Residency at Uillin, West Cork Arts Centre, Skibereen, Ireland
Castle island, Lough Hyne (2023) Night photograph, bioluminescent kayak
Where film and photography have always dealt with the tension between the haptic surface and the optic illusion, so the recorded marks of deep time reside in both the crevices and fissures of ecological landscapes, where particles are held in suspension for millions of years, and resilient species of plants feather the surface. It is in these places, often abandoned, marginal, rural or post-industrial, that the folds and layers of the Anthropocene can be recognised, brought to the surface by erosion, ruin or residues that reveal their human impact. My work is concerned with the site of ecological and geological remoteness, in places where the solitude and quietness of the landscape can reveal or develop a new way of looking and listening. These landscapes are contingent on political, cultural, geological and ecological experiences, and are places in which I develop non-toxic photographic plates, sound recordings and experimental films that explore our encounter with that which is beyond the immediately visible. As part of this residency, I am looking to explore the coastlines and trails to the ruins of the megalithic dolmens, to make an experimental film piece, photographic images and sound recordings that capture our encounter with these sacred spaces, while collecting rock pigments and grasses to create a second skin, or forensic pellicule on the surface of the image. Immersing myself in the landscape, I will draw on the bioluminescence of Lough Hyne, which speaks of the invisible made visible, to explore the traces we leave behind, and our estrangement from the natural world. Growing up in Argentina, in landscapes that are vast and unfathomable, with ancestors who came over from Ireland at the turn of the 19th century, I am looking to retrace that journey back, to a small extent, by communing with these landscapes, and translate this experience using durational film practices.
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Coomeetrush (the Secret) (2023)
Since starting the residency, I have been taking time to read about the famine history here in Skibereen which was among the worst affected regions of Ireland. The potato crop, creates a circular discourse: the potato was first domesticated in Peru, near Lake titikaca in pre Incan times. After the Spanish conquest, potato tubers, tomatos and corn were taken back to Spain and later to other parts of Europe as part of the Great Colombian Exchange (plunder might be a better word). In turn, the potato became the staple diet of Irelan, grown everywhere and useful as a source of food, that couldn’t be taken easily in times of war (as it grew underground). Where it became the monoculture, and a homogenized genetic strain was encouraged, when the blight hit Ireland, carried on an infected seedling, it easily spread and decimated the crop. This provoked the death of millions from starvation, hypothermia and disease in the 19th century. Those that survived, found a way out- emigration to the New World. Among them, my great great grandparents. Most sailed to the United States, but some thousands went to Argentina- which is how, in the end, I ended up growing up there. The potato that came from South America, by a twist of fate, ended up being the reason (or one of the reasons) why I grew up there. In Lough Hyne, the first marine protected lake in Europe, with its unique biodiversity and bioluminescent algae (the only lake in Europe to have bioluminescence), the light is activated by movement in the water- this leaves traces of blue sparkles, just as these traces of DNA, all but invisible, draw me back to these ancestral landscapes.
The Light Between Us (2023) Photographic c type prints, wooden batons, projected film, looped
VICTORIA AHRENS 