New ecologies between rural life and visual culture in the West of Ireland: history, context, position and art practice

  • Deirdre O'Mahony

Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis

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 relational connections between the local/rural and the national/global? This thesis provides a critical account of the role of a socially engaged ‘activist’ arts practice that seeks to address the tension between differing perspectives on place and space in the Burren, Co. Clare, in the West of Ireland. A body of work, Viscqueux, is a reflection upon my personal, psychological identification with the landscape of the region. This informed and underpinned two subsequent public artworks, Cross Land and X-PO. Both projects were catalytic actions that created or revived public space for exchange and collective interaction. Cross Land examined the agricultural and natural consequences of changes in landscape regulation and farming practices. X-PO is an interstitial space enabling new connections and social exchange between various ‘publics’ in the locality.
Date of Award2012
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • University of Brighton

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