The Landscape, Ecology & Environment Research Residencies (LEER) is a biannual project initiated at Leitrim Sculpture Centre in 2018. Now in its third rendition the programme provides artists with a wide range of support for the development of new engagements with landscape, ecology and/or environmental contexts and themes and to develop from this work, new directions, approaches and methodologies within their practice.
Each artist works with concepts generated across three research strands: ‘Contexts & Themes’; ‘Sites &Locations’ and ‘Strategies & Methodologies’. These are assembled in research portfolios that accompany the exhibition giving a unique insight into the different processes and orientations of each artist concerningthe wider contexts of landscape, ecology and environment.
Marielle MacLeman
OPENINGS (Ends.)
A preliminary survey of Ireland’s trees, OPENINGS (Ends.) considers the moments of slippage, weather events, anthropogenic activity, ecological gaps and legal loopholes which create the conditions for thresholds to be crossed. MacLeman’s themes and processes explore arboreal tipping points and limits through the relational antonyms of destruction and rebuilding, or light and shade – and the propensities of woodland inhabitants to thrive or fail in the prevalence of either. Translating impermanence in context-specific materials such as natural dyes and inks, felled and fallen trees, and daylight, she borrows the ducting, hazard tape and ropes used to demarcate access to sites of clear-felling and urban transformation and applies the decorative finishes and features of domesticity to call attention to complicity in the changing fates of forests. Bevelled forms are layered on paper made from leaves and lab coats, or impressed from the moulded door skins of the wood processing industry. These recall the wooden wall panelling of ‘big house’ estates where tangled histories encompass the first wave of alien species brought home by explorers and the gene banks and labs of forestry researchers responding to the invasives finding their way into forests now.
Marielle MacLeman was born in Scotland and lives in Ireland. Recent presentations of her work include commissions for Temple Bar Gallery + Studios at Dublin Art Book Fair 2022, Meta Dublin, TULCA’s UnSelfing Programme for Galway 2020, and Workhouse Union in collaboration with VISUAL. Solo exhibitions include Kunstverein Aughrim (2024), The Dock (Carrick-on-Shannon 2016), The LAB Gallery (Dublin 2019), Galway Arts Centre (2019), and forthcoming with CIMO at Ethnographic Museum (Zagreb), and Butler Gallery (Kilkenny). She has worked extensively in arts and health contexts on public art commissions, publishing, and participatory projects. Her work is in the Arts Council Collection and the collection of University of Galway and has been supported by awards from the Arts Council of Ireland, Galway City Council, Create, artsandhealth.ie, Scottish Arts Council and Glasgow City Council.
Noah Rose
LINGUASCAPE
Noah Rose’s work is fundamentally concerned with a cultural exploration of place and time through interdisciplinary sculpture. Led by context, he explores the invisible attributes of place through processes of deep mapping and location-based research, and the interpretation of historical events through archival research and dynamic participatory and socially-engaged practice. His practice moves across disciplines - centring around sculpture but incorporating drawing, installation, typography and archival research, amongst others. His career has developed a diverse methodology employing approaches such as the materialisation of language into object-making, investigation of material processes and a diverse range of strategies for situating work in public space to enable multilayered readings of landscape.
Noah Rose is based in County Galway and works across Ireland and internationally. His practice is predominantly place-led, and research-led, and often made and shown outside of galleries as site-responsive work for public space. He has undertaken many commissions, installations and collaborative multi-disciplinary projects across Ireland, the UK and internationally as well as solo and group exhibitions
Current projects in 2024 include: 2x research-led public commissions in Portacloy and Irishtown, Co.Mayo, a collaborative museum residency linking the Michael Davitt Museum, Co. Mayo with the Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery, Lancashire, UK and an upcoming group exhibition at Custom House, Westport, Co.Mayo.
