This chapter develops ideas first presented at the Women in Music in Ireland conference in 2012. It focuses on the collaborative process, which forms part of my own compositional practice with reference to my works for installation in art galleries. The process of realising joint works with visual artist Marie Hanlon is discussed here; the chapter teases out the differences between this and the more solitary approach usually required in writing for a concert audience, with or without a visual element. After an initial overview of the collaboration and its origins, there follows a more detailed consideration of three works composed in 2014: Everything we see…, an installation based on a painting by René Magritte; The Small Hours, a piece for live accordion with video; and Cornerspace, a video with sound. I attempt to ascertain how the relationship between the sound and the visual elements evolved and developed; I also wish to examine the interdependence between the two disciplines. Finally, the question is broached as to whether this collaborative experience has informed my current practice in writing abstract concert music.

Overview of the Collaboration

Having discussed for many years the possibility of working together, visual artist Marie Hanlon and I started our first collaborative piece in 2009. Several years later, our most recent joint work, Behind Closed Doors (2016), for seven percussion players with accompanying video, was premiered by a Royal Irish Academy of Music ensemble, directed by Richard O’Donnell, at Tambourimba Percussion Festival Cali, Colombia on 24 June 2016.

The impetus for our first project began with a call for proposals from the Contemporary Music Centre and the Galway Music Residency’s Ensemble in Residence, the RTÉ ConTempo Quartet. The awarding of this commission marked the beginning of our collaboration. It involved the composition of a piece with an accompanying visual slideshow. Titled Pas de Quatre, the work was premiered at Solstice Arts Centre, Navan, Co. Meath in 2009. Later that year we produced our second joint work; this was a short film based on the Burren landscape of north Co. Clare, entitled Relic. The piece was shown at the Burren College Art Gallery and formed part of what developed into our first collaborative exhibition. In addition to the film, we combined three short sound works with a set of drawings.