Masters of art: New crop of Sherkin gradutes show their work in Skibbereen

Meshworking features the work of seven graduates at Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre

Mon, 02 Dec, 2024 - 02:00

Marc O’Sullivan Vallig

It says much for TU Dublin School of Art and Design BA in Visual Art (BAVA) degree programme on Sherkin Island in West Cork that two of its graduates have won the prestigious RDS Taylor Art Award for their degree projects in the past seven years. Mary K Sullivan won in 2018 for her installation, At Home, At War, while Sorcha Browning has just been announced as the 2024 recipient for her film installation, Eden.

Such has been the success of TU Dublin’s BAVA programme, developed in collaboration with Uillinn: The West Cork Arts Centre in Skibbereen and the Sherkin Island Development Society, that the three partners launched a Master’s Programme in Art and Environment in 2020.

The Master’s Programme is largely based at Uillinn, where the seven 2024 graduates are presenting their work in an exhibition called Meshworking, which runs until 21st December. The seven - Niamh Seana Meehan, Dianne Curtin, Terry Farnell, D. Martins, Hina Khan, Niamh Ní Chearbhaill and Fiona Hayes - were all invited to create projects that combine ecological research, artistic innovation and community engagement.

Niamh Seana Meehan is a dedicated sea swimmer, and has long used water, and particularly the experience of floating, as part of her practice. “I did my primary degree in the UK, at De Montfort University in Leicester,” she says. “I live in South Armagh, and a lot of my work at that time was to do with leaving home and crossing the water. I’ve always been interested in islands, and I did a lot of my research on Inishbofin in Co Galway.” Meehan was on a residency at the Guesthouse in Shandon, Cork, when she first heard of the Master’s programme. “We went on a trip to Sherkin Island, and I fell in love with the place straight away,” she says.

Enrolling on the programme, Meehan drove down from South Armagh twice a month to participate. She relished the time she got to spend on the islands of West Cork. “We visited Sherkin, Cape Clear, Whiddy and Bere Island. On each, a local person or an artist resident on the island would share their knowledge of the area.”

Meehan is showing two works she made as part of her Master’s at Uillinn. “One is called Swallowed by the Tide, and is inspired by my experience of swimming at Templetown beach in Co Louth. The other is called Staying Dry for Now. There’s a soft sculpture you lie down in, to listen to an audio recording. The recording features a dream-like narrative of floating in a body of water and transforming into an aquatic being.” Despite the mileage she clocked up over the year, Meehan was delighted with her time on the Master’s. “West Cork is a fantastic place,” she says. “There’s a real sense of community. And because there were just seven of us on the programme, we got to be good friends.”

Dianne Curtin is from Union Hall, and completed BAVA in 2022 before committing to the Master’s programme. “The Master’s allowed me to expand on a topic I’ve been working on for some time now, asking if environmental factors are an influence on gender-based violence," she says.

"The obvious example is Covid-19. When women were stuck at home with their abusers, the figure went crazy, and that was all over the world. But that is also the case for women who have been displaced by climate events; they are often at their most vulnerable to becoming victims of abuse.”

Curtin saw her Master’s as an opportunity to explore making work in Virtual Reality. “In my installation at Uillinn, I invite the viewer to wear a cape and a headset. The cape is something that women traditionally wore for protection – almost as a shield - for centuries.

“The headset allows you to view a video. What VR does very well is it puts the viewer in the picture. It’s very immersive; you feel like you are part of the work. The video is about 3.5 minutes long. It features three women, all wearing the cape: one is on the street in Cork; another is alone in a forest; and the third is on a deserted beach, where she’s burning testimonials of abuse on a fire, as part of a healing process.”

Curtin will be on hand for anyone wishing to engage with the project. “The experience is consent-guided,” she says. “I’ll be at Uillinn for the next few weeks, and after that I hope to take the project further. I’m hoping to expand on what I’ve done already, and find other places to exhibit it in. I’d like to continue working with VR. Some people call it the Empathy Machine; the immersive experience can be very powerful.”

Terry Farnell with one of his pieces. Picture: Emma Jervis

Terry Farnell also came to the Master’s programme directly from BAVA. “I lived on Sherkin Island for over twenty years, but I had to move out two years into my degree,” he says. “I’d been renting a house that the owner wanted to sell, and I couldn’t find another one to rent. I live in Baltimore now.” Farnell’s research on the Master’s was focused on global warming. His project at Uillinn is called Songs on the Horizon, and features two artworks. “One is inside the gallery. There’s a periscope in a fish tank. The surface represents order, and I’ve put shrimps and larvae in the water to create movement below. There’s an audio element to it too; a recording that goes into the depths of the sea, where the whales are singing, and up into the atmosphere, where there’s the cries of red kites.

“My second work is outside, in the Caol stream that flows past Uillinn. There’s a raft with three pipes catching the current; these extend into three vertical pipes with tin whistles on top that make a constant peeping noise. What I’m trying to do with both these works is translate science into art, and show how order and chaos can both be found in a dynamic system such as the climate.”

Farnell describes himself as retired. He's been glad of the break since completing the Master’s, but hopes to begin work on some other projects shortly. “I worked as a photographer for many years, and I’ve got photographs on Sherkin going back to 1993; that’s a project I must look into, putting those online. I’d also like to work on a pinhole photography project, with songs and poetry.”

He has nothing but good to say of his Master’s experience. “The seven who started all finished,” he says. “We got on really well together. There’s talk of us having a yearly meet-up to discuss our projects, and some of us might even collaborate in the future.”