James Barry Exhibition Centre, MTU Bishopstown Campus, Cork   

27 January – 28 February 2025. Mon-Fri 10am-4pm 

MTU Arts Office annual exhibition focussing on the environment, features the work of early career artists who are recent graduates of MTU Crawford College of Art Design. The title comes from an old Irish saying “Ar scáth a chéile a mhairimid”, which can be translated as “In the shadow of each other we prosper”. The exhibition aims to discuss the shadows we cast and the shadows we live with, the impacts our decisions have on each other, our relationship with the wider natural world, and our 
responsibilities as inhabitants of that world. 

This is the fourth Ar Scáth A Chéile Award Exhibition presents works from MTU Crawford College of Art & Design - 2024 BA Degree graduates from Fine Art, and Contemporary Applied Art: Christina Loughlin, Hannah Roberts, Lisa O’Sullivan and Erina Ní Mooney. 

ARTIST STATEMENTS

ERINA MOONEY

My practice centres around a relationship with food, as both a culinary professional and Artist my work strives to challenge concerns about what we’re eating, where our food comes from, the nature of its’ production and its’ contributing effects to climate change.

Expanded Print practice is the method I employ within this body of work, looking at repetition, text, and the printed object as a means of display within my installation.

An engagement with the viewers’ experience opens up a conversation focused on the topic of overfishing and it’s harmful implications on our planet.

HANNAH ROBERTS

In my work I focus on human-animal relationships and human impact on the environment. I create wearable animal heads which are worn for performances that are used in film, and in most of these pieces I am the performer.

I create my animal heads using foam, faux fur, and clay. I add as much detail as possible to these heads so they stand out alone as sculptural pieces, and look more alive when being worn by a performer. These heads are usually of animals which are endangered or extinct because of human activity like hunting.

With this work I highlight issues such as human contribution to habitat destruction which is leading to the endangerment of many species, and other similar topics, using my animal heads in film to tell a story and humanize these animals.

LISA O’SULLIVAN

Artists Statement Lisa O’Sullivan Using elements of print, drawing, photography, sculpture, video & performance, my work draws inspiration from folklore and ritual. I am interested in mapping a territory where landscape, ceremonial acts and the marking of time meet, finding new resonances in old practices as a way to navigate the current climate and ecological crises.

My work looks at folklore as a lens for exploring the metaphysical space between nature and humans. It considers how environmental and ecological collapse require urgent reengagement with old forms of knowledge and wisdom in an effort to reimagine better ways of co-existence with nature. I examine how ritual and reconnection to the natural world during an unprecedented time of failing systems and global uncertainty, might act as tools of transformation. Central to the work is an investigation- questioning if re-enchantment with nature through folklore could be a potent agent for resistance, change and renewal.

In this work I create a Sitka spruce ‘dead zone’ as a metaphor for the ecological and biodiversity crisis in Ireland. Mono cultures such as Sitka are an enduring legacy of colonialism with only tiny fragments of native Irish woodlands remaining today.

The sound piece contains a humming of Caoineadh Cill Chais, written in the early 18th century. This is a lament describing the aftermath of the deforestation of Ireland during and after the Cromwellian wars.

‘Cad a dhéanfaimid feasta gan adhmaid, tá deireadh na gcoillte ar lár....’’What will we do without wood, now that the last of the forests are down..’

The lament also reflects the loss of culture and language and the deep interconnections and respect people had with trees and nature for hundreds of years.

Ink from Hawthorn berry’s – a tree known for its magical powers and seven herbs said to be invincible in Irish folklore, have been brought to a ritualistic circle to counteract the dead zone.

‘There are seven herbs that nothing natural or supernatural can injure; they are vervain, John’s wort, speedwell, eyebright, mallow, yarrow and Self-Heal. But they must be pulled at noon on a bright day, near the full of the moon, to have full power.”

– Ancient Legends, Mystic charms and Superstitions of Ireland – Jane Wilde (1887)

Lisa.osullivan@gmail.com Instagram: @lisaosull_art

CHRISTINA LOUGHLIN

My practice interrogates the persistent effects of intergenerational trauma in Ireland, caused by the twin evils of colonisation and institutional religion. The work strives to convey the resonances between my ancestor's physical toil and mental struggle. Specific aspects include forced domestic and agricultural labour, sectarianism, and excommunication.

The booming Ulster linen industry of the 19th and 20th century is a focal point, in terms of the damage done to the water and the people. I also utilise the desolate boglands and discordant coastline of the Belmullet Peninsula in Mayo, as an allegory for layers of ancestral trauma.

Working with found and made objects, performance art and film, my installation seeks to unveil and release inherited patterns and influences from four, and more, generations ago. My performances are acts of psychomagic - a surrealist trauma therapy developed by Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky - enacted with intention, to heal my family line.