Douglas Hyde Gallery March 28 - June 23 2024

The Quickening, is a powerful sound and moving image artwork by Deirdre O’Mahony, curated by Georgina Jackson and produced by Georgina Jackson & Éilis Lavelle.

Commissioned by The Douglas Hyde Gallery and supported by an Arts Council of Ireland Project Award.

Bringing together urgent conversations, original music and moving image, The Quickening responds to issues facing farming, food production and consumption, in the face of present ecological and climate crises. A nationwide project, the culmination of over three years of research, it opened in an ambitious exhibition at The Douglas Hyde on March 29th with a Walls & Halls Tour in community spaces and farms in Carlow, Waterford, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Wicklow, and Wexford, from April 18th to May 4th 2024.

The Quickening emerged from gathering together and conversations. O’Mahony’s ‘Sustainment Experiments’ feasts generated open and frank discussions between between farmers, scientists and politicians which, transcribed, have become a libretto for this impactful new work. The libretto was developed by O’Mahony and writer Joanna Walsh, and is voiced and accompanied by singers and musicians, each with a distinctive pitch, style, pace and vocabulary.