an casadh (the turn)
A bio-sculptural installation and live performance by artist Laura Ní Fhlaibhín exploring ideas of kinship, ritual and nourishment commissioned by The Glucksman in partnership with Cork Midsummer Festival.
Across the duration of an casadh, local earthworms will live within sculptural cocoons processing organic waste into vermicompost. In their interconnected ovoid homes these creatures will turn over the soil to generate rich fertilizer, focusing attention on the ecological co-existence which occurs all around us. Located at multiple spaces in Elizabeth Fort, artist Laura Ní Fhlaibhín will activate the exhibition through performances that consider the historical significance of the site as a women’s convict depot. Ní Fhlaibhín draws upon personal experience of endometrial illness through sculptural assemblage and ritual to consider health, virility and restoration in an environment seeped with the memory of incarceration.
A publication featuring writings by the artist and invited contributors Beulah Ezeugo, Laura Fitzgerald and Emily Steer will interpolate themes of illness, care and ecological entanglement.
Laura Ní Fhlaibhín is an artist from Wexford. She combines myth, personal recollection and oral histories through sculptural elements and writing. Her work often draws upon modes of care - of self and others, humans and animals, objects and materials.
an casadh is curated by Katie O’Grady, curator of Exhibitions and Projects at The Glucksman and has been developed with biologists at University College Cork’s School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, local community gardening initiatives through Cork City Council, intermittent land-use project Test Site and members of Cork Folklore Project. an casadh is funded by a project award from the the Arts Council of Ireland, and created for the Cork Midsummer Festival.
Artist: Laura Ní Fhlaibhín
Glucksman Curator: Katie O’Grady
Writing Contributors: Beulah Ezeugo, Laura Fitzgerald, Emily Steer
Glucksman Assistant Curator: Julie Landers
Special Thanks Dr. Fidelma Butler, Dr. Israel Ikoyi, Glucksman Director Fiona Kearney, Glucksman Curators Tadhg Crowley + Meadhbh Healy, Donal O’Leary, Soil Savers Cork, TEST SITE, Declan Synnott, James Furey, Jack Murphy, Éist Radio + Cork City Council
