Le Chéile Information

Monica de Bath


Biodh go bhfuil mo shaothar bunaithe go háitiúl tá tionchar ag an dearcadh faoi inscne agus tir air.

While my work is sited at rural locations its concerns are informed by attitudes and values to gender and land. My practice explores the connections between people and land with which they work and interact. It is concerned with emotive layers that link us to previous generations, and the changing value of land, which has been shaped and reshaped by our interaction with it.

I was born in a small rural village in Co. Laois and grew up speaking both Irish and English. I studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and am currently studying for a Masters in Visual Arts Practice. Most of my printmaking I learned from being involved in the Leinster Print Studio, a place I value for networking and collaborations with other artists, such as Le Chéile. Having an opportunity to collaborate with artists, across the seas allows me to engage in a visual language with a like-minded person who is also communicating the temporality of a place and of a time.

My temporary studio looks across to the old sod peat collection area of Ballydermot Works near Rathangan in County Kildare, Ireland. It is sited on the bog of Allen and sits beside a massive workshop where machines for harvesting the peat are maintained and housed. Ballydermot is a place where workspace meets bog, where the old Hunslett locomotive with its well worn blue-black seat stands beside a line of loading wagons.

My prints attempt to communicate a sense of this place and a trace of the people who inhabit and work it.