OPENINGS (Ends.) Leitrim Textured IV – XXI
2024
cotton lab coats, fallen Ash leaves, felled Ash trees, graphite, ash frames, wood dye, polish
270mm x 300mm (6), 650mm x 300mm (6), 450mm x 300mm(6) (framed)
Installed in The Visitors, 2024. Photograph by Ros Kavanagh courtesy of Butler Gallery.
OPENINGS (Ends.) Leitrim Textured XIX
2024
cotton lab coats, fallen Ash leaves, felled Ash trees, graphite, ash frames, wood dye, polish
270mm x 300mm
Installed in The Visitors, 2024. Leitrim Textured (Study No. 5) in background. Photograph courtesy the artist.
OPENINGS (Ends.) Leitrim Textured IV – XXI
2024
cotton lab coats, fallen Ash leaves, felled Ash trees, graphite, ash frames, wood dye, polish
270mm x 300mm (6), 650mm x 300mm (6), 450mm x 300mm(6) (framed)
Installed in The Visitors, 2024. Photograph by Ros Kavanagh courtesy of Butler Gallery.
Leitrim Textured (Study No.4)
2024
ESB ducting bend, graphite, paper, polypropylene rope, cotton, silk, woodland dyes
125mm diameter, 1650mm length
Installed in The Visitors, 2024. Photograph Ros Kavanagh courtesy of Butler Gallery.
OPENINGS (Ends.) Leitrim Textured I-III and Leitrim Textured (Study No.4)
2024
Installed at Leitrim Sculpture Centre for the LEER Residency exhibition 2024. Photograph by Louis Haugh courtesy of the artist and Leitrim Sculpture Centre.
OPENINGS (Ends.) Leitrim Textured I
2024
cotton lab coats, fallen Ash leaves, felled Ash trees, graphite, wood
750mm x 550mm
Installed at Leitrim Sculpture Centre for the LEER Residency exhibition 2024. Photograph by Louis Haugh courtesy of the artist and Leitrim Sculpture Centre.
OPENINGS (Ends.) Leitrim Textured II
2024
cotton lab coats, fallen Ash leaves, felled Ash trees, graphite, wood
750mm x 550mm
Installed at Leitrim Sculpture Centre for the LEER Residency exhibition 2024. Photograph by Louis Haugh courtesy of the artist and Leitrim Sculpture Centre.
OPENINGS (Ends.) Leitrim Textured III
2024
cotton lab coats, fallen Ash leaves, felled Ash trees, graphite, wood
750mm x 550mm
Installed at Leitrim Sculpture Centre for the LEER Residency exhibition 2024. Photograph by Louis Haugh courtesy of the artist and Leitrim Sculpture Centre.
OPENINGS (Ends.) Leitrim Textured I-III
2024
cotton lab coats, fallen Ash leaves, felled Ash trees, graphite, wood
750mm x 550mm each
Installed at Leitrim Sculpture Centre for the LEER Residency exhibition 2024. Photograph by Louis Haugh courtesy of the artist and Leitrim Sculpture Centre.
The genesis for a body of work exploring Ash dieback disease was the felling of 200 trees in the grounds of Merlin Park University Hospital in a blanket approach to Health & Safety. Using papermaking processes, the chipped remains of these were couched onto the pulped white cotton lab coats of scientific research, alongside translucent layers of fallen Ash leaves. Extending these bevelled forms onto Ash frames using wood dyes, the work is reminiscent of the wood panelling of period décor, whilst the moulded skin of a modern fibrewood door provides the ‘woodgrain’ for leafwork informed by drawings I made of the Ash leaves before they were made into pulp.
Above, the corner bend of ESB ducting normally used in the archways of clear-fell and construction sites, is veneered with fragments of frottage from the same mass produced door and mimics a parquet pattern at Oak Park. The Georgian house and estate is now the site of Teagasc research on Ash dieback disease, first detected in a plantation in County Leitrim in 2012. The door used to make the graphite rubbings of both works also originates from County Leitrim, made in one of Ireland’s largest manufacturing plants with a production facility which spans 15 acres under one roof. The door’s product name, ‘Leitrim Textured’, informs the titles of works in this series.
In the first works of the series, OPENINGS (Ends.) Leitrim Textured I-III, the recurring bevelled motif and concept of ‘openings’ is suggestive of both storm debris and the felling of trees for use in construction. Slivers of handmade paper were cut and pasted to the wooden batons used to hang the artworks – the fallen remains of trees with an imported disease emulating the decorative veneers normally made of imported exotic wood.