Monica de Bath
Monica de Bath is a visual artist whose work is drawn from the emotive resonances of rural sites. Her temporary studio is housed in a Bord na Mona works site in Co. Kildare Ireland. Her practice explores the way in which peoples’ engagement with land and language reveal attitudes and values which have implications for and connections with current ecological and social concerns.
‘My practice explores the connections between people and land with which they work and interact. It is concerned with emotive layers that link us to previous generations, and the changing value of land which has been shaped and reshaped by our interaction with it.
I was born in a small rural village in Co. Laois and grew up speaking both Irish and English. I studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and am participating in a Masters in Visual Arts Practices 2009 – 2010 with Institute Art Design and Technology, Dún Laoghaire. I value opportunities to engage in collaborations with other artists, who are also communicating the temporality of a place and of a time.’
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Artists Statement
My practice is shaped by an understanding of Land as more than physical site but also as discursive, phenomenological and poetic.
The current work explores the complexities of stories that are interlaced with a people’s relationship with Land, with each other and with the urgent need to make a living. Paintings, notebooks and site actions throw up dissenting voices about how land is valued, used up or conserved – and about who is responsible for it.
Monica de Bath, January 2012
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CV
Contact details
413 Ard Mhuire, Rathangan. Co. Kildare. Ireland
Phone: Mobile 00353 86 3496793 Land line: 00353 45 524262
Email monicadebath@eircom.net
Education
Diploma in Fine Art Painting, National College of Art and Design, Dublin
Principles of Teaching Art, National College of Art and Design, Dublin
MA in Visual Arts Practices, Institute of Art Design and Technology, Dun Laoghaire.
Awards
Arts Council Research Award Phase One 2009
Arts Council Commission Award 2007
CCAT travel and publication awards 2006/2007
Kildare Arts Office, Temporary State Symposium, November 2006.
Selected Exhibitions and Commissions
2012
One-person show, Ballina Arts Centre
2011
O bhFalla go Falla, Outdoor projections, Gaeltacht and National Gallery, Dublin
Power of Local. Court House Studios. Co Clare
Plot 1 / Ceapach 1 paintings, Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge. Co. Kildare
CIALL, Aislann, Gaothdobhair. Co. Donegal
Rianta, Ground Up Arts Collective, Ennis. Co Clare
Le Chéile, Wales (Welsh/Irish/Australian collaborative project on land and language)
2009 – 2010
Public Gesture, THE LAB, Dublin
Collective Contemporary Art, RDS, Dublin
Country Arts South Australia Visual Arts Touring Programme
Le Chéile, Galeri Rhyl and Galeri, Caernarfon, Wales
Mullingar Arts Centre, Westmeath
2003 – 2007
Le Chéile Riverbank Arts Centre,
The Works Site-specific steel paintings commissioned by Bord na Móna.
Solo show Tormey Studio and Gallery, Westmeath
Four person show Riverbank Arts Centre, Kildare
Three person show An Grianan Theatre, Letterkenny
Three person show at Rosses Point Gallery, Sligo
EIGSE, Carlow
Four person show, South Tipperary County Museum, Clonmel
Residencies supported by Arts Council of Ireland and County Councils
Artist in schools scheme, Kildare Arts Office 2011
Drawing residency at Boys School, Rathangan. Co. Kildare 2002
Artist in Schools at Girls Primary School, Edenderry. Co. Offaly. 2001
Artist in Schools at Boys School, Rathangan. Co. Kildare. 2001
Community Arts Residency Rathangan. Co. Kildare. 2000
Publications
2011 Artists Book – Plot 1 / Ceapach 1 curated by Mareve Mulrennan, Galway Arts Centre. Launched as part of Kildare Arts and Library Service Readers Festival 2011, followed by a public field trip to a site action (Blueberry Plot) on the Bog of Allen.
2008 The Works Poster 2008. Disseminated in Bord na Móna publication to 2,000 workers and to delegates at an International Peat Conference, Ireland 2008
Images and references to my work in:
Where Siva meets Medb catalogue, Leinster Print Studio, 2005
The Story of Taipeis Gael, Meghan Nutall Sayres, Cork University Press, 2007
The Arts Strategy for Kildare Co. Council, 2007 -2011
Temporary State Foray and Symposium, Kildare Co. Council, 2007
Le Chéile publications 2008, 2010, 2011
Plot 1 / Ceapach 1 was presented to the Nordic Irish Studies Network, University of Tromso, Norway by Maeve Mulrennan, Galway Arts Centre. 2010.
Rianta publication, Ground Up Arts Collective, 2011
Source, Bord na Móna 2011
Irish Peatland Conservation Council Magazine 2011
Work Links to Arts Organisations and Institutions
External reader at Library and NIVAL, National College of Art and Design
Visual Arts Peer Assessor on Panel for Scéim Forbartha Ealaín na Gaeltachta 2011
Evaluator for Ealaín na Gaeltachta Arts programme 2000 -2010
Artists Panel at Irish Museum of Modern Art 2007/8
Memberships
Association of Kildare Artists 2000 – present
Ground Up Arts Collective 2009 – present
Practice.ie 2010 – present
Visual Artists Ireland 2000 – present
Participant in Arts and Health Dialogues 2011
National and International Collections
Work is in private and public collections.