The Singing Flame by Francis Fay

For Culture Night Dublin 2023, we supported Francis Fay to reprise his seminal piece The Singing Flame. We selected the liminal space of the handball alley at St Michan’s Park, which was repurposed for the first time for the event, due to its historic and cultural significance and how it related to Fay’s existing work.

Francis Fay uses performance art to explore forms which enhance our understanding of reality, and to intimately investigate the physical and spiritual seduction of location. He is especially interested in points of intersection where worlds collide – what the Celts called an saol eile or the otherworld. Fay has a personal connection with St. Michan’s Park and Green Street, having lived there in the late 1980’s when it was home to the Special Criminal Court. The artist responded to the physical space of the handball alley, the surrounding architecture and the history of the site. Once the grounds of Newgate Prison, the area is now used as a community park and playground – a true site of intersectionality.

The Singing Flame was first performed at Kilmainham Gaol for ART:2016.

Gallery Photos by Julien Behal and Kristy Hal.