Iris

Rafal Kosakowski was commissioned to design rings and develop an identity for Iris, Daghdha Dance Company’s contribution to the program of the City of Cork as European Capital of Culture in 2005.

Commissioned by the City of Cork Iris saw the distribution of almost 10,000 stainless steel rings throughout Cork in 2005. Each ring is a symbol of an expanded community; an invitation to actively engage with each other, acknowledging potential in seemingly ordinary encounters. Each Iris ring came with a set of five simple, written instructions, inviting the wearer of a ring to show a physical or mental response whenever he or she meets someone wearing the same ring. Here, the choreographers’ work was centred on facilitating a social dynamic. The work created; the human patterns of being and moving, become a choreographic work at once ephemeral and playful, the ring becoming the key to a world of invisible links.

Whenever you meet someone wearing the same ring you could …
… cross their path
… steal a gaze
… send a telepathic message
… swap rings
… create your own response