Ben’s Doolin cave artwork performance

WHEN young Clare soprano Ben Escorcio made it to the finals of the All-Ireland Talent Show last year it was evident that the talented singer’s future would bring him to some amazing places.

But the now 15-year-old certainly could never have predicted that he would become a living work of art. Ben, who is now singing tenor, has become part of acclaimed artist Dorothy Cross’s latest exhibition Stalactite.
The exhibition of video, photographic and sculptural works by the Cork artist has been launched in the Frith Street Gallery in London.
Part of the exhibition features a video of Ben singing while standing beneath the giant stalactite in Doolin Cave. Ben, a student of St Flannan’s College, explains how he became involved with the project. “Two years ago Dorothy was in the audience when I was singing with the Lismorahaun Singers in Ennistymon. Then, when she was working on this exhibition, she contacted me through Archie Simpson,” he said.
While he had never done anything like this before, Ben said,  “I was really open to the idea, I was quite interested in having myself displayed in an art gallery. It’s something I hadn’t done before and I thought it was a really interesting idea.
“I sort of went into the whole thing not really knowing what to expect and I think that was, in a lot of ways, a very good thing. I had no expectations and it just sort of happened.”
Ben met with the artist in Doolin in preparation for the project and a special platform was built beneath the massive stalactite to allow Ben to stand on during his performance.
“When we went back to Doolin for me to sing, they had a camera crew there and mics set up all over the cave for a surround-sound effect. The special platform was put in place because otherwise I would be standing on solid rock,” he said.
Performing in a cave had its own set of challenges for the young performer but he enjoyed every minute of it. “It was really, really cold down there and I was down there for about four hours. I had this icy water dripping on my head and down my back but it was just brilliant, fantastic, and the acoustics in the cave were incredible,” he said.
His mother Sandy went on, “The sounds from the cave with the soprano voice were quite breathtaking. It was spine-tingling, the sound was amazing.”
Dorothy asked Ben to sing “non-verbal sounds”, he explained.
“I was just told the sing whatever came out, I suppose it was a bit of an improvisation. It sort of came to me quite easily. I mean, doesn’t everyone sing a little tune to themselves that they make up while they are singing in the shower? That’s basically what it was. I just had to imagine myself singing in a comfortable environment and just sing whatever came into my head.”
The exhibition was launched in London and will travel to Cork’s Beamish and Crawford brewery. Cross sees much of this exhibition as being about aggregation or growth. The artist has amalgamated, found and constructed objects, which are often inspired by her immediate surrounding of Ireland’s west coast, such as debris tossed into the beach by the Atlantic.
The Doolin stalactite has also inspired Cross’s sculptural piece, Earth, which hangs from the ceiling of the Frith Street Gallery.
The piece is composed of hundreds of bronze casts of human fingers pointing towards the ground and both Ben and Sandy were also asked to be a part of this artwork by having their hands cast in moulds.
They both had a chance to see the artwork in person when they travelled to London for the exhibition’s premiere.
“It was fantastic, as you walk into the gallery you can hear Ben’s voice and it just sounds lovely. We spotted our hands in the exhibition, which was lovely; you just know that it’s yours. It’s a really thought-provoking exhibition and it was lovely to be a part of it,” recalled Sandy.
“It was a great experience to see myself as part of the exhibition.
“The video runs in a loop, it’s about five minutes of the stalactite and me singing on a continuous loop and the model of the hands is just amazing,” Ben added.
While Ben first came to the attention of the nation when he was on the All-Ireland Talent Show, the youngster has been singing from a very young age. He came to Clare from Australia three years ago, where he won awards for his singing in such shows as the Pirates of Penzance and Oliver!.
On moving to Clare, Ben began working with Archie Simpson of the Lismorahaun Singers and his voice has gone from strength to strength. Now a tenor, Sandy tells us that Ben has had many offers since his TV appearance but the youngster is in no rush.
“Things have been coming along for him and he’s turned down so much but he needs to relax his voice. The tenor voice is incredible and he really just needs to take care of that now. There is a lot of interest in Ben but he’s young and he needs to take it slowly,” he says.
According to Ben, taking part in the talent show was a great experience.
He added, “I would very much like to thank all of the people who supported me in the show.”
Sandy adds, “The whole of Clare got­ ­behind him, which was fantastic, and everyone was voting for him. It was great that the people of Clare supported him.”