Lisa Fingleton is Kerry County Council’s first Visual Artist in Residence. The residency is supported by Creative Ireland, The Arts Council and Kerry’s Arts Office.
Lisa is no stranger to working with the Arts Office, having been Filmmaker in Residence from 2006-2008 and in 2015. She recently completed a Municipal District Project “The Swimming Flagstone” with Rena Blake in Lixnaw in 2019, as well as showcasing her work at the Kerry Visual Artists Showcase, facilitating drawing workshops at festivals and being awarded various arts bursaries, over the years.
Lisa Fingleton is an artist, filmmaker, writer and grower. Living and working on a small organic, social farm near the sea, she has spent many years cultivating deep-rooted connections between art, food and farming. Her book The Local Food Project explores the power of growing and eating local food. Lisa is concerned about the fact that we are importing so much of our food and losing the capacity to be self sufficient, despite what we know about climate change and carbon footprint.
She strives to ‘be the change’ she wishes to see in the world and likes to walk the talk, grow the food and integrate life with her studio practice. For the last number of years she has been working closely with her partner Rena Blake on The Barna Way, an ecological art project on their farm. Last year they planted 10000 native trees on their land with Greenbelt. She is fascinated about the interconnection between Land (Tallamh), Teanga (Language) and Environment (Timpellacht) and how this cross fertilisation can inform our actions in the future.
As part of her residency, Lisa would like to work with the people of Kerry to explore the cross sections between creativity and issues, such as climate action and biodiversity, helping them to connect with the world around them.
Lisa says; “In the past artists painted often very idealised landscapes. What this global pandemic has shown us is our vulnerability, but also our capacity to adapt to unprecedented change and now we are being called to re-explore our relationship with nature and how we represent her.”
The residency is supported by Creative Ireland and Kerry County Council Arts Office. This week saw the launch of Creative Climate Action a new funding stream to “spark imaginations and to make tangible what ‘carbon footprints’ and ‘climate action’ really mean for individuals and communities”. The timing of this residency is particularly pertinent and Lisa Looks forward to supporting people to explore these issues.
As a socially engaged professional artist Lisa brings almost 20 years experience of creating work, installing exhibitions, editing films, engaging with communities/audiences and delivering public art projects. Lisa received an MA in documentary film at Goldsmiths College, London in 2015. She is also a Fine Art graduate from NCAD. According to Lisa: “I am very aware of the challenges for artists at the current time with galleries and venues closed. At a time when we have never been more physically isolated, I welcome this opportunity to virtually collaborate and work in partnership with other artists and communities online
Lisa will commence her residency in mid-April and any individuals, artists, groups and schools interested in mentoring and being part of these projects should contact the Arts Office on arts@kerrycoco.ie / 066 7183541 for further information.
Photo Credit: Rena Blake