Talk to the Land

"You could see Irish emigration today as a safety valve against dissent toward the Irish establishment in its current form." For Elinor O'Donovan, researching her great-great-great-great-grandaunt Charlotte Grace O'Brien – the Limerick botanist who campaigned for better conditions for Irish emigrant women in the 1800s and spearheaded the founding of the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary boarding house for women in New York – has been a thought-provoking journey encompassing questions about identity, the symbolic representation of womanhood through flowers, and how the large Irish diaspora in the United States views its origin stories.

"On the one hand, you can identify with them. You can see the hand of a human being. But, on the other hand, the time frame is so huge that you can't really comprehend it." Barbara Knežević's practice explores the meaning and purpose of objects. When she learned of the Lepenski Vir archaeological discovery on the banks of the River Danube in the former Yugoslavia, now Serbia, and the curious monumental sculptures, half humanoid and half fish, created there 10,000 years ago, connections between ideas of nationhood and displacement, as well as her quest to discover the drive behind material creation, gave rise to the production of her first film, Gvozdene Kapije (The Iron Gates), and a set of related sculptures.

"I like to think that pain has the potential to transform in some way, and it all depends on how you look at it."  Samir Mahmood reflects on his move from a background in medicine, particularly health promotion, to his practice as a visual artist, in which he explores the connection between the material and the transcendental, often using his own body as a starting point. From early collages, Samir, whose origins are in Pakistan, has moved to miniature painting, adopting some of the skills and norms of the tradition from the Indian subcontinent, but also subverting it by introducing themes relating to the experiences experienced of queer people.

"The thing that we can do as artists is to create public space so that the complex reality that farmers are dealing with can be heard and seen." Deirdre O'Mahony's intensively researched collaborative projects, which can encompass film, installation, performance, feasts, pedagogical platforms and more, engage with the politics of land and landscape, often through the lens of food and farming. Now, she thinks she's found a way to make the EU's policymakers listen to what farmers are saying about their experience of climate change.

"My work is about people. It's being a companion to the artist and a companion to the public. To develop something together, in dialogue, across a long period of time, that enables our personal development, but also enables us to engage in the social discussion of the moment."  From volunteering at a festival in Coimbra, Portugal, as a politicised 18-year-old, to being the first ever Portuguese person to attend an MA in curatorship at the Royal College of Art in London, to his vision for a further five years at Sirius Arts Centre, Miguel Amado reflects on his directorship over the past five years and the Irish art scene more broadly. 

"It's this idea of needing to narrate your existence, and how you look and where you come from, and the complexity of yourself, and it's having to do that in circumstances where you're not sure exactly if every part of who you are is welcome." Alice Rekab's exhibition, Clann Miotlantach / Mythlantics, is held both in the conventional gallery spaces of the institution and, for the first time, in its basement. Rekab is an Irish/Sierra Leonean artist based in Dublin who explores themes of familial and artistic connections, diaspora, and sense of place and belonging.

 In the summer of 2024, works started on an extensive three phase restoration project at Sirius Arts Centre. Led by JCA Architects and Moroney Conservation, the works to the building began with restoring some of the features that architect Anthony Salvin designed for the RCYC clubhouse all the way back in the 1850s.  In the third and final instalment of Changing Tides, join conservation architect Gareth O'Callaghan to hear all about the exciting and ambitious works, some of which are completed, and some of which are underway, and hear an outline vision for the future of the historic building.   Changing Tides is supported by Cork County Council and the Heritage Council under Cork County Council's Heritage Plan Funding 2024.

"The architects of these buildings are looking back to the Italian renaissance; this building is a revival of a revival, if you know what I mean.  This is an Irish building which is copying a Roman building of the renaissance, which is copying a building of Ancient Rome."  Historian Tom Spalding is the man whose meticulous research proved that the Royal Cork Yacht Club, constructed in 1854 on the site of a pavilion first constructed for the visit of Queen Victoria, was designed by English architect Sir Anthony Salvin, best known for his restoration work on Windsor Castle and the Tower of London.  In episode 2 of Changing Tides, Tom revisits the very beginnings of the RCYC clubhouse, known today as SIRIUS arts centre.  Changing Tides is supported by Cork County Council and the Heritage Council under Cork County Council's Heritage Plan Funding 2024.

"It was something that was broken, and I had to fix it." In 1987 Peter Murray, then curator at Crawford Art Gallery in Cork city, embarked on an extraordinary journey: his goal was to purchase and restore the then-derelict former Royal Cork Yacht Club building in Cobh and to transform it into a cultural venue. Over time, this vision crystalised: SIRIUS Arts Centre was to become an artist's residency of international appeal, forging transatlantic connections. Peter Murray's voyage was by no means a solo one. In this in-depth conversation, he pays tribute to the many others whose hard work, time and generosity went into rescuing the RCYC building and making it into the arts centre it is today.  Changing tides is supported by Cork County Council and the Heritage Council under Cork County Council's Heritage Plan Funding 2024.

"What is New Atlantic Triangulation? It's in my own experience as a black woman from Brazil with West and Central African heritage, who got Irish citizenship, reflecting on Atlantic triangulation historically has meant, and what I would like it to become. It's connecting these territories through my body and through experiences of people I know and share with."    Thaís Muniz's first solo show, 'Rites of Care, Curse & Comfort,' features prints, performance, installation, and textiles, some newly made for this occasion. The exhibition explores ideas of race, displacement and memory in a postcolonial context.