Documentary on One: Kicking the Bucket

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Broadcast Details: Saturday 26th November, 2.00pm

'Documentary on One: Kicking the Bucket' looks at the lighter side of illness, death, dying and grief.  

In early 2016, a series of workshops took place in Limerick at which participants decided to face death full-on and make something of it.

Many of those there had experienced serious loss in their lives and some were ill or had been recently seriously ill – but, all were curious.

They discussed ‘good’ funerals and ‘bad’ funerals,  euphemisms for death (“bought the farm”, “gone tits up!”)

The aim of the workshops was to make art work for an exhibition relating to death.  One woman made her own coffin, another made a veil for a corpse, another made traditional American ‘death cookies’ to be eaten at a funeral.

While not all of the group were artists, the exhibition included accomplished art work like, ‘life masks’ (death masks of people still alive),  skeletons dancing to the Bee Gees “Staying Alive” and a miniature model of an Italian egg-shaped coffin.

The “Kicking The Bucket” project was organised by Sinéad Dinneen and Katie Verling.   Sinéad is an artist whose work is about her experience of living with ovarian cancer.  Katie has worked in the arts for most of her life until a diagnosis of leukaemia and long-term health issues “put a stop to my gallop”.

Sinead and Katie are friends.  Katie says, “we share a sense of humour, a passion for the arts and culture, and a commitment to explore the reality of illness, dying, death and grief”.

Documentary On One: Kicking the Bucket follows Sinéad, Katie and their fellow ‘bucket kickers’ through the four-month creative process culminating in the public exhibition of their work in May 2016.

 

Kicking the Bucket is a humorous, yet serious documentary with moments of searing honesty and lots of life- affirming laughter.

 

The Documentary On One – Kicking The Bucket, RTE Radio 1, November 26th. at 2pm