New Ecologies between Rural Life and Visual Culture in the West of Ireland: History, Context, Position, and Art Practice.
Deirdre O'Mahony (University of Brighton)
Abstract
Can a mode of trans-disciplinary visual inquiry shifting and subjective, serve as an enquiry into location, an interrogation into the mechanics of belonging, and a reflection upon the bottom up-local/rural to the national/global?
The answer to this question is focussed on a public art project that seeks to extend this discourse into the stresses affecting the social ecology of a local community, particularly regarding the relationship between locals and incomers. By renovating and creating a public resource/space, the X-PO (in Kilnaboy, Co. Clare), the intention was to allow for reflection and consideration about ways in which to move on from a legacy of conflict. This surfaced during a long divisive and bitter environmental dispute, fifteen years ago, at a local mountain called Mullaghmore. Representations of the west of Ireland as romantic, sacred ‘other,’ neutered heritage, detached and dislocated from the complex realities of rural life, further complicates matters. This re-surfaces regularly in media representations of the west as a rustic, ‘authentic’, uniquely Irish, space. By creating this resource one of my intentions was to allow for reflection and consideration about the many ‘communities’ in Kilnaboy and to create an arena where all could meet, local or newcomer, without prioritising any one group or community.
The opportunity to rent a defunct post-office in the parish of Kilnaboy, four miles from Mullaghmore, offered a uniquely relevant site for this research. The rural post-office used to represent a community contact point. The one at Kilnaboy was run by a man called Mattie Rynne, short-wave radio enthusiast and self-taught linguist, and was permanently closed in 2002. The project documented and archived the contents of this site, empty and derelict since closure, and used this process as a template for the compilation of an archive of local knowledge. The subsequent curated program of events, installations, talks and exhibitions of work by contemporary artists emerged from collaborative processes with/in the community. The space, now functioning and run by local volunteers, is in active use for arts projects and events.
The presentation will describe and set into a context, a practice that reflects upon histories, contexts, positions and socially engaged arts practices of both local and wider significance. It is a central argument of this paper that expanded and inclusive definitions of knowledge and arts practices play a key role in this new formation.
The physical demonstration of this body of work takes the form of video documentation and photography. This paper provides a critical account of socially engaged ‘activist’ arts practice in a unique and specific site.
