The Seventh Day

The Seventh Day is a stop-motion animation depicting the dawn of time in the Big Bang and the gradual evolution of the concept of time, through images of hourglasses, clock faces and time-based mechanisms like cogs and pulleys. Eventually, time becomes so omnipotent that humans become time-based mechanisms themselves, harassed and harried across the screen by time’s fussy technology. 

Flora Kerrigan (b. 1940) was an active member of the Cork Cine Club during the late 1950s and 1960s and produced numerous Super8 shorts ranging from animation to documentary. Kerrigan’s films were recognised internationally, screened on RTÉ and won awards at prestigious amateur film competitions like ‘Ten Best’. The subject matter is often darkly comedic and hauntingly existential. Speaking to ‘The Cork Examiner’ in 1961, Kerrigan explained that “it takes almost 2,000 cut-outs for a two-minute cartoon … it’s work that requires infinite patience but it is very satisfying and less expensive than ordinary filmmaking.” Kerrigan’s filmmaking life appears to have ended when she moved to London in the late 1960s. However, she pursued a creative life, taking photographs, writing poetry, and becoming involved in activism. 

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