Noelle Noonan and Catherine Hehir (Hehir & Noonan)
Contested Space
24 June to 15 July 2024

Studio Open to the public on Monday and Wednesday

After being immersed in research and field trips in our previous residency our aim now is to distil that research to develop and create new artwork. Last year’s residency at Uillinn enabled us to be embedded in the terrain, this developed our sensorial engagement with the land and the environment leading us to greater understanding of how the work can expand and evolve. Soil has become a central focus, we find the complexity of soil intriguing in the fact that it sits below the surface and informs what is above, on one hand it is a stable solid mass, and, on another level, it is porous teeming with hyphae and mycelium. One discovery of our research is the development of chromatography (testing of the soil). We find this very interesting as this is a visual interpretation of the soils profile indicating fertile or depleted soil. During the year we took part in a workshop and have learned how to make chromatography samples, we now wish to develop a series of images that will become part of an immersive installation.

Our intention for this residency is to shift the focus to a making and thinking space, this will grant us concentrated time to look at, assemble, absorb, reflect, and possible reject the work and research accumulated to date.

We envisage the work developing into an assemblage of multiple forms that symbolically and thematically reflect on the erasure and silent demise of the earth. In tandem with this we intend to gather our findings in the form of an artist book.

We are drawn to surfaces of the land, the indexical trace, and experiential practices of materiality. This shift in our work is developing a new legacy of inquiry into the Land. Our residency at Uillinn will further explore this legacy, test new processes and technologies & refine our level of execution.

We made contact with a number of artists and a geologist last year; we wish to further explore these connections during the upcoming residency. We will invite participation from visitors to the studio encouraging them to question the work and offer their thoughts on ideas relating to Contested Space.

Noelle Noonan and Catherine Hehir are Irish artists who work both independently and collaboratively using several different mediums but primarily print and print installation. Our interest lies in our cultural history and current events that shape the Irish and World landscape from the geographical to the political. The cultural archive is a critical element of our research; these various repositories of information are often the starting point for strong debate. Arising from our subjective perceptions and encompassing ideas relating to the physical, the metaphysical, the political and the mundane, the work coalesces into a unified response. Our work embraces many different forms, including temporary interventions, permanently sited sculptural installations, and curatorial programmes. In recent years they have developed two strong collaborative partnerships Hehir & Noonan and The State of Print. Hehir& Noonan co-founded the State Of Print with international partners in the Scotland, Spain and the UK.

https://www.instagram.com/thestateofprint/

https://m.facebook.com/p/Hehir-Noonan-100079463687007/

https://www.facebook.com/TUS.LSAD/

https://www.facebook.com/CrawfordCollegeofArtandDesign

https://www.instagram.com/lsadlimerick/

https://www.instagram.com/fine_art_and_education_at_tus

https://www.instagram.com/mtu_crawford

noellenoonan.ie

https://stateofprint.com/

Noelle Noonan & Catherine Hehir
Right of Soil
3 July to 31 July 2023
Studio open to visitors on Mondays

Catherine Hehir and Noelle Noonan are Irish Artists who work both independently and collaboratively. This collaborative undertaking at Uillinn offers us space to expand and develop our current project.

The Right of Soil will interrogate soil through the lens of the political, the cultural and the scientific with a view to testing, researching, and creating new artworks. Hehir & Noonan will look beyond the commodification and monetary value of soil seeing earth as a natural body that encapsulates the social and biological evolution of man. We will explore ideas from the micro to the macro. This research will address questions of territory and the resilience of the earth in its most direct form – as soil, to the changes that are imposed upon it over time. The research will collect and examine a diverse series of soil samples and discuss the relationships between their scientific content and cultural significance. Investigating the structure of the soil, taking samples and testing them scientifically to understand the intricacies of the pedosphere. Samples will be collected from a ‘contested site’ or boundary/border, a defunct border crossing, historical regional boundaries, superimposed boundaries or a geographical anomaly for example. The research will explore the principles of Jus Solis and Jus Sanguinis and the practice of migrants or itinerants carrying with them samples of home (soil).

The residency enables us to have immersion in the landscape and access to the archipelago in the surrounding waters of West Cork. Our research methods will focus on gathering content through sound and video recordings, drone footage, pin hole photography, frottage, drawing, soil sampling and casting at these sites. We also will develop and record ephemeral interventions at the sites. The studio access will allow us to pilot and test potential outcomes in response to the evolving field trip/interactions/discussions – experimenting with a range of media and innovative and expanded print processes. We see this initial collaboration has the potential to be developed into a large scale project.

The project will invite participation from the local community including landowner, islanders and farmer etc. Visitors to the studio will similarly be invited to participate and contribute by way of a questionnaire in order to explore the nature of borders in the 21st century – and how these might be considered in the future.

Noelle Noonan and Catherine Hehir are Irish artists who work both independently and collaboratively using a number of different mediums but primarily print and print installation. Our interest lies in our cultural history and current events that shape the Irish landscape from the geographical to the political. The cultural archive is a critical element of our research; these various repositories of information are often the starting point for strong debate. Arising from our subjective perceptions and encompassing ideas relating to the physical, the metaphysical, the political and the mundane the work coalesces into a unified response. Our work embraces many different forms, including temporary interventions, permanently sited sculptural installations, and curatorial programmes.

@thestateofprint
@crawfordprintmedia
@lsadlimerick

https://www.noellenoonan.ie/
http://stateofprint.com/
https://lsadprint.ie/

WCAC acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council and Cork County Council in making these residencies possible.