Title: Little Glass Windows into Locked Down Souls
Three two-metre wide, galvanised, steel panels containing 88 curated fused glass ‘tiles’ Facilitated, fused and curated by Eleanor-Jane McCartney An article about this sculpture was published in the 2021 Glass Society of Ireland's annual publication 'Glass Ireland' |
This article was published in the 2021 Glass Society of Ireland's annual publication 'Glass Ireland'
LITTLE GLASS WINDOWS INTO LOCKED DOWN SOULS
YOUNG PEOPLES’ COVID-19 LOCK DOWN EXPERIENCES IN FUSED GLASS
Community Wall Art designed by young people from Portrush Youth Club
Facilitated, fired and curated by artist Eleanor-Jane McCartney
August 2020
Words by E-J McCartney
In August 2020 I had the opportunity to work with a group of young people from Portrush Youth Club. The project involved working on a collective public wall art piece which would provide young people in the club with an opportunity to explore their personal experience of COVID-19 in relation to Lock Down and the effects of the Global Pandemic. It provided them the (socially distanced) space, time and materials to explore their emotions, reactions and their cognitive journey, using the media of art, with a particular focus on fused glass.
I sought to give each young person opportunities to express themselves verbally and through drawing and writing, offering multiple outlets through which they could formulate and express their ideas. We then worked together to realise their designs in glass. The young people came from different schools and differing backgrounds so the group was cross community in various ways. For all of the young people this was their first experience of working with glass. In this regard my plan was to give them opportunity to educate themselves by using different types of bullseye glass. One evening we ‘made our marks’ on glass with stringer, another night with frit in various grades, another in confetti and another with sheet glass. The young people learnt quickly how to look and see how the glass behaved when it was fused. This enabled them to choose wisely on their final pieces.
As a facilitator I was moved by their responses. Being with young people in a creative scenario is not new to me but during this lockdown it seemed bizarre to have to rearrange chairs and tables to facilitate the two metre rule and I did wonder how this would aid sharing. Young people are wonderful, resilient and very realistic and they reacted well to different surroundings, however, I found facilitating working with glass outdoors was not an easy task.
The central image is a young person’s drawing of our world and a pair of hands. This image had been designed and drawn by several young people prior to lockdown and my workshop. It was referred to several times during our discussions about lockdown and seemed to have taken on new significance for the young people in light of their current situation. The image offers many interpretations – is our world safe in the hands? Are our hands caring for our world or perhaps reaching out to help? Do the hands signify the need to pray for our world? Regardless of how it is interpreted, this work will serve as a public reminder of the many ways young people experienced, felt, and reacted to their world through Lock Down.
I fired the work at my studio and then curated the glass tiles, around the central tiles, within the frame of three galvanised steel panels for wall mounting. The two-metre-long steel panels are beautiful, but do not shy away from the challenging issues of Lock Down. They address, for example, the disappointment at events being cancelled and a lack of control in relation to routine and or time schedules. The three panels were put on public display on an interior wall of the foyer area in the new youth club in Portrush, Northern Ireland, in summer 2021.
At the time of conducting the project we did not know that this was not THE Lock Down, but the first of a number of Lock Downs. However, I am optimistic that this expression and release through the medium of fused glass expression will have helped these young people cope through the subsequent lockddowns.
As we emerge from several Lock Downs into a new unknown it is comforting to know that these little glass windows reflect part of the soul, the reality and resilience of a number of North Coast young people. Thoughts, emotions and reactions will change as we recover from Covid-19 but this collection of little glass windows will remain in the public view as a record of how things affected young lives and minds when we experienced a pandemic for the first time in 100 years.
This project was funded by the Education Authority, Youth Service – Causeway Coast and Glens area.
LITTLE GLASS WINDOWS INTO LOCKED DOWN SOULS
YOUNG PEOPLES’ COVID-19 LOCK DOWN EXPERIENCES IN FUSED GLASS
Community Wall Art designed by young people from Portrush Youth Club
Facilitated, fired and curated by artist Eleanor-Jane McCartney
August 2020
Words by E-J McCartney
In August 2020 I had the opportunity to work with a group of young people from Portrush Youth Club. The project involved working on a collective public wall art piece which would provide young people in the club with an opportunity to explore their personal experience of COVID-19 in relation to Lock Down and the effects of the Global Pandemic. It provided them the (socially distanced) space, time and materials to explore their emotions, reactions and their cognitive journey, using the media of art, with a particular focus on fused glass.
I sought to give each young person opportunities to express themselves verbally and through drawing and writing, offering multiple outlets through which they could formulate and express their ideas. We then worked together to realise their designs in glass. The young people came from different schools and differing backgrounds so the group was cross community in various ways. For all of the young people this was their first experience of working with glass. In this regard my plan was to give them opportunity to educate themselves by using different types of bullseye glass. One evening we ‘made our marks’ on glass with stringer, another night with frit in various grades, another in confetti and another with sheet glass. The young people learnt quickly how to look and see how the glass behaved when it was fused. This enabled them to choose wisely on their final pieces.
As a facilitator I was moved by their responses. Being with young people in a creative scenario is not new to me but during this lockdown it seemed bizarre to have to rearrange chairs and tables to facilitate the two metre rule and I did wonder how this would aid sharing. Young people are wonderful, resilient and very realistic and they reacted well to different surroundings, however, I found facilitating working with glass outdoors was not an easy task.
The central image is a young person’s drawing of our world and a pair of hands. This image had been designed and drawn by several young people prior to lockdown and my workshop. It was referred to several times during our discussions about lockdown and seemed to have taken on new significance for the young people in light of their current situation. The image offers many interpretations – is our world safe in the hands? Are our hands caring for our world or perhaps reaching out to help? Do the hands signify the need to pray for our world? Regardless of how it is interpreted, this work will serve as a public reminder of the many ways young people experienced, felt, and reacted to their world through Lock Down.
I fired the work at my studio and then curated the glass tiles, around the central tiles, within the frame of three galvanised steel panels for wall mounting. The two-metre-long steel panels are beautiful, but do not shy away from the challenging issues of Lock Down. They address, for example, the disappointment at events being cancelled and a lack of control in relation to routine and or time schedules. The three panels were put on public display on an interior wall of the foyer area in the new youth club in Portrush, Northern Ireland, in summer 2021.
At the time of conducting the project we did not know that this was not THE Lock Down, but the first of a number of Lock Downs. However, I am optimistic that this expression and release through the medium of fused glass expression will have helped these young people cope through the subsequent lockddowns.
As we emerge from several Lock Downs into a new unknown it is comforting to know that these little glass windows reflect part of the soul, the reality and resilience of a number of North Coast young people. Thoughts, emotions and reactions will change as we recover from Covid-19 but this collection of little glass windows will remain in the public view as a record of how things affected young lives and minds when we experienced a pandemic for the first time in 100 years.
This project was funded by the Education Authority, Youth Service – Causeway Coast and Glens area.

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Young Peoples’ Comments on what they created in glass:
'the rainbow and the word Hope helped me through' | one young person creatively combined the
Covid-19 image with the number 19 | 'I loved watching waves but was afraid of the talk of another
‘wave’ of Covid to come' | 'I didn’t know what the new word 'Lock Down' would mean for me and
my family' | 'I loved seeing rainbows because they let the NHS know we cared'.

Young Peoples’ Comments on what they created in glass:
'it was terrible there were No Parties allowed' | one young person created the image of the virus
eating the world |'X-box became my existence' | 'I had to have Hope'.