Laura Ní Fhlaibhín: an casadh (the turn)

The Glucksman and Cork Midsummer present an casadh (the turn) by Laura Ní Fhlaibhín—an offiste bio-sculptural installation hosted at the historic Elizabeth Fort, Cork City, from June 13 to 20.

an casadh unfolds this Cork Midsummer festival as a living installation of sculptural wormeries activated by the artist in her performance rituals tae na bpéist that consider the historical significance of the site as a women’s convict depot. This work explores kinship, ritual and nourishment, reflecting on how we are implicated in conditions that are at once sustaining and precarious.  

Across the exhibition, local earthworms will live within sculptural cocoons processing organic waste into vermicompost. In their interconnected ovoid homes these creatures will turn over the soil to generate rich fertilizer, focusing attention on ecological co-existence. Ní Fhlaibhín draws upon personal experience of endometrial illness through sculptural assemblage and ritual to consider health, vitality and restoration in an environment seeped with the memory of incarceration.  

A publication featuring writings by the artist and invited contributors Beulah Ezeugo, Laura Fitzgerald and Emily Steer will interpolate themes of illness, care and ecological entanglement.  

Laura Ní Fhlaibhín is an artist from Wexford. She combines myth, personal recollection and oral histories through sculptural elements and writing. Her work often draws upon modes of care - of self and others, humans and animals, objects and materials.  

an casadh is curated by Katie O’Grady, curator of Exhibitions and Projects at The Glucksman and has been developed with biologists at University College Cork’s School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, local community gardening initiatives through Cork City Council, intermittent land-use project TEST SITE and members of Cork Folklore Project. an casadh is funded by a Project Award from the Arts Council of Ireland, and created for the Cork Midsummer Festival. 

an casadh is open June 13 to 20 at Elizabeth Fort from 10am to 5pm.