Parallel Lands at
Artlink Fort Dunree
20.01.26
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PARALLEL Lands brings
together new works by Newfoundland artists Michael
Flaherty, Susan Furneaux, and Kym Greeley, curated by
Philippa Jones as part of the international partnership
between Artlink with CRUX (Newfoundland, Canada). Their
works reflect a deep dialogue with the land and sea,
revealing how Ireland and Newfoundland, divided by the
Atlantic, are bound by parallel histories of settlement,
loss, resilience, and belonging. |
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Parallel Lands at Fort
Dunree is opening on Sunday 25th January 2026 from 2pm
to 4pm and will run from 26th January to 22nd February
2026, everyday from10am to 4pm.
During their residencies with Artlink, the artists
immersed themselves, gathering objects, stories,
friendships, inspiration and materials from Donegal.
Initially drawn to Ireland to reconnect with their
ancestors, their resulting artwork investigates ‘home’,
not as a fixed territory but as a shifting, relational
space defined by kinship, memory, and placemaking.
Responding to their time in Ireland, the artists
illuminate how cultural memory, material practice, and
the land itself shape our attempts to belong.
During his residency, Michael Flaherty responded to the
rhythms of the Atlantic, constructing a loom that wove
with the incoming and outgoing tide. Building upon this
artistic collaboration with the elements, Flaherty has
gathered pottery shards and re-cast these discarded
fragments of past lives in ceramic. Drawing on Ireland
and Newfoundland’s rich fibre craft, Flaherty learnt
crochet, a familiar domestic craft associated with
comfort. Tenderly embedding the shards within the
crochet as a vessel of repair, the blankets both hold
and expose what cannot be made whole again.
Susan Furneaux has worked with foraged fibres, threads
and adornments to create small vessels and baby boots,
objects resonant with memory and mourning. These works
honour the 354 men from Newfoundland who perished in the
1917 sinking of the Laurentic off the Donegal coast.
Through delicate handwork, Furneaux memorialises both
personal and collective grief, grounding loss in the
material intimacy of fibres gathered from Newfoundland
and Ireland.
Kym Greeley turns to the architecture and folklore of
abandoned Irish homes, sculpting seabricks and
talismanic objects inspired by the concealed charms she
found hidden in derelict chimneys: bottles, shoes,
knots, and nails, to ward off evil. Her ceramic knots,
inspired by nautical folktales, once believed to release
or hold the wind, are here permanently fixed, reflecting
our lack of control in an era of climate catastrophe.
Wallpaper motifs of bracken fern, a symbol of rewilding
and traditionally burnt to bring the rains, extend her
exploration of domestic fragility and nature’s
reclamation. When the home is abandoned and the house
collapses, leaving only protective talismans and the
nails that once held it together, we are reminded that
neither structural strength nor superstition can prevent
time’s passage. Yet these gestures of protection and
homemaking endure, resonating beyond their moment and
place to form the culture, traditions, and familial
bonds that transcend the Atlantic, country boundaries
and generations.
Martha McCulloch, project coordinator at Artlink, noted
the relevance of the opening date:
“The exhibition opens on January 25th, a date of deep
significance marking the anniversary of the sinking of
the HMS Laurentic. It is an honour to acknowledge this
moment through art, remembrance, and a shared past.”
Don O’Neil, a Newfoundland native, now living in
Inishowen & organiser of the Laurentic Forum, emphasised
the value of the work on display: “This is an
exceptional exhibition that deserves to be seen. It
offers a powerful opportunity to reflect, remember and
connect with an important part of our shared history
that still resonates today.”
For further information please contact a member of the
Artlink Team on 083 8696513. |
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