Former iCRAG Artist in Residence Martina O'Brien has a current exhibition in Leitrim Sculpture Centre as part of the Land, Ecology and Environment Research Residencies.
For her exhibition called "in fracture zones", Martina combines moving-image, the re-use of decommissioned agricultural glass and sculptural installation. This new body of work explores similar x, y coordinated data assemblages to consider how industry transforms territories into readable maps of prospective resources. Created following conversations and collaborations with iCRAG researchers, the pieces include an interpretation of data from mine sites in Ireland.
With increasing frequency, technologies and scientific methods for visualization, sonification, calculation, mapping, prediction and simulation serve as a conduit for our interactions with Earth. Geological resources, formally mapped through surveys and field observation, are now studied through advanced remote sensing technologies. As a result, through and in media we understand the planet as an object to form cognitive, practical and emotional relationships with. For example, nations define oceans through a process that begins on land. Based on a mass of observations and data points, the precise boundary between saltwater and solid ground is determined, as well as what populates an ocean and how.
The Landscape, Ecology & Environment Research Residencies is a biannual project initiated at Leitrim Sculpture Centre during 2020. Now in its second rendition the programme provides artists with a wide range of supports for the development of new engagements with landscape, ecology and/or environmental contexts and themes and to develop from this work, new directions, approaches and methodologies within their own practice.
For more on Martina's residency in iCRAG, visit the iCRAG Artist in Residence page.