Mirrors of Earth - 2013
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Mirrors of Earth was commissioned by Dublin Sound Lab in 2013. It is a 75 minute film in seven parts, created in response to Kaija Saariaho’s composition MAA, a piece for septet and surround sound first premiered in 1991.

The Finnish word ‘maa’, meaning 'earth', 'land', 'country' and possibly even 'world', suggests a sense of place which is multi-layered, associative and fluid. Kaija Sariaaho's music reflects this, conjuring large sonic landscapes that appear filtered through the interiority of memory or dream. The film extends these key themes of place and memory into a series of visual propositions. Depicting a sequence of highly mediated environments, it conjures an imaginative space in which the boundaries between real and remembered place appear blurred. Each of the seven film parts was created in response to an individual movement of the music, using the archetypes of doors, gates and windows (referred to in Saariaho's titles) to frame an exploration of passage and of place-between.

The work was screened alongside a series of full concert performances of the music at Project Arts Centre, Dublin and Mermaid Arts Centre, Co. Wicklow in 2013. Mirrors of Earth was funded by a Music Project Award from The Arts Council of Ireland.

Conductor - David Adams, Violin - Bogdan Sofei, Viola - Andreea Banciu, Cello - Adrian Mantu, Flute - Julie Maisel, Harp - Cliona Doris, Harpsichord - Michael Quinn, Percussion - Maeve O'Hara, Computer - Fergal Dowling