Kunstverein Aughrim presented an archival presentation, Eat Food Policy throughout Spring and Summer 2023.
A Summer Preview event took place in June 2023, consisting of a talk (Deirdre O’Mahony in conversation with Kate Strain), a walk (a guided foraging trail with local forager Geraldine Kavanagh), a picnic (by artist and cook Brenda Kearney following a week-long studio/kitchen residency in Aughrim), and a performance of the Song of the Farmer and the Dung Beetle featuring the voice and sounds of Siobhán Kavanagh. The event activities were devised in an attempt to share insight into O’Mahony’s working process as an artist, by offering a glimpse into The Quickening, a major commission developed for her solo exhibition at The Douglas Hyde Gallery in 2024 .
The experimental sound and vocal performance of Song of the Farmer and the Dung Beetle was a collaborative process with Michelle Doyle and Siobhan Kavanagh, using soil recordings of dung beetles, ants, birds and lambs recorded by O’Mahony with John Brennan. The vocals were based on edited conversations between the artist and regenerative farmer, Suzanna Crampton, a way of testing a methodology for The Quickening solo exhibition at the Douglas Hyde Gallery exhibited in 2024.
The Song of the Farmer and the Dung Beetle was commissioned by the School of Looking as part of Deirdre O’Mahony’s contribution to the Eco Showboat tour in St Mullin’s in July 2023.
