Kingdom (Killarney Throne, 2018-19)
Ferns, Mosses, Lichens, Fungi, Thistles, Wild Garlic, Mushrooms, Wildflowers, Leaves, Grasses and debris from Killarney National Park, Kerry, Ireland, Resin & Acrylic
85cm wide x 185cm high
As artists we create alternative languages to interpret our world, and I hope my work enables people to tune into landscapes and our surrounding environments. We all know that urban living has desensitised our connection with nature, and by re-presenting plants in unexpected and unforeseen ways through the medium of resins and functional artworks, I hope to reawaken, and reintroduce, people to the beauty and importance of their natural environments.
Nature is given context through human reaction, and I am equally interested in the social history of place and the people who have gone before.
In 2018 -19 I had a wonderful commission from Killarney National Park in County Kerry, Ireland, to create a piece for the entrance lobby to the historic Killarney House (now Gateway & Interpretive Centre to the Park). For 2000 years it’s has been said in Ireland that ‘there are only two kingdoms, the Kingdom of Gold and the Kingdom of Kerry’ so I figured a throne seat was a good way for visitors to sit and sample ‘The Kingdom’ before they got up on their legs to explore the park beyond…
The Park is the core area of the re-designated expanded UNESCO Kerry Biosphere and it world renowned and internationally significant for the diversity of its bryophytes – mosses and liverworts – and ferns. The protected Killarney Fern (Trichomanes speciosum) is only found in the park and the ranger I was with on my various foraging days was under strict instructions to keep its location a secret! The Kerry Mousetail Fern (Stengrammitis myosuroides) was discovered as a new species while I was working on this project. The Yew woodlands and native Oak woodlands form the most extensive areas in Ireland. The wet woodlands and the bog areas are also highly significant. One of my favourite plants from this project was the local Spurge (euphorbia) which was laden local folklore and is known as ‘mad woman’s milk’!
Have a look at this video of part of the laying out process for ‘Kingdom’!
The Wall
Mosses, lichens, Bryophytes, Ferns, Wildflowers, Brambles, Ivy, Resin & Acrylic
160cm high x 125cm wide (& 180cm high x 180cm wide)
In 2008 I was approached by The National Museum to create a piece for the Contemporary Collection. I wanted to reference the collection somehow, and so took a tour one Monday while The Museum was closed with the furniture curator Jennifer Goff who happens to be one of the world’s leading experts on Eileen Gray. Her tour of those rooms was particularly interesting and I decided to reinterpret the famous 1920’s Brick Screen.
Walls tell many stories and have played a fascinating part in history – keeping people in, or people out. In Ireland we still have the walls from Celtic forts, early Christian monasteries, Norman castles and towns, English estates and the divided religious zones in the north, as well as the ubiquitous are the stone walls that criss-cross the country. Using resin allowed me to suspend stories in optically clear yet physically solid panels, to create an interior ‘wall’ that functions to divide a space but allow light and visibility through parts. Aesthetically these walls are even more interesting as they start to crumble and are slowly reclaimed by nature – mosses and lichens, brambles and ivy, ferns, sedems and wildflowers all rooting for life wherever possible.
Ekballium
Various grasses (including setaria, fescue, rye, timothy and pampas) various clematis, scabious, hawksweed, dandelions, ivy, thistles, bog cotton, michaelmas daisy, nigella, honesty, maple leaves, skeletal leaves (including magnolia, holly and hydrangeas), white feathers
1.95m high x 2.7m wide
A central theme of the piece is movement, with inspiration drawn from both the ingenious, aerodynamic seed carriers themselves and from the structures and rhythms of our own dance forms such as ballet. The movement of seeds is intrinsically about continuation and breaking new frontiers, and this piece pays tribute to this life affirming supersystem.
Ekballium - the word originates from the ancient Greek word “ἐκβάλλω” (ekvállo) which means to discharge our throw out - is a meditation on nature’s inherent optimism, a tribute to the strange mystery and regenerative promise of the cusp.
Pappus
Miss Bán (2015)
This chair was made to commission in homage to Shiro Kuramata’s classic chair Miss Blanche (1988)
Foraged organic material, acrylic, resin, anodised aluminium
450/880h x 625 x 625mm
The materials were inspired by those found in/around a typical Carlow ditch. The sides (arms) are filled with ferns, gorse, bluebells and primroses, umbellifers and wildflower seedheads amongst the climbing brambles and ivy… while the seat is more about the fallen matter such as feathers, skeletal woodland leaves, pinecones and acorns, branches, mosses, lichens, mushrooms and other natural debris. Flying amongst this are some Irish black bees and bumblebees (who came to rest on the windowledges in the farmyard outside my studio) Encapsulated in resin and acrylic, with a recessed curved acrylic back – a technical improvement on the original- and anodised aluminium legs.
Burning Gorse
Gorse Weaponry
Smaller Irish Landscape Projects
