Muck
Transcript
stuck.
fuck.
no ideas
where to begin
slipping between first and third person
me or her
I can’t move it on
how did it come to this
here.
now.
back in this place
stone
rock
bare scraped land
slippy memories
murky times
half recalled half-buried.
‘the gagging suction of a leechlike past’.
all that fucking grind
trying to make sense of it all
i just haven’t got it.
can’t do it
stuck
once all i did was make
fearless
yet full of fear
sometimes the head has no clue
this sluggish body
walking
stumbling
slipping
breathing hard.
slipped and sucked down into the muck.
legs won’t move
immobile, helpless,
dependant on others for support.
they smile and i hear my mother’s voice:
i need my independence.
all that knowledge accumulated on an unstable surface.
slipping, haunted by uncertainty.
up it surfaces,
clings,
slime,
mud,
muck.
sucks.
a past that won’t release its grip,
that contains its own form of possessiveness
all that stuff replaying
now what?
how the fuck do i do this?
i just can't do it.
stuck.
fuck.
Sound Recording
Bob Brennan
Photography
Saskia Vermeulen
Deirdre O’Mahony
Deirdre O’Mahony lives and works in Ireland. She has an impressive 30 year track record in making work across sculpture, painting, installation and participatory projects. At the centre of this work is her interest in the politics of landscape, rural/urban relationships, rural sustainability and food security. From large-scale paintings produced by tracing the shadows of boulders in the Burren National Park to setting up community spaces in the aftermath of a local conflict, X-PO (2007–) she deftly considers the role of art in bringing together diverse communities, alternate forms of knowledge, embracing art as a critical space to help us see things differently.
O’Mahony’s sound and moving image artwork, The Quickening, was commissioned and presented in a ground-breaking exhibition at The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dublin in 2024—and simultaneously screened in rural farms, halls and barns across the South-East of Ireland. Awards include Arts Council of Ireland Project and Bursary awards, Irish and international residencies and a Pollock-Krasner Fellowship. Her work is in public and private collections including the Arts Council of Ireland and the Irish Museum of Modern Art.