Question of Taste: Sarah O’Flaherty, artist

Wed, 02 Sep, 2020 - 20:00

Sarah O’Flaherty currently has a joint exhibition with fellow Cork artists Debbie Godsell and Fiona Kelly at Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, entitled Visions of an Unsettled Earth.

Sarah is based in Aghabullogue and teaches at LSAD Limerick.

Best recent book you've read and what you liked about it: The book, as it is the last one I have read in its entirety, has to be Anna Burns' Milkman absolutely brilliant, everything about it. Brave writing, not afraid of subverting norms and conventions ... striking in its honesty and truth.

Most enjoyed recent film: I missed it when it came out in the first instance but watched Ladybird with my daughter just last week. It hit a lot of marks, she buried her head for some parts and I, of course, cried…. profusely

Most enjoyed recent exhibition you’ve seen: It opened pre Covid then had to close, it opened again with the easing of the lockdown, it was a privilege to have seen it. Quietly meditative, local and global in its nature and concerns, exquisitely displayed, Miriam O’Connor’s 'Tomorrow is Sunday' at Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh.

Best piece of music you’ve been listening to lately (new or old): Leonard Cohen has the lyrics and music and poetry to accompany anyone through every part of life and for the moment ‘You Want it Darker” is never far from my ears…

First-ever piece art that really moved you: Degas, 'La Petit Danseuse de Quatorze Ans'. I was mesmerised by it when I encountered it as a young art student , it had tranquillity, calm and poise. The pose defiant and vulnerable in equal measure. It’s physicality and materiality were quietly magnetic, it reeled me in and held me.

The best exhibition you've ever seen: I saw them both in one week when visiting my sister. Mark Manders at the Venice Biennale and Ragnar Kjartansson’s The Visitors at the Hanger Bioccoa, Milan, both in 2013.

Tell us about your TV viewing: I can’t remember when I last watched TV. I just stopped.

Radio listening and/or podcasts: The radio is on everywhere, by the bed, in the bathroom, kitchen and studio. I station hop, back and forth and shout at the presenters. It is all doom and gloom. I was introduced to Radio Paradise by a friend, I love the no talking, just music and you can read the info around each piece if you want to. BBC Radio 4 is a must.

If money was no object, which piece of art would you like in your home?

The original Willendorf Venus, Pure potency packed into a four and a half-inch high figure, 25,000 years old, fits perfectly into the hand.

Your best/most famous celebrity encounter: Huddled, shoulder to shoulder, in silence, at twilight, in Connemara, with John Berger (and Jim Savage), under the tin roof of the turf shed looking out into the descending mist, adding to it with our whispers and our smoke.

You are queen of the Irish art world for a day – what's your first decree?

You don’t have to own it to own it. Art as a right, from our youngest to our eldest, for everyone be as familiar with the theatre, gallery, museum, opera, orchestra, music, dance, instruments, poetry, sound, film and more and more and more…. art having the same status and funding as sport, Doctors should prescribe it…