Recharge- Exhibition of Sculpture

Athluchtú / Recharge
Anna Macleod
12 April – 9 May 2025.
The work in this exhibition follows a 6 week residency at Áras Éanna on Inis Oírr in February 2020, a period of intense storms flowing in from the Atlantic ocean and just a few weeks before the first Covid lockdown on the 27th March.
Water Conversations is an ongoing series of research projects site responsive works by Anna Macleod that seek to tease out the interwoven meanings of meterological phenonoma, materials, histories, landscapes, ecologies and cultural objects. The intention is to build multilayered projects that are socially inclusive and can activate positive cooperative action.
Inis Oírr, the smallest of the Aran Islands is a place where the action of water is most visible in the formation of the unique visible surface the Glacio – Karst limestone landscape. Here water is held as a wealth of fresh groundwater interlinking the islands beneath the sea in an invisible network of rivers.
In her publication The Meaning of Water, (2004) the cultural anthropologist Veronica Strang uses an ethnography of water to show how the value of this essence of all life is encoded with our deepest held social, political, spiritual and environmental meanings and cultural practices.
The people of Inis Oírr, divorced from the water security of the mainland infrastructure, have a historical practice of rainwater harvesting for domestic and farming needs. Despite having untapped fresh water aquifer reserves flowing under the island, changing weather patterns and increased tourism to the island has put pressure on the water sources currently available and during the tourist season, water is shipped in daily by tanker to meet the needs of the island.
In response to the historical legacy of water self-sufficiency and conservation on the island, Macleod has developed a sculptural range of rainwater harvesting solutions that also act as pollination enhancers. Based on the Flóra Feirme (Flowers of the Farm), catalogued in the ‘Census Catalogue of the Flora of Ireland’ 2nd edition (Scannell and Synott 1987) the sculptures are abstractions of the Brlúlán ( Burnet Rose), Dédhuilleog (Twayblade) Magairlín an loscáin (Frog orchid) Féar gortach (Quaking grass) and Slánlus (Ribwort plantain).
A flag emblem, hand made by Anna Macleod celebrating the historical and contemporary practices of water harvesting on Inis Oírr will be gifted to the Island community at the end of this exhibition.
With sincere thanks to the Islanders of Inis Oïrr, Dara McGee & Áras Éanna, Máire Ui Mhaoláin, Cormac Coyne, Mary Mc Carthy, Anna Legge, Paddy Murphy of the Irish Society of Diviners and, Dr. Eamon Doyle, Geologist, Burren and Cliffs of Moher UNESCO Global Geopark.

Biography
Anna Macleod is an independent visual artist, researcher and educator based in Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim. Her work mediates complex ideas associated with contemporary, historical and cultural understandings of land and water through a variety of visual art media. She has exhibited extensively in Ireland and Internationally since the 1990’s.
Recent awards include residencies at Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris in 2021 & 2022. In 2023 & 24, A Reach Scotland Residency Award to Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and an International Artist Residency Award for Pasaj, Istanbul & Interface, Connemara, Ireland, May & October 2023.
Anna received a Platform 31 Award from Association of Local Authority Arts Offices & Visual Arts Bursary Award from the Arts Council of Ireland in 2021 and a Agility Award in 2023. Recent exhibitions at STAC, Clonmel with Katherine Sankey, 2024 & Áras Éanna Gallery, Inis Óirr Island in 2025 & solo show at The Dock in 2026.
She was an invited artist to 194th RHA Dublin exhibition in 2024 and received the Moran Award for Outstanding Sculpture.