Recent notable projects have been ‘Leabharlann. na gClocha Ceilte/ The Hidden Stone Library’ (2021) on Oileán Chléire/ Cape Clear Island, Co. Cork, ‘Peep Fiction’ (2019) ArtB&B, Blackpool UK, ‘Gobora Poko Auto’ (2018) for IPAC, Bhubeneswar, India, ’Cóitheach’(2017, collaboration with Selma Makela) in Belmullet & Blacksod, Co.Mayo as part of Tír Sáile residency/ symposium, ‘What Matter/ Cén t-údar’ at Leitrim Sculpture Centre (2016), ‘The Museum of Interconnected Events/ Músaem na dTáirluintí Idirnasca/El Museu d’Esdeveniments Interconnectats’ as part of ‘Changing Tracks’: Mayo, IRL/Girona, CAT/Northamptonshire, UK (2014).
He is currently studying towards a PhD at Glasgow School of Art. His research investigates the intersection between place, interdisciplinary sculpture and language, and looks at how minority languages can function as oral and written archives of collective knowledge specific to place and the materialisation of language through interdisciplinary sculptural practice.
Tim Collins and Reiko Goto Collins
HAKOTO: portach / bog
A sense of otherness in the creative process
We are interesting in hearing what cannot be heard and seeing what cannot be seen; our goal in much of what we do is to engage a sense of otherness through our creative practice. To meet that end we engage art and philosophy, a bit of science and a fair amount of technology to answer questions like what would it sound like if we could hear a Leitrim peat bog breathing? In this exhibition you will experience a view of some of the grand boglands of north western Ireland and hear photosynthesis and transpiration as it is revealed by HAKOTO a body instrument that has been adjusted for use on Irish boglands. There is a four screen presentation of a discourse with an artificial intelligence we call the bog whisperer, and finally viewers will be able to examine the HAKOTO body instrument and its bog staff.
The Collins + Goto Studio are known for long-term projects that involve socially engaged environmental research and practice; with additional interest in empathic relationships with more-than-human others. Methods include reading and writing, sculpture, and the use of a range of media, and technologies. Recent work involved the cultural meaning of conservation boglands and cutaway peatlands in Ireland Deep Mapping | Lough Boora Sculpture Park (2020). A focus on deep mapping of a Caledonian Pine Forest in Scotland: Future Forest: The Blackwood, Rannoch Scotland); Sylva Caledonia (2016); Caledonian Decoy (2017). An elucidation of photosynthesis and transpiration in the sculptural instrument Plein Air presented in Belgium (2022) North Carolina (2019) Glasgow (2017) and Cologne (2016).
Vanya Lambrecht Ward
Outwardly Digestion
Outwardly Digestion is a primary focus for many fungi. Reversing our traditional understanding of eating, feeding and interacting, fungi engage with their environment in ways that turn all our conventional concepts inside out. This fungal perspective encourages us to embrace otherness and explore new ideas, approaches and knowing. Vanya’s research during the residency delved deeply into these unique behaviours intra- and inter-actions of fungi. This dedicated period allowed for an in-depth exploration of decay, decomposition, transformation, and world-making processes. Through the making and unmaking of materials she explored her own relationship through the processes best performed by the fungal guests in her studio and this slower, time-sensitive approach enabled a nuanced and delicate observation of various phenomena, both visually and physically, and expanding comprehension of this extraordinary Queendom.
Vanya Lambrecht Ward is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work spans studio practice, research, and community engagement. Her art explores themes of environmental relationships, perception and systems thinking, focusing on fungal ecologies, processes and language. Her projects include residencies at the Leitrim County Council and Roots for the Future Research Residency, as well as commissions for Interface Inagh and the Dock Arts Centre. Vanya’s work sometimes culminates in publications or events, reflecting her observations and engagement with ecological in the public spheres and allowing for further conversations and intra-actions.
Based in Co. Sligo, she holds BA’s in Fine Art and Architecture, and an MA in Art in the Contemporary World from NCAD. Since 2018, she has been lecturing at YAADA, ATU Sligo. Her art is showcased both nationally and internationally and features in private and public collections, including Trinity College Dublin.
The Leitrim Sculpture Centre would like to thank all of the artists participating and the Arts Council who providedfinancial support for the project.
Seán O’Reilly, Curator (LEER)
