When art and nature collide

CHILDREN build sandcastles. Hillwalkers leave rock cairns to aid fellow walkers or to stand testament to their passing. The religious or the superstitious tie rags to trees at holy sites. It seems, then, that a human desire to make a mark on the landscape is innate and ancient.

Hazel McCague of the Lay of the Land project agrees. “To pick up some rocks and build something, or to get your hands dirty, or even to jump into the sea or to walk in your bare feet,” she says, “somehow these things reinforce our connection with the land.”

Textile and sculpture artist McCague and her frequent collaborator Kari Cahill, as The Lay of the Land, are the duo behind ‘TOMBOLO – A site-responsive art project’. For the month of September, eight artists have been in Brow Head, on West Cork’s Mizen peninsula.