As a member of Cuman na mBan in Co. Longford, my grandmother, Kate McGann, delivered messages to republican fighters in the lead up to the Easter Rising. From her village of Keenagh, she would cycle to meet rebels working in the bogs, carrying messages hidden in the spouts of billycans or her garments. She was later awarded a medal for her involvement in the rebellion. Materials in this painting are suggestive of the bags used for gathering turf, with motifs relating to the topography and road layout around Keenagh townland. The materials are deliberately manipulated on the left of the composition to evoke the clandestine underground activity during this repressive period. Peat,bullets and red paint are burned into the boards to conjure the very real peril associated with such undertakings. On a lighter, more serendipitous note, the artist elected to retain the number 1795 that appear in the composition on the hession material: a random event in the artistic process. However, upon the painting’s reception, this chance occurrence generated numerous ‘misconceptions” or “miscreadings” of the numbers’ significance. Spectators have attributed a range of meanings in relation to possibly charged historical or political events – an accidental, supplementary dialogue thereby emerging between the public and the work. This unforeseen exchange enjoys the additional value of drawing attention to potentially loaded concepts and forms of commemoration and its exercise. Ultimately, the work represents a more personal tribute to the strength and courage of one Irish woman who rose to the challenge of extraordinary times. She quietly fulfilled a critical function in the transmission of information, which could well have cost her life.

This series first saw the introduction of burnt silage foil which I collected in the landscape during my travels, a common sight in rural Ireland. By using a burning process I manipulated the plastic on boards and different surfaces in the form of traditional landscapes highlighting current environmental issues.

Private commission using natural pigments, organic materials, gold leaf and hand made inks. Imagery taken from the original manuscripts of the Brehon Law.

The Irish rural landscape is shaped by wetlands: raised bogs formed in the midlands region while mountain blanket bogs define Ireland’s Atlantic seaboard. Over ten millennia sphagnum mosses and plant debris have accumulated at a rate of 1mm per year, fuelled by the relentless rain approaching from the Atlantic Ocean. This slow process changed the Irish landscape gradually but surely over time. Human intervention contributed further to this change, using turf as a domestic and industrial fuel source and harvesting peat as a growing medium. Accelerated by machine cutting, however, more than a third of Irish wetlands are now lost through cutting for turbary. Now our understanding and use of boglands needs to change again, given their crucial role as carbon sinks in the age of climate collapse.

The exhibition draws attention to human interaction with the Irish boglands, focusing on the folklore, mythology, traditions and the materiality associated with the bogs of Uíbh Ráthach. For this collaborative project, Karen Hendy brought together artists and performers working with each other, often outside the comfort zone of their familiar work environments and teams - a process that sparked creative dialogue across disciplines: painting, photography, poetry, calligraphy and performative drawing - marks created by dancers in charcoal on paper scrolls. They all take their inspiration from dance movements that take the repetitive, almost ritualistic task of turf cutting as a starting point. The Irish word Cré means both earth and clay but also refers to system of belief or principles.

Tá portaigh lárnach i gcruthú taobh tíre na hÉireann: cruthaíodh portaigh arduithe i lár na tíre agus is bratphortach an gné is suntasaí de chósta Atlantach na tíre. Thar thréimhse 10,000 bliain leagadh síos bruscar de chaonaigh portaigh agus plandaí eile, ag ráta 1mm in aghaidh na bliana, é ar fad á thiomáint ag báisteach ag teacht ón Atlantach. D’athraigh an próiseas seo an taobh tíre go mall thar na blianta. Chuir gníomhaíocht daonna leis an athrú seo, trí feidhm a bhaint as móin mar bhreosla tí agus tionsclaíochta, chomh maith le móin a bheith á bhaint mar ábhar garraíodóireachta. Ach mar gheall ar bhaint móna le meaisíní, tá breis is trian de phortaigh na hÉireann caillte don ngearradh faoin am seo. Anois, mar gheall ar a dtábhacht mar umair carbóin i ré seo an athrú aeráide, tá gá againn le athrú tuisceana agus úsáide i leith na bportach.

Caitheann an taispeántas seo súil ar phlé daonna le portaigh na tíre, ag díriú ar bhéaloideas, miotaseolaíocht, traidisiún agus ábharthacht phortaigh Uíbh Ráthaigh. Don dtogra comhghníomach seo, chruinnigh Karen Hendy ealaíontóirí agus oirfidigh ag obair lena chéile, go minic ar shlite nach bhfuil said i dtaithí orthu – rud a spreag comhrá cruthaíoch thar dhisciplíní eagsúla: péintéireacht, griangrafadóireacht, filíocht, peannaireacht agus liníocht gníomhúil – rianta a d’fhág rinceoirí ar ghualach a bhí spréite ar scrollaí. Baineann siad ar fad inspioráid as gluaiseachtaí rince a ghlacann mar phointe tosaigh an tsaothair agus an athshaothair deasghnáthúil a bhaineann go minic le gearradh na móna.

All works on paper and board are part of a current exhibition in 2023/24 which toured different venues in Ireland starting at Siamsa Tire, Tralee Co Kerry and then moving onto Kenmare Buttermarket gallery, Co Kerry An Gailearaí in Donegal and finally the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo in April 2024.

All works in this exhibition are for sale.

https://www.angailearai.com/exhibitions/2024/cre-believing-earth