Opening Reception Saturday 13 September at 5:30pm

VISUAL present a major exhibition by Sean Lynch, Ireland’s representative at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Over the last decade, Lynch’s installations, sculptures and publications have explored the subjective layers of Irish history and offered alternative readings of the influences that shape our society today.

The exhibition includes a new work commissioned by VISUAL and the Local Authority Arts Office; For the Birds is based upon the medieval Irish myth of An Buile Suibhne, or the Frenzy of Sweeney. Cursed to be half-man, half-bird, Sweeney hopped throughout Ireland lamenting his woes in lyrical verse, until he reached a farmhouse in St. Mullins in Co. Carlow where he found a strange form of kindness – each evening he was invited to drink milk out of a bowl of cowdung. In collaboration with sculptor Tom Fitzgerald, Lynch reimagines this scene in the context of Carlow’s contemporary agricultural industry.

An accompanying catalogue designed by Wayne Daly will feature an in-depth essay on Lynch by critic and lecturer Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith.

Associated Events:

Carlow Farmers Market pop-up

Fri 19th September

11am – 6pm

Free

Come and celebrate the local farming harvest in VISUAL’s gallery spaces

An Buile Suibhne and the St. Mullins connection

Heritage Centre St Mullins

Sat 4th October

2pm

Free

Walking tour of St Mullins with storyteller Aideen McBride, in partnership with Feile an Fomhair and the Carlow Walking Festival. For more information on the festivals, contact Carlow Tourism on 059 – 9130411. Places are limited, advance booking recommended

Women and the Modern Movement in Rural Ireland

Thurs 9th October

7.30pm

€5

Kindly supported by the ICA

Book Launch and Artists talk

Sean Lynch in Conversation with Caoimhín Mac Giolla Leith

Sat 22nd November

3.00pm

Free

Responses to Sweeney – Carlow Writers Co-op

GB Shaw Bar

Sun 16th November

3pm

Free

An afternoon of readings of new work by Carlow Writers Co-op in response to the themes of Sean Lynch’s exhibition and the Sweeney myth