Oh Toads

I was delighted to collaborate with Cecilia Bullo on making her new artwork, “Oh Toads of the river, grieve. Oh Toads of the wetlands, Lament for me. Oh Land, grieve for me. 2023/24”.

It was an intense shoot, not least because she had approximately 18.5 kilos of jesmenite sculptures of toads perched on her airways throughout. I first met Cecilia by chance when I saw her show Being Haunted by the Breezes, Now How Will You Exist? at the Royal Hibernian Academy. I was very taken with the horde of toad sculptures all facing into a corner of the dimly-lit gallery, and was intrigued when I saw a note on the wall saying that they were available to buy. When I asked about this at the reception desk downstairs they told me I could just take whichever ones I wanted from the exhibit. I went back upstairs, announced to the several people watching that I’d been given permission to remove some toads and made my way towards the exit. A figure came out the darkness, wreathed in smiles. This was Cecilia. She was delighted I liked her toads and informed me they were made from ‘Jesmenite, toad DNA and spells”. “What kind of spells?” I asked.

“Good ones” she replied.

This work is part of Distinct, an exhibition in Project Arts Centre curated by Alan James Burns which explores the climate crisis through the perspective of disability. From the exhibition notes: “Cecilia Bullo presents a large-scale photographic work that reformulates cast sculptures of toads as a wearable assemblage on her body, exploring material cultures relating to rituals of healing and transformation through mythological, archaeological, feminist and ecological lenses.”

Artwork by Cecilia Bullo.
Curatorial direction by AlanJames Burns.
Production support by Marie Farrington.
Photography by Conor Horgan.
Photographic assistance by Sara Pirani
Makeup by Christopher Mc Cormack.

The exhibition runs until April 20th in Project Arts Centre, Dublin.

Thanks to Leanne Sullivan for the gallery photo of me with Cecilia and my intern Sara Pirani, who assisted on the shoot.

I made this portrait of one of Cecilia’s toads in my studio. Apparently she’s called Lucille.

Flag No. 6

Very happy that this work has just been bought for the Dun Laoire Rathdown Municipal Art Collection - many thanks to SO Fine Art Editions, who have more of my works in their gallery.

Flag No. 6, 2021, from Post-State (see more from this body of work here)

Culture Night 2022

Two of my five photographs that will be exhibited on September 23rd as part of the Íova Group Culture Night exhibition in Studio Ex, 72 Francis Street, D.8. This year the theme is Countercultures, with a focus on subcultures and the experiences of minorities. #CultureNight2022

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Asleep 4, Paris

Asleep 3, Paris

The Man with the Moving House

This is my portrait of musician Breanndán O' Beaglaoich, which was taken as part of a series of portraits of artists-in-residence at the Irish Cultural Centre, Paris. He’s featured in an upcoming RTE documentary 'The Man with the Moving House’, which documents Begley’s fifteen year battle with Kerry County Council to build a small traditional home in his ancestral village on the Dingle Peninsula. The film airs on Thursday, 25th August at 10.15pm on RTÉ ONE, and you can see more of my en résidence portraits here.

Three Exhibitions

It’s the last chance to see the three exhibitions in Dublin which are currently showing my work: the RHA Annual and Photo Ireland On Portraiture close this Sunday the 24th, and the SO Fine Art Editions show Still closes on July 30th. It’s been a good month.

Culture Night 2021

I have two offerings for Culture Night this year : A large-scale, one-off print of this image is for sale in the ÍOVA 2nd Annual Photography Exhibition: 6pm Friday 17th Sept 39/40 Arran Quay, till Sunday the 19th September.

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I am also delighted to have edited a specially commissioned short film for Decade of Centenaries 1921-2021, made by Susan Mannion, Matthew Gammon and Rory Pierce. You can see it here.

The film can also be viewed at 22 locations along the River Shannon in County Roscommon on Culture night by using a QR code. Information is on the Culture Night website for Roscommon.

Cecilia Danell

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Painter Cecilia Danell, photographed at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris.

Congratulations to Cecilia Danell, who has been awarded the ESB Keating Award and Silver Medal for an Outstanding Art Work at this year’s RHA Annual exhibition. She’s also shortlisted for the RCSI Art Award, which will be announced in December. This image is an out-take from a portrait I was commissioned to make by the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, which will be part of a semi-permanent exhibition of 18 portraits of artists-in-residence there from later this month. I’m really looking forward to seeing them up on the walls.

CECILIA DANELL - IN THE BIRCH PLANTATION. Oil and acrylics on canvas, 95 x 130 cm

You can see more of my portraits of artists in this gallery .