The bog has always occupied a central role in Irish life, in our folklore, history and home life. We are delighted to present Bogland, a major exhibition examining the relationship of art to the boglands over the past 50 years, curated by RHA Director, Patrick T Murphy.

We have no prairies
To slice a big sun at evening–
Everywhere the eye concedes to
Encroaching horizon,

Is wooed into the cyclops’ eye
Of a tarn. Our unfenced country
Is bog that keeps crusting
Between the sights of the sun

Bogland by Seamus Heaney

Commencing in the 1970s with some of our most esteemed late 20th Century artists, the exhibition will gather together works by Camille Souter, Barrie Cooke, Veronica Bolay, Sean McSweeney and others. These artists share a poetic relationship to the landscape of the bog, from the blanket bogs of Wicklow, Sligo and Mayo to the deep standing bogs of the midlands the work examines the mute colours, light and special vistas of these unique topographies.

Bog as the site of ritual and mythology will also be treated in the work of Hughie O’Donoghue, Nigel Rolfe and Patrick Hough spanning across media from painting through performance art to film. Topics such as the preservation offered by the special chemical composition of peat, the idea of memory embedded in the landscape and the sometimes violent nature of ancient sacrifice are all probed by these artists.

The exhibition will also investigate the bog as a fuel source, both domestic and industrial. Amelia Stein’s large-scale analogue black and white photographs show the signs of labour from the bog – the mark of the cut, the rickling of sods, the stacking into ricks and the imaginative re-purposing of various materials to shelter the dried harvest.  Shane Hynan has documented the industrial milling of turf for fertiliser, briquettes and power generation. Hynan’s images document the elaborate machines, railway networks, and the general detritus of the now-defunct industrial process. Architect Tom De Paor will show documentation of this briquette house created for the 2001 Venice Biennale.

In the humorous work of Robert Ballagh and Laura Fitzgerald the use of oftentimes derogatory terms associated with the bog is turned over for a closer look at what is really being said.

The final section addresses the bog as a major player in the ecological recovery of the planet. Re-wetting, re-wilding, carbon sink and unique environment will be expressed through the installation work of Fiona McDonald, Catriona Leahy and Siobhan McDonald.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with contributions by Seamus Heaney, Colm Tobin and Marina Carr. An iteration of this exhibition will travel to Esker Arts Centre in Tullamore in Spring 2025.

Artist include: Robert Ballagh, Veronica Bolay, Tina Claffey, Patrick Collins, Barrie Cooke, Tom De Paor, Laura Fitzgerald, Patrick Hough, Shane Hynan, Finbar Kelly, Catriona Leahy, Fiona McDonald, Siobhan McDonald, Sean McSweeney, Hughie O’Donoghue, Nigel Rolfe, Noel Sheridan, Maria Simonds-Gooding, Camille Souter and Amelia Stein.