29.10.2022 - 03.12.2022
Tipperary, Ireland

When: Sat 29 Oct - Sat 03 Dec 2022
Opening: Friday, 28 October 6 - 8 pm
Where: South Tipperary Arts Centre, 1 Nelson Street, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, E91 W658
Curated by Helena Tobin and Anne Mullee

She'll Give You All She Has
Orla Barry, Laura Fitzgerald and Chloe Mc Keown

The female relationship with agriculture, the family farm and the division of labour has become more visible in recent years, both in the growing visibility of women farmers and as an area of research for women artists.

The idea of 'the rural', here variously understood as issues relating to farming, the countryside and animal husbandry, is the focus of these three artists, Orla Barry, Laura Fitzgerald and Chloe Mc Keown.

Each connects to the landscape in different ways. Barry has experience of both being an artist and a shepherd (she has bred pedigree Llyen sheep), Fitzgerald was brought up by a farmer, and Mc Keown lives in (relatively) rural Co Meath. Yet the research and focus of each is very different, extending from the anxieties and challenges of balancing careers as shepherd-artist (Barry), an occasionally fraught relationship with the countryside (Fitzgerald), and the often callous nature of breeding cattle (Mc Keown).

In She'll Give You All She Has the artists tackle these concerns through a mixture of objects, sound, print, writing and video. The works are woven through with absurdity, tragedy, humour and the kind of emotional detachment familiar to readers of contemporary farming manuals.

For more information please visit South Tipperary Arts Centre.

Image: Laura Fitzgerald, still from A Mountain for Venice, 4K colour video with sound, 2021.
Intro image: Chloe McKeown, 'Henryetta Cow', still from HD video