For The Birds - VISUAL

VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art &
The George Bernard Shaw Theatre

For The Birds

Sean Lynch & Tom Fitzgerald

12 Sep 2014 - 11 Jan 2015 |

Sean Lynch
Link and Studio Gallery
12th September – 11th January

VISUAL present a major exhibition by Sean Lynch, Ireland’s representative at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Over the last decade, Lynch’s installations, sculptures and publications have explored the subjective layers of Irish history and offered alternative readings of the influences that shape our society today.

The exhibition includes a new work commissioned by VISUAL and the Local Authority Arts Office; For The Birds is based upon the medieval Irish myth of Buile Suibhne, or the Frenzy of Sweeney. Cursed to be half-man, half-bird, Sweeney hopped throughout Ireland lamenting his woes in lyrical verse, until he reached a farmhouse in St. Mullins in Co. Carlow where he found a strange form of kindness - each evening he was invited to drink milk out of a bowl of cowdung. In collaboration with sculptor Tom Fitzgerald, Lynch reimagines this scene in the context of Carlow’s contemporary agricultural industry.

An accompanying catalogue designed by Wayne Daly will feature an in-depth essay on Lynch by critic and lecturer Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith.

Associated Events:
Carlow Farmers Market pop-up
Fri 19th September
11am – 6pm
Free
Come and celebrate the local farming harvest in VISUAL’s gallery spaces

Buile Suibhne and the St. Mullins connection
Heritage Centre St Mullins
Sat 4th October
2pm
Free
Walking tour of St Mullins with storyteller Aideen McBride, in partnership with Feile an Fomhair and the Carlow Walking Festival. For more information on the festivals, contact Carlow Tourism on 059 – 9130411. Places are limited, advance booking recommended

Book Launch and Artists talk
Sean Lynch in Conversation with Caoimhín Mac Giolla Leith
Sat 22nd November
3.00pm
Free

Responses to Sweeney – Carlow Writers Co-op
GB Shaw Bar
Sun 16th November
3pm
Free
An afternoon of readings of new work by Carlow Writers Co-op in response to the themes of Sean Lynch’s exhibition and the Sweeney myth