About
It is winter at Void Art Centre and time to reflect. This year we are grateful to inhabit the coldest season with a project that grows ideas we have been nurturing throughout the previous seasons.
We are happy to do so with a long-term project by Deirdre O'Mahony; an artist with whom we not only share an interest for food and farming but to whom we also feel very connected because of her slow and in depth approach to research and art practice.
FARMWORK presents a selection of Deirdre O'Mahony's artworks made over the past ten years, reflecting on her interest in the politics of landscape, rural sustainability and food security, challenging mainstream narratives around agricultural matters and policy.
In this project three distinct bodies of work expand on questions prompted by the artist's research into the history of agricultural development and the efforts of one man, John Silke, to build up the seed potato industry in Donegal. The project is comprised of a photographic and text installation of small farms in Ireland, UK and USA, including a new selection of image/texts from Northern Irish farmers.
Thanks to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland's support, Deirdre visited us in November for a field trip here in the North West. She met with some generous farmers and carried out more research and production locally.
At the heart of the exhibition sits The Quickening. This is a sound and moving image artwork that reflects on the relationship between farming, food production, and the social and economic impact of agricultural policies on soil, biodiversity, and climate change.
We are very excited to witness the final outcome of this fantastic journey together.
The Quickening was commissioned by The Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin and supported by The Arts Council of Ireland/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.
About Deirdre O'Mahony
Deirdre O'Mahony has an impressive 30 year track record in making work across sculpture, painting, installation and participatory projects. At the centre of this work is her interest in the politics of landscape, rural/urban relationships, rural sustainability and food security. She has investigated the political ecology of rural places through public engagement, exhibitions, critical writing, and cultural production. From setting up community spaces amongst a charged local conflict to her large-scale paintings produced by tracing the shadows of boulders on Mullaghmore Mountain in the Burren National Park, she deftly consider the role of art in bringing together diverse communities, alternate forms of knowledge, embracing art as a critical space to help us see things differently.
Image credit: Deirdre O'Mahony, The Quickening. Production still (2023). Photography by Tom Flanagan.
