Artist Lisa Fingleton literally believes that drawing can radically change or indeed save the world. “The world is in crisis and we need new, creative solutions to transform the system. ‘Business as usual’ is serving neither people nor the planet. As artists we can literally start with a blank page and visualise a new future. Together we can creatively imagine a shifting paradigm. Art has the potential to lift us from solistalgia to radical and focused action and agency”. Solistalgia is a term coined by Glenn Albrecht to describe the grief of witnessing a degraded ecosystem around you.
The artist has been commissioned by Creative Ireland and IMMA (The Irish Museum of Modern Art) to create new work to respond to the climate crisis over the last few weeks.
Lisa worked with Creative Ireland over the three days of the National Ploughing Championship 2022 on the Creative Ireland Wall. She produced a large-scale Interactive drawing project (33 metres in length) called The Future Is In The Fields which responded live to the solutions for climate change offered by farmers. Lisa and a team (of farmers from Dingle and artists from Waterford Walls) interacted with hundreds of farmers at the event and drew their ideas onto the wall.
This project builds on her work as the embedded artist with Corca Dhuibhne Inbhuanaithe / A Creative Imagining, one of 15 projects being funded by Creative Ireland’s Creative Climate Action fund. She is working with farmers on the Dingle Penninsula to creatively look at ways in which they can diversify to address climate change.
After the Ploughing Championships the 100 foot wall was transported by the OPW to IMMA for the Earth Rising Festival. The wall is currently installed in the Garden Galleries and carries with it the traces from the fields in Laois. The marks from the rain and the soil are now embedded in the wall, creating a truly organic and time specific art work. According to Lisa “It was really challenging to draw outdoors at the ploughing in the lashing rain and watch the drawing streak on the walls but now I see how relevant that is in the context of climate change. As artists we are being asked to move beyond the ego to the eco. We are being asked to respond to the climate crisis and work in collaboration with nature. This wall literally was drawn with nature herself”.
Alongside the drawings in the Garden Galleries, Lisa is also showing a short film from the ploughing championships. She has also collaborated by Badly Made Books in Cork to create a limited edition journal for those attending the workshop.
The artist will be doing a talk at 11am and a workshop at 2pm Saturday 22nd October.
Earth Rising Events
THE FUTURE IS IN THE FIELD, Artist Talk, Lisa Fingleton
Time: 11am – 12pm / Sat 22nd Oct/ Location: Garden Galleries
Lisa Fingleton and a team spent 3 days at the National Ploughing Championships talking to hundreds of farmers in sunshine and rain about taking climate action and protecting biodiversity. She drew their ideas onto a 30-metre wall, which was then installed at IMMA. Supported by Creative Ireland, this project is an extension of Lisa’s role as the embedded artist with the Creative Climate Action Project: Corca Dhuibhne Inbhunaithe. Lisa and farmers from Dingle will talk about this project.
DRAWING TO SAVE THE WORLD, Lisa Fingleton
Time: 2 – 4pm / Sat 22nd Oct/ Location: Garden Galleries
Come draw the future you would like to see with artist Lisa Fingleton. Are you concerned about climate change, biodiversity loss and food security? Have you got ideas about how we can transform our food and farming systems? How can we transition to a fairer and more sustainable future?