General News / August 26, 2019

Citrus Fresh explores performance art in new video

General News / August 26, 2019

Citrus Fresh explores performance art in new video

“You can’t take it with you when you’re rotten, brother…”

 

What deal with the devil did the artists of Limerick make recently? There’s a constant stream of new music, videos and shows coming from the banks of the Shannon, and the city has become a supporting wall for Irish hip hop as it continues to build.

Citrus Fresh is part of this tight-knit crop of MCs, producers, videographers, curators and visual artists, albeit a relative newcomer.

In December Michael O Donoghue, aka Citrus Fresh, aka Juicy Jeff, aka Trevor Tart, aka Zesty Supreme, teased his debut EP with two tracks ‘DICAPRIO‘ and ‘ANTENNA‘. Across five tracks, the project “plays out the aftermath of a failed relationship and gives us a glimpse inside the Citrus mind-set as he overcomes this common struggle”. Now those first two tracks have some visual accompaniment.

Directed by Cathal Histon, the video is about collaboration between Limerick creatives, shot at an installation by Ciara Barker.

“I had attended a recent exhibition of Ciara’s, and felt as though her vibrant, dream-like visuals suited Citrus’ style,” says the director. “They both have a surreal, inner headspace and I wanted them to come together. Mike is an excellent performer, and Ciara creates really interesting spaces – so the chance to combine the two was taken.”

The interactive installation is called ‘Fascination for the Outside’ uses vibrant colours and reflective/transparent materials to distort the space and the bodies and images within it.

“By manipulating sensory perception, the installation encourages the viewer to examine the strange within the familiar, and to focus on bodily experience outside of a preconceived self image,” explains Ciara. “There are many divisions within the space, which both restrict and respond to the body, but are all either physically or visually penetrable, questioning the ways we mark boundaries. The piece was produced in the hopes of creating an intuitive space which promotes self awareness and rebellious acceptance, with room for complexities and contradictions.”

Watch Citrus Fresh amble through the installation below.