Harvest time in Skibbereen
An upcoming exhibition by Cork-based artist Debbie Godsell presents a dynamic intersection of history, tradition, custom and ethno-cultural perspectives, all viewed through the lens of the harvest.
Taking place in Uillinn in Skibbereen, the Flail exhibition opens on Saturday 22 February at 2pm and includes a gallery conversation between Debbie and art critic, broadcaster and writer Cristín Leach.
It also includes the live performance premiere of Harvesting History, a hymn-based response to Debbie's Flail, written by Cristín Leach, composed by Susan Nares and sung by the West Cork Choral Singers under the musical directorship of Susan Nares.
A spokesperson for Uillinn said: “Harvest time in Ireland is an annual event that has both divided and bound communities across all aspects of life for many centuries. Famine, war, religious tensions, social divisions, providentialist belief, love and folklore are all bound up in the complex rituals and labours related to the gathering in of grain.”
The exhibition at Uillinn builds upon Debbie's 2023 work, which re-examined the overlooked narratives in the historiography of collecting Protestant customs and beliefs in Irish museums and archives, mainly relating to the custom of harvest thanksgiving, which itself has rich and complex origins.
The spokesperson added: “Through an eclectic fusion of film, installation, printmaking and digital photography, Debbie re-evaluates our current understanding of identity construction, nationality and belonging within a multicultural contemporary Ireland, creating a vital space for dialogue in relation to a minority community and its inherent historical tensions and entanglements.”
Debbie Godsell studied at the TUS Limerick School of Art & Design and the MTU Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork where she graduated with an MA in Art. She makes work that is primarily lens-based and has evolved to produce outcomes both in two-dimensional works, sculptural forms and video.
Debbie’s work is collected by the National Gallery of Ireland, the OPW and the Crawford Gallery of Art as part of the National Collection.