Artist Talk: Rachael Champion | Bog Cultures

Hales Gallery is proud to announce Rachael Champion will be giving an artist talk in conjunction with the her site-specific installation Carbon Flux in Turraun Wetlands of Lough Boora, Ireland. The Pullough Heritage Community group will be hosting Bog Cultures, a selection of talks on 11 November, celebrating climate science, conservation, and contemporary art in the bog.

 

Carbon Flux is a site-specific installation which responds to the shifting nature of the regenerated peat bogs in the Irish Midlands.  Sited on the threshold between industry and conservation, Carbon Flux takes inspiration from the history of industrialised peat extraction and the current role of climate science in these remarkable landscapes.  Turraun was the first raised bog to produce peat for energy on an industrial scale in Ireland and subsequently one of the first commercial bogs to come out of peat production and rewetted for long-term ecological conservation.

Seven domed cylinders, varying in size and shades of Bord na Móna yellow are clad in corrugated iron, a material commonly used in the vernacular architecture of a working peat bog.  Imagery of microscopic biological life found in the peatlands adorn the interior spaces of the cylinders, bringing attention to the invaluable contribution these unseen algae play in the carbon cycle. The shape and forms of these sculptures are derived from the chamber-system method of manually collecting greenhouse gas emission data.

 

 

Rachael Champion

Pullough Co. Offaly

 

11 November 2017 - 12pm - 3pm