Abridged 0 – 20: Abandoned Clare

Abandoned Clare was our collaboration with Deirdre O’Mahony as well as the second (and last) of our ‘Abandoned’ projects. Abridged, because of the nature of its creator was at that point a very urban vehicle. More tarmac and pebble-dash than fields and agriculture. Our ‘Abandoned’ series gave us the opportunity to work with artists, and importantly, a local artist to explore and articulate contemporary rural Ireland. It was an important project, articulating the ending of the ‘Celtic/Emerald Tiger’ aka the ‘boom’ years in the Republic and we were delighted how it turned out. O’Mahony is a very talented artist and it was great to work with her.

We never did do another ‘Abandoned’ project. For two reasons, firstly, we hadn’t much to add to Donegal and Clare. We felt it would be repetition. Secondly, lots of other people started doing it and though there was some great imagery created, a lot of it began to look like scenery. We mentioned Babel and Xanadu in our Clare introduction, quite positively. It says a lot about how society has changed in that we’ve approached them again, this time in a much darker context.