Lismore | Tuesday 19th November, 7 p.m & Saturday 23rd November, 2 p.m. | Exhibition runs until March 2020 at St Carthage Hall, Lismore Castle
Every Spring Lismore Castle Arts runs A Space for Lismore, which seeks to invite an artist to work with the local community in Lismore. This year you are invited to join artist Deirdre O’Mahony for a series of walks, talks and workshops beginning next week. Anyone with an interest in trees and forests is invited to join in a mapping of some of the varied woodlands in the vicinity of Lismore and the human, animal and botanical inhabitants, both past and present.
- Tuesday 19 November, 7pm: Introduction by Deirdre O’Mahony, St Carthage Hall.
- Saturday 23 November, 2pm [Lismore Town Carpark]: Walk led by Tom Kent Lecturer in Forestry Management at WIT around areas of Lismore Estate Forest. Booking essential, 058 54061.
Across 2020 Deirdre O’Mahony will work collaboratively with groups and individuals in a series of talks, walks and workshops. Using St Carthage Hall as a base, the group will return from investigative trips to produce a deep mapping process of the complex human, natural and social ecology of the forests around the Lismore region.
Beginning in late 2019, Deirdre will hold walks that explore the natural and human ecologies of the forest. Each walk will take different approaches – deep listening, sensory, tactile, smell and taste investigations to overcome habits and understand and experience the woodland differently. The second walk will look to the human history evident in the forest; tree harvesting, farming, hunting etc. Participants will be given an encounter diary and asked to record observations and investigations in whatever form is best suited.
The information gathered during the physical experience of the forest will be further informed by evening discussions led by individuals with different experiences of the forest- history, bioarchaeology, commercial use, plant life, animals, insect life, flora, fungi and mushrooms. This will feed into workshops into botanical drawing.
By working in Lismore over a three – month period the intention is to map the traces of human and non-human histories that still remain in the land. Deirdre hopes to meet and engage with farmers, forestry workers, hunting enthusiasts, wildlife experts, recreational users, foragers, and anyone with an interest in the estate forest.
The project will result in an archive exhibition in early March 2020 at St Carthage Hall.
Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore, Co. Waterford, P51 F859.
Tel: +353 (0)58 54061
Email: info@lismorecastlearts.ie