Bill Beirne, The Parachutist, A Non-Combatant Aesthete

From June 8 – 10, 2010 New York based artist Bill Beirne spent time filming his latest video project, The Parachutist, A Non-Combatant Aesthete here at at Cow House Studios. We are proud to have played a small part in the production of this new work. Below is Bill’s brief description of the project.

The Parachutist was first developed in the spring of 2005 as part of a residency and performance work in the Mons d’Ardèche sponsored by Art 3, culminating at the Curssol ruins near Valence, with an exhibition at Art 3 in Valence, France. The Parachutist was inspired by what Human Rights Watch has termed “ghost prisoners”- enemy combatants who were detained by the US but were held in secret locations – many but not all of whom have been transferred to Guantanamo. This work builds on a number of existing phenomena including identity, the propensity of Irish Americans for traveling to Ireland in search of their heritage and, the analysis of DNA for tracing ancestral origins.