Deirdre O'Mahony
Rural Socials
11 March 2025
Rural Socials are a new monthly event at The Dock inviting artists and curators based or working in rural contexts to meet, connect and share their work.
Our next Rural Social will take place on Thursday 24 April at 7.30pm. Curator Caimin Walsh and artist Christopher Steenson will share their research from the residency programme titled Crex crex, crex crex, crex... (2022—) on the corncrake bird, and the exhibition The Sky is Falling! which took place in Ormston House, Limerick in 2024. The event will include a screening of Dhátheangach (Ioamí), a new artwork by Ceara Conway.
This is a free and relaxed event.
In 2022, Caimin Walsh and Ormston House partnered with Corncrake LIFE, a conservation project working with farmers in the Northwest of Ireland to improve habitat for the corncrake. Through a series of residencies, they connected artists with ecologists, landowners, and rural communities to learn about the corncrake, its decline, and the social and political context in which conservation work is implemented.
The Sky is Falling! featured contributions from artists Ceara Conway, Seoidín O’Sullivan, Scott Rogers, and Christopher Steenson, in which the corncrake was a point of departure. While some artists explored issues such as land use and national identity or relationships between human culture and non-human life, others mobilised systems of education and trade to instigate action and raise awareness. Together, the contributors offered us an enhanced understanding of our place within a shared ecosystem and helped us consider more sustainable and equitable forms of co-existence.
For the Rural Social, Caimin will share details of the research process supported by Conrcrake LIFE, along with elements of the various artworks developed as part of the project. Christopher Steenson will present his work The Long Grass 2022-2024 and its accompanying publication Each one started, each one started, each one started.
Caimin Walsh
Caimin Walsh is curator and facilitator from Limerick City. He is curator of civic engagement at Ormston House. Through his curatorial projects, he connects artists, communities and audiences to examine aspects of our shared cultural and natural heritage. He founded Anywhere Projects (est. 2019), a non-profit initiative that promotes visual art, music and performance in disused and unconventional spaces. He is a former chairperson of Spacecraft Studios (2018-25). He was selected for the MAC Curatorial Directions programme in Belfast, New York and Philadelphia (2019). In August 2023, he took part in the Curatorial Program for Research in Finland, Norway and Sweden.
Christopher Steenson
Christopher Steenson’s practice spans sound, lens-based media, text, and digital systems. His work seeks to bridge historical and speculative narratives in order to interrogate the politics of time, environment, and more-than-human relations. He has recently appeared in group exhibitions at The MAC, Belfast; Luan Gallery, Athlone; Freelands Foundation; LAVA, Mexico City; Pallas Projects/Studios, Dublin; Sonorities Music Festival, Belfast; Ormston House, Limerick; and CCA Derry~Londonderry.
Rural Socials are presented in association with Creative Frame and supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
