an casadh (the turn)

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 in 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. 

Funded by the Arts Council, and created for 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