VISUAL is pleased to present Between A Rock and A Hard Place by Irish artist Deirdre O’Mahony. This exhibition brings together pieces from two bodies of work: Erratics (1996) and Wrap (1998 – 2000).

These works were made in the Burren in Co. Clare following O’Mahony’s relocation there from London in the early ‘90s. At the time, there was division locally and nationally over the proposed construction of a visitor centre in the Burren. The perceived benefits of attracting tourism were being weighed against the potential damage to a unique ecology and landscape, and protests and public debate preceded the partial construction and subsequent deconstruction of the centre. These works act as a record of the socio-political atmosphere relating to the Burren, and also tie in to the artist’s ongoing concern with ecological questions and their human and social impact.

These works were made both in and about the landscape of the Burren, specifically the area’s large erratic boulders - rocks that have been transported to a foreign landscape by shifting ice. These rocks litter the area known as the Giant’s Playground beneath Mullaghmore. O’Mahony used specific techniques to create abstract ‘portraits’ of these objects, tracing the boulder’s shadows in the Erratics series and making rubbings and imprints in the Wrap series. In employing the language of abstraction that was a hallmark of teaching during her time at Central St. Martins in London, O’Mahony brought her studio practice into direct dialogue with the landscape.

These paintings reflect a specific time in the artist’s practice and in the debate around preservation versus progress, a conversation that still divides opinion, even as it grows more urgent.

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To coincide with this exhibition, VISUAL have partnered with Askeaton Contemporary Arts to reprint Between A Rock and A Hard Place, originally published in 2021 featuring a long-form illustrated interview with O’Mahony.

Also included is a documentary film that includes original RTÉ footage of O’Mahony working on the Erratics series, and The other’s Other, a commissioned text by Laura Fitzgerald, which is available in the gallery and on VISUAL’s website.

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Deirdre O’Mahony is a visual artist living in Ireland. For over thirty years she has investigated the political ecology of rural places through public engagement, exhibitions, writing and plantings. Her work has been presented in national and international exhibitions and biennales. Recent exhibitions include FARMWORK (2025) at Void Art Centre and The Quickening (2024), commissioned by The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dublin.

She has received numerous Arts Council of Ireland awards and residencies. Her work is public and private collections including the Arts Council of Ireland and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. She is a graduate of St Martins School of Art, London, Crawford College, Cork and completed a PhD at the University of Brighton in 2012.