Martina O’Brien: At Some Distance in the Direction Indicated

Recent artist in residence Martina O’Brien is currently exhibiting new work at the fantastic Butler Gallery in Kilkenny. This exhibition stems from research gained by O’Brien through her time at The Irish Centre for High-End Computing, Dublin (2016) and here at Cow House Studios this past autumn during Rising from the Hill: Local Systems in Global Contexts, our six-week residency in collaboration with curators Kelley O’Brien and Francis Halsall. There is a “Meet the Artist” event on Wednesday, 4 April from 1-2pm.

The abstract future of climate and meteorological technologies are the central themes in O’Brien’s new body of work At Some Distance in the Direction Indicated. The exhibition explores the advancements in climate change research that enable society to navigate with ever increasing accuracy through time and space. The artworks also examine ideas surrounding the visibility and invisibility of climate data infrastructures, along with the accessibility to data collection and storage centres.

Amongst other artworks, At Some Distance in the Direction Indicated includes a series of stitched drawings informed by Lady Ada Lovelace’s contribution to computer science, an evocative video installation spotlighting the meteorological instruments and computational forecasts that predict Ireland’s extreme weather, and live CCTV footage from one of Ireland’s weather monitoring stations.

Pictured above is an installation view of Martina O’Brien’s work from Rising from the Hill: Local Systems in Global Contexts, NCAD Gallery (2017).