6pm
Sheridans, 14 Churchyard St.
GRUTS BUFFET
THE DOMESTIC GODLESS
MIND MEITHEAL
DEIRDRE O’MAHONY
GRAIN 1-4
SADHBH GASTON
(NOV 2 – 18)
To mark the conclusion of Syntonic State, TULCA in partnership with CERERE present a newly commissioned event by The Domestic Godless. Inspired by the theme of Cereal Renaissance in Rural Europe (CERERE), Gruts Buffet will explore the culturally and historically entangled relationship between society and food, elucidating ironies, complexities, and contested narratives from distinctive heritage varieties. With their irreverent disregard for current fashions and culinary trends, The Domestic Godless will explore and experiment, challenging norms and provoking new understandings of taste, presentation, histories and cultural values of cereals combined inventively with other foods.
Social interaction with the audience is instrumental to the praxis of The Domestic Godless. The audience will be active participants in discussions of how the heritage cereals have been utilised, catalysing further discussions and reflections with actors using their own lenses and perspectives to re-interpret and re-apply. Along with the general public, other attendees will include invited guests & representatives of 13 CERERE partners from across the EU, members of CERERE’s Mind Meitheal by commissioned artist Deirdre O’Mahony, including agronomists, farmers, social scientists, policy makers, heritage NGO representatives, historians, chefs, food processors, and artists. With members chosen from an interrogative process employed by O’Mahony among people passionate about heritage cereals, the Mind Meitheal approach serves to amplify the inspiration provided by The Domestic Godless in generating new, cross-sectoral imaginings for heritage cereals renaissance.
For the duration of Syntonic State, artist Sadhbh Gaston’s fabric banners and cross-stitch embroideries, Grain 1-4, will be installed outside Sheridans. Accompanying each piece is a diptych articulating the seed’s lifecourse and interactions with human suppliers, cultivators, harvesters and processors.
The Domestic Godless were founded by artists Stephen Brandes, Mick O’Shea and Irene Murphy under the Cork Artist’s Collective banner at the exhibition Artists/Groups at The Project Arts Centre, Dublin in 2003.
Since then, it has been their mission to explore the potential of food (its taste, its presentation, its history and its cultural values) as a vehicle for irreverent artistic endeavour and experimentation. Through recipes, installations and public presentations they employ food as both a concept and a medium through which to convey humour, empathy and other qualities that distinguish art from purely craft.
Sadhbh Gaston uses stitch to examine agriculture and labour. Interrogating ideas through the time and extreme focus inherent to the medium. She worked with the exhibition SKIN/NAKH/ODA in both Cork and Estonia. She is currently working out of Sample Studios in Cork.
Deirdre O’Mahony’s art practice is grounded in collaborative engagements with rural publics and contexts, examining ideas of sustainability, food security and rural/urban relationships through food-based projects. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and she received Arts Council project awards and bursaries, international residencies and fellowships.
Funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme, CERERE connects scientists with practitioners and involves farmers, food scientists, sociologists, agronomists and many others interested in heritage cereals. Led by Áine Macken-Walsh, the Irish partner in CERERE is Teagasc, Ireland’s Agriculture and Food Development Authority. A central mission of Teagasc in CERERE is to broker innovation between diverse actors in how the renaissance of Ireland’s heritage cereals is imagined and practised.
