Aquifer

An improvised trialogue between stone, music and image.

We invite you to join us in a creative space where we explore the intersection of stone and music, carving time through sound, silence, and imagery, inscribing our hopes and dreams.

Wicklow-based stone sculptor Helen O'Connell and pianist Izumi Kimura began a collaborative dialogue in 2024. Through intuitive exchanges, they created an ongoing conversation between sound and stone.

This collaboration quickly evolved into a multidisciplinary live performance, which has since expanded to include artists Anthony Kelly, Cora Venus Lunny, Michael Durand.

Join us for a one-of-a-kind live concert featuring improvised music and stone carving. Each ticket includes a download code for our upcoming album, scheduled for release in 2026.

Helen O'Connell: Stone Sculpting

Izumi Kimura: Piano

Anthony Kelly: Sound Recording, Amplified Objects & Electronics

Cora Venus Lunny: Violin & Viola

Michael Durand: Photography & Visual Production

Documented by Luke McManus

‘Aquifer’ is funded by The Arts Council and supported by Wicklow County Arts Office through the annual Strategic Project Award Scheme.

Helen O’Connell is a sculptor working predominantly in stone dividing her practice between Wicklow and Pietrasanta in Italy. Helen’s sculpture is motivated by an interest in exploring deep time and the geological phenomena contained in the material of stone, the enduring presence in the landscape of Irelands ancient relationship with stone, the symbolism of the circle and all phenomena botanical, biomorphic and biological that pertain to her experience as a human being. She is a member of Visual Artists Ireland and the Design and Crafts Council of Ireland (who voted her one of Irelands 50 ‘craft heroes’) and is one of the selected European master crafts people with the Michelangelo Foundations 'Homo Faber’ organisation. Helen has exhibited her work throughout Ireland and abroad.
Helen O'Connell information
Helen O'Connell on Instagram

Izumi Kimura has performed extensively since relocating from Japan to Ireland in 1995. She has collaborated with many leading European performers and ensembles across contemporary classical, jazz and improvised music. Over the past decade, her focus has shifted towards organically integrating interpretation, composition, and improvisation in musical communication across art forms. Izumi draws inspiration from her collaborations with visual artists and is currently involved in ongoing projects with Jaki Irvine, Anthony Wigglesworth, Anthony Kelly, and Helen O'Connell.

Izumi Kimura information

Anthony Kelly is an artist based in Dún Laoghaire, Dublin, whose practice involves sonic and visual approaches to making his work. This includes painting, drawing, sound recording, sculpture, sound installation, film & video, and improvised sound performance. Although diverse in construction, his work chiefly concentrates on the shifting and fragmentary nature of sensory experience. To explore this he uses the discarded or overlooked aspects of the world around us which he enlarges and amplifies to create his work. His creative process frequently involves collaboration. Anthony has received funding from the Arts Council of Ireland, Culture Ireland, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and other funding bodies. His work has been exhibited widely in Ireland and abroad. He is a director of the Farpoint Recordings sound art & new music label based in Dún Laoghaire, and maintains an ongoing collaboration with fellow artist David Stalling.
Anthony Kelly information

Dun Laoghaire Sound Map

Far Point Recordings

Cora Venus Lunny is a freelance improvising musician with a strong classical background and extensive experience in contemporary classical, improvised, recorded and folk musics. A violinist since early childhood, who performed around the world as a soloist and chamber musician before specialising in contemporary and new music, they have been exploring improvisation and composition for many years. 

Cora Venus Lunny's website

Cora Venus Lunny information

Michael Durand’s practice is predominantly photographic/lens based. Presented through a variety of formats from installation, incorporated into the fabric of buildings, wall hung and in book format. Michael’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in National and International spaces. He has produced commissioned works for the EU Council of Ministers’ Brussels, the European Central Bank Frankfurt, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council and Waterford Healing Arts Trust among other institutions. As well as collaborating on ‘Aquifer’ Michael is also working on commissioned pieces from Creative Ireland and the National Children’s Hospital. 

Michael Durand on Instagram

Luke McManus is a filmmaker from Bray who works in creative non-fiction and
documentary. His work has won four Irish Film & Television Awards, the Celtic Media
Award, the Radharc Prize, the EBU Connect Award, the American Cinematographer Award
at Salem Film Festival and the Grand Prix at FIPADOC. His recent feature documentary
musical North Circular has screened in cinemas and festivals around the world winning nine awards in the process.
Luke Mc Manus information

Luke Mc Manus on Instagram