts, Lugh's work and practice have always dealt with sound as a means of navigation of spaces and interaction with architecture.

Temporary Pleasure creates spaces with no fixed location or time, existing only in a certain place at a certain moment – for a few weeks or just a night, before changing shape and location again. Their nomadic architectural installations and workshops transform non-traditional spaces into ephemeral, site-specific (music) venues.

Their approach deconstructs and distills the experience of a space to its core elements, interpreting and activating Brutus’ Cathedral with minimal infrastructure. These structures, with their variable formats and functions, acts as both a standalone installation and a venue-within-a-venue capable of hosting events, shifting and blurring the lines between sculpture, stage, and spatial sound installation. At times it is open as an exhibition. At other times, the installation transforms into a venue hosting a series of events and performances.

Central in An Uaihm Bhinn is Giants by Lugh O’Neill, a spatial sound composition and three channel video installation of the performance of the composition within the basalt columns of Fingal’s Cave, a cave on the island of Staffa off the coast of Scotland known for it’s cathedral like acoustics and cultural presence, from mythology as one end of an ancient bridge by Giants, to Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides, said to be inspired by the echoes of the waves crashing in the back of the long cave, and it’s appearance in Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 3.

Giants explores the role of acoustic space and it’s cultural interpretations, considering the role natural structures historically have had in the shaping of rituals and as spaces of worship. How do these acoustic landscapes fit into our sense of self and identity and can a re-sensitisation to sonic surroundings help us to navigate our urban, natural and cultural environments?

Musical studio techniques like reverberation and delay are common practice for near a century and simple techniques invoking artificial movement in time and space, but in approaching recording and composition as a spatial practice and taking into consideration sound, spoken or musical, as a means to inhabit and contextualise environments, one can view these sonic dimensions as a pathway of past experience.

In An Uaihm Bhinn, Lugh O’Neill and Temporary Pleasure will create an acoustic and spatial environment that can seamlessly transform between multiple functions, from exhibition space to installation and stage, inviting musicians, performers and public for a series of collective events of contemplative, cathartic and ecstatic experiences of music.

Lugh O'Neill, “GIANTS”, 2025. Exhibition images taken by Jeroen Verrecht at the exhibition An Uaimh Bhinn, at BRUTUS, Rotterdam with Temporary Pleasure, curated by Orpheu de Jong. commissioned by S+T+ARTS EU.

New work premiered in the context of the exhibition with Temporary Pleasure “An Uaimh Bhinn” curated by Orpheu de Jong, on view from 25 Jan til 16 Feb at BRUTUS, Rotterdam.

GIANTS

By
Lugh O’Neill

Featuring vocal and instrumental performance by Dylan Kerr and Marie Requa Gailey

Drums by Michael Speers

Motorbiker - Kevin Ricq

Instrument maker - Joseph Summers

Director of Photography & Camera - Paul D’Eath

Camera - Marseille - Sekou Abineri

Production - Marseille : Victor Dermenghem

Costume Stylist - Aoife Adole Akue

Colour Correction - Talin Seigmann

Special thanks to :

Temporary Pleasure, Orpheu de Jong, Amira Gad, Michael McLoughlin, Olan Monk, John Leo Gillen, Stan Vrebos, Irini Vazanellis, The Tyrone Guthrie Centre, The Arts Council, National Trust for Scotland, S+T+ARTS EU, Manuel Cirauqui, Berta Gutierrez, Harlan Levey, Heleen Kosse, International Film Festival Rotterdam.

The project is held in the context of the ReSilence program of S+T+ARTS, EU, responding to the research challenge entitled Musical experience design.