Deirdre O’Mahony
Deirdre O’Mahony LAND website profile 2/1/2012
The central aim of my practice is to reflect and acknowledge the complexity of ecological dimensions; social, psychological, economic and natural, affecting place, space and landscape in the West of Ireland. The research has focused on the underlying subjectivities governing polarised perspectives on place, space and landscape and to make visible some of the reasons behind recurring conflicts about land use and regulation.
Viscqueux/Surfacing Is a body of paintings, photographs and material objects that reflect upon natural resource management and water quality of the karst landscape of Burren in the West of Ireland. A public art project, Cross Land, explores the consequences of changes in landscape regulation, farming practices and the rapid spread of Hazel scrub in the region. The work takes the form of a coppiced ‘X’, cut by hand from the scrub and documented using Kite Aerial Photography. This process led to questions about how best to effectively engage different stakeholders in an extended process of collective, and potentially agonistic, reflection on a sustainable future. The former post-office in Kilnaboy, North Clare provided a location for this enquiry. Reopened and reframed as a intersticial space, it became a locus for a collective re-examination and articulation of place-based knowledge. These projects were undertaken for my doctoral research titled New Ecologies Between Rural Life and Visual Culture in the West of Ireland: History, Context, Position and Practice at the University of Brighton.
Abridged 0 – 20: Abandoned Clare was completed in 2011. This project documented contemporary rural abandonment through a visual exploration of the recent economic and social changes in County Clare and was curated by Gregory McCartney.
Websites:
Deirdre O’Mahony: http://www.deirdre-omahony.ie/
The X-PO website: http://www.x-po.ie/
Arts Council of Ireland Public Art Website: http://publicart.ie /
University of Brighton Research: http://artsresearch.brighton.ac.uk/research/student/omahony
RTE national broadcast “More than a Post Office”: RTÉ.ie Media Player: Nationwide 6 June 2008