Deirdre O’Mahony has an impressive 30 year track record in making work across sculpture, painting, installation and participatory projects. At the centre of this work is her interest in the politics of landscape, rural/urban relationships, rural sustainability and food security. She has investigated the political ecology of rural places through public engagement, exhibitions, critical writing, and cultural production. From setting up community spaces amongst a charged local conflict to her large-scale paintings produced by tracing the shadows of boulders on Mullaghmore Mountain in the Burren National Park, she deftly consider the role of art in bringing together diverse communities, alternate forms of knowledge, embracing art as a critical space to help us see things differently.

https://deirdre-omahony.ie/

The Quickening was commissioned by The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art

The Quickening is supported by The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon through a Project Award (2021/2023) and The Douglas Hyde; Butler Gallery, Kilkenny; Carlow Arts Office, Carlow; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Kilkenny Arts Office, Kilkenny; Kunstverein Aughrim, Aughrim; Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore; South Tipperary Arts Centre (STAC), Clonmel; VISUAL Carlow, Carlow; Wexford Arts Office, Wexford; and Wexford Arts Centre, Wexford. With research supported by Fire Station Artists’ Studios Residency and Sculpture Award, Dublin; Kilkenny Arts Office/Centre Culturel Irlandais, Residency Award, Paris, National Sculpture Factory, Cork; Butler Gallery Soil Residency, Kilkenny; Visual Carlow residency, Carlow; and UCD Parity Studios Residency in partnership with UCD Earth Institute and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, Dublin.

Image: Deirdre O’Mahony, The Quickening Production still (2023). Photography by Tom Flanagan. Commissioned by The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dublin.