Elinor O'Donovan: Róisín

Sample-Studios, Spike Island and Sirius Arts Centre present Róisín, a solo exhibition by visual artist Elinor O’Donovan in The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Fitzgerald’s Park, Cork City. Róisín culminates the Sample-Studios Spike Island Residency 2026 and broader research undertaken across Ireland and New York. It features a selection of new work that is both personal and speaks to the wider historical importance of Cork Harbour during a pivotal period of mass emigration after the Great Famine.

Róisín explores the life of Charlotte Grace O’Brien (1845–1909), O’Donovan’s great-great-great-great aunt. O’Brien was a writer, activist and plant collector who worked on behalf of Irish women emigrating to the United States in the late nineteenth century. She campaigned against the conditions they experienced in Queenstown, now Cobh, aboard ships and upon their arrival in New York. O’Donovan’s inquiry took her from Cobh to Dublin, Limerick and New York through archives, libraries, botanical collections and places connected to O’Brien.

The resulting film, Róisín, takes the form of a ‘desktop documentary’. It unfolds through a voice-over based on a script written by O’Donovan, illustrated with browser windows showing archival materials and photographs, digital drawings and footage shot in Cobh and New York. Accompanying the film is an installation that references the decorative floral plasterwork found in Irish state buildings, such as Leinster House. These motifs connect O’Donovan’s examination of O’Brien’s interests in botany, themes of femininity and the visual language of Irish nationhood.

O’Donovan states: “I am delighted to have been the recipient of the Sample-Studios Spike Island Summer Residency. This scheme has enabled me to research and create Róisín, which is my most ambitious project to date. This film is the culmination of three years of work, and involved regular dialogue with peers and staff at Sirius Arts Centre and Sample-Studios. I am excited to share this film with interested audiences in Cork City and further afield.”

Dorota Gubbins, Curator at Spike Island, states: “We were delighted to welcome Elinor to Spike Island this summer and to support her through this year’s Residency with Sample-Studios. She draws connections between fragments of Irish history while revealing unexpected resonances, creating a space for personal and sometimes overlooked stories to be re-examined and given new contemporary meaning. Now in its fifth year, this scheme continues to highlight the value of bringing visual art into dialogue with heritage sites, archival research and local histories.”

O’Donovan benefited from support provided by Sirius Arts Centre through access to its studio and apartment, production capacity and mentorship from Director Miguel Amado. He comments: “We are committed to enabling artists to produce new work that explores questions of place and diaspora, resonating with our position in Cork Harbour and the stories that shaped Cobh’s identity. The Sample-Studios Spike Island Residency is a pioneering partnership between organisations in Cork County and City invested in connecting art and history in innovative ways. Elinor’s response to this opportunity is exemplary, engaging with institutions and people associated with Cobh and wider historical themes through a personal lens.”

Artistic Director of Sample-Studios, Aoibhie McCarthy, reflects on an important milestone for this initiative: “The Sample-Studios Spike Island Summer Residency was established in 2021 and, to date, has offered 10 local visual artists a unique and focused context in which to develop ambitious new work in a range of artistic disciplines, drawing on the rich and vast history of this renowned heritage site as their inspiration. We’re grateful to Spike Island and Sirius Arts Centre as partners and for the ongoing support of The Arts Council of Ireland in making this opportunity available to artists annually.”

Róisín opens in Sample-Studios Gallery: The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Fitzgerald’s Park, on Saturday, October 10, 2026. The Opening Reception commences at 2pm in Cork Public Museum, Fitzgerald’s Park, where O’Donovan is in conversation with Dr Tom Spalding, an historian and Assistant Lecturer in Visual Culture at Munster Technological University, before continuing with a reception in The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion until 4:30pm.