BA in Visual Art Sherkin Island 2009 - Update - Dublin Institute of ...

artist
title
medium
Jill Hegarty
Dish of the Day… Sherkin Oysters in Season
Installation detail
This is a cultural fluidity between Art and Commerce. Art reflecting on the connectivity between work and the
environment. Sherkin is an Island. Therefore its surrounding environment is water. I see this as a work capsule.
Oyster farming takes advantage of the Atlantic Ocean’s gravitational pull of the tides. The Moon is the clock
setting the rhythms of access to the oyster beds. Man steps into the natural world and nurtures nature over time
to produce an oyster fit for market.
Through my work I look at stages involved or related to this development from farm to food chain. This also
brings to attention the fleeting, fragile nature of human labour working in unison with the elements and individuals
in constant collaboration throughout the process. One of my influential artists is Pierre Huyghe who ‘has asserted
the work of art as a zone of activity, a form filled with human interactions, political and social phenomena’
(Bourriaud, 2006). My interdisciplinary interpretation of industrious activity on Sherkin led me, in giving form to
these factors, to work with photography, drawing, film, sound, sculpture, paint and paper. In contrast to the rural
domain on the island I have introduced some references to my own urban situation in my presentation.
I see this work as art reflecting life grappling with water. I want the viewer to stop and think about the struggle,
the time and timing of operating in this challenging environment and the lengthy process involved (in fact, 2.5
years per batch). Thereby, years to make – seconds to break.
tel: 087 2856404 / 01 8436839
email: jillhegarty@gmail.com