Graft, developed and curated by the National Sculpture Factory and the Glucksman has commissioned five artists to create new temporary sculptural interventions in Cork City, which launched on September 17th and will run in situ til 30th Oct. Designed to transform, disrupt and celebrate the existing built environment, the project brings a temporary cultural transformation to Cork’s urban realm inviting the public to view the new artworks at a safe distance as offered by outdoor presentations.

The five artists are Seoidín O’Sullivan, Adam Gibney, Vanessa Donoso Lopez, Bríd Murphy and Linda Quinlan.

The five commissions are now available to view across Cork city. The artworks reveal and present themselves at different points of the day whether dictated by the tidal flow of the River Lee, the shift to evening light, or the opening hours of the English Market, Bishop Lucy Park and UCC campus. We hope that you will take the time to explore Graft by downloading the guide map and using the information on the artist’s individual pages to inform your visit.

Find further details on graftcork.com.

Vanessa Donoso López is producing a series of over 100 kiln-fired clay ‘manuports’ – stone-like ceramics embedded with intricate designs and patterns. The term denotes an object that has been carried one from location to another and, in her display of these works, Donoso López will cluster groups of the works along the banks of the River Lee. Over the course of GRAFT, the works will be intermittently submerged, partially visible through the water, as well as occupying embankments and outcroppings of land.

Location: River Lee

Linda Quinlan‘s work will engage with Cork city’s renowned English Market. Her painted designs of oysters, lemons, and other foodstuffs will adorn a series of customised aprons worn by the market traders of its various stalls and shops, and will be activated through their interactions with visitors and customers.  In creating this new work, Quinlan captures the living vibrant spirit of the market and develops a sumptuous visual vocabulary that will appeal to both appetite and our senses; taste, smell and touch.

Location: English Market

Bríd Murphy is producing a series of new films that capture compressed and cramped bodies situated within apartments. Highlighting the lack of suitable, affordable accommodation for young people due to the ongoing housing crisis, and the need to share confined spaces at a time of lockdown restrictions, the films will be projected from inside a city centre building, visible through the windows to the outside public.

Location: former Liam Ruiseal bookshop, Oliver Plunkett Street

Adam Gibney‘s project comprises a series of 3D printed, solar-powered loudspeakers arranged in a network throughout Cork city centre. For GRAFT, these speakers convey a sentence across multiple audible points, enunciating a phrase that audiences can follow from one speaker to another. By manipulating everyday objects and phrases, Gibney attempts to highlight the relationship between scientific uncertainties and the anxious state we sometimes occupy.

Location: University College Cork

Seoidín O’Sullivan is producing a new series of swing-like sculptural works for a Cork public park. Suspended overhead from tree branches, these objects use copper-plated text to draw a range of connections between Cork and Zambia, cooper mining, Afrofuturism, space exploration, and her own family background. They encourage viewers to gaze skyward, reading embossed quotations from independent Zambia’s pioneering first president Kenneth Kaunda.

Location: Bishop Lucey Park