Finding poetic and critical space 

 

Since 2006 I have had a temporary studio within Ballydermot Works, an industrial peat excavation site on the Bog of Allen, Ireland, operated by Bord na Móna. 

I am not the only outsider there. A large pile of biomass made up of olive pellets and palm kernel shells lay up the road at the Power Station, where Locomotives offload wagons of milled peat from the site to feed clouds to the iconic tower with its red and white stripes. It seemed the right contrapuntal space to develop a poetic yet critical perspective on the reality of working and living within a Site of Ecological Tension. Engaging with some of the workers and with the site of their labour has shaped my work, combining elements of Painting, Conversations and Site Actions.

 

PLOT / CEAPACH was seeded at this site. It continues to explore the complexities and stories that are interlaced with a people's relationship with land, with sea, with each other and with the urgent need to make a living at critical and contested sites. Such sites include the Bog of Allen, the Atlantic Blanket Bog, the West Coast of Ireland and the Northern European coastline of Fryslan (Netherlands). My practice does not privilege the exotic over the local, or the narrative of expert knowledge over that of lived experience. The work attempts, instead, to reveal the many distinct voices and imaginings. 

 

Monica de Bath 2015