'It was considered the women’s duty to nurture the calves': Áine Ryan on art and farming
Áine Ryan (left) and her Part of the Herd photograph that features in the exhibition in Killorglin.
Growing up on the family farm in West Waterford, Áine Ryan never imagined that the experience would one day inform her practice as an artist. However, the subject of farmwork, and particularly the role of women in agriculture, is the major inspiration behind her work in Beirt na Chéile, her joint exhibition with Bernadette Cotter currently showing at the Grilse Gallery in Killorglin, Co Kerry.
“When I was a teenager,” says Ryan, “my mother worked three or four jobs. She’d leave the house at half five in the morning, and wouldn’t get home till half six or seven. And then she’d have to spend the evening filling in forms for things like Area Aid. She’d often do the forms for our neighbours as well. Women were expected to be everywhere, milking the cows and looking after the calves. It was considered the women’s duty to nurture the calves, and keep them alive.”
