“Arts and heritage, site-specific and immersive music installation have been part of Ní Ríain’s practice since her first site-responsive work for an old cotton mill in Manchester in 2006. Embedding contemporary music in unexpected settings, creating resonance and atmosphere through a combination of music, history, architecture and community are key touchpoints of her vision.”
No Other Word For It
No Other Word For It is an immersive installation combining music, sculpture and projection. Inspired by the poetry of the Northern Irish poet, Padraic Fiacc, No Other Word For It takes as its starting point the question of ‘tradition’ in both classical painting and...
Linger
‘Linger’ at the Brontë Parsonage Museum 10th Oct 2015 – 4th January 2016 Linger was a music installation comprising six new pieces written and performed by Ailís Ní Ríain on the newly restored Brontë family piano at The Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, West Yorkshire,...
INTONE
A music, poetry and paper sculpture installation commissioned for the International Durham Brass Festival in July 2013. Taking the unusual power of the crown and the cloak wielded by the Prince Bishops of Durham as their starting point, Ailís Ní Ríain and Nicola Dale...
Taken
TAKEN - an electroacoustic composition for Clitheroe Castle 'Keep' in East Lancashire, commissioned by Mid-Pennine Arts as part of their Contemporary Heritage Series for Clitheroe Castle, in Northern England and supported by Lancashire Museums. Inspired by the story...
Boy You Turn Me
A dual layered electroacoustic sound installation based on a story by David Gaffney (published by Salt) commissioned by Birmingham Book Festival 2011 for an empty shop unit at the Pavillions Shopping Centre in Birmingham. The extract below is of one of the musical...
DOWN
An electroacoustic music and paper sculpture installation made for the accumulator tower at METALCulture, Edge Hill Train Station near Liverpool. Commissioned by METALCulture for the Liverpool Biennial in 2010. DOWN is a collaboration with visual artist Nicola Dale....
Conversations We Wish We’d Had
"I am fascinated by the old fashioned iconic K6 telephone booths. I find them poignant and intriguing. They are stunning in their own special way and I wanted to reflect them, their history, heritage and meaning through a new sound installation - a type of paean to a...
Lighthouse Lullaby
Maryport Lighthouse is a small, elegant, cast-iron lighthouse located in Maryport, Cumbria, Northern England. The original Maryport lighthouse was built in 1796; the current structure dates from c.1846-56. The painter L. S. Lowry used Maryport and the lighthouse in...
Stones
From the late 18th Century to the time of the First World War quarrying was a major industry in Rossendale, Lancashire, Northern England. The quarries employed thousands of men and Rossendale stone was exported in huge quantities throughout the UK and beyond....
StreetSong
StreetSong was commissioned in 2006 by the Contemporary Music Centre of Ireland to celebrate their 20th Anniversary. It was played outside the Centre throughout the month of June 2006. Inspired by the old city of Temple Bar in Dublin, StreetSong combines Sean-Nos –...
Missing Persons
Commissioned by Tilfeldig Productions with funds from Arts Council England for an exhibition in Wellington Mill, Ancoats, Manchester, UK in 2006. Missing Persons comprised poetry, music and photographs of the old streets of Langworthy in Salford, Northern England...