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30/01/25—02/02/25

Earthbound Tales

Karen Bowett, Dervla Clarke + Jamie Lemoine (POND Studios), Estibaliz Errazquin and Melissa O’Brien.

Opening night: 6-8 pm Thursday 30th January

Exhibition continues: Friday 31st January–Sunday 2nd February

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Part of the 2025 Brigit: Dublin City Celebrating Women, Pallas Projects/Studios are pleased to present Earthbound Tales, curated by Cristina Nicotra.

What does it mean to be native or non-native? What is nature, or natural?Earthbound Tales explores these questions.

The exhibition is inspired by the intricate relationships between the wider ecology of humans and non-humans that we are enmeshed with despite our urban life. It is an invitation for the community to discover and observe the inextricable assemblage of the novel, native, and almost-native-at-this-point ecologies in our landscape. It is an opportunity to feel the alternative time and space of these inhabitants with curiosity.

Connected with the concepts of harmony and interconnection, embodied by Brigid the Goddess, this exhibition observes amazingly self-organised ecosystems; the old, the new and the alien.

The artists tell tales of an earthbounded Dublin, with unexpected and inclusive perspectives of the ecology of the city. Karen Bowett shows us how to slow down to match the time of fellow beings, capturing their life in the urban context, and experimenting with biobased solutions. Dervla Clarke + Jamie Lemoine (POND Studios) invite us to listen to the unhearable in our frenetic life through a fascinating bioacoustic experience in one of the managed urban green spaces. Through a careful and slow exploration where unexpected wilderness found its space, Melissa O’Brien documented a long and complex relationship with a hidden place with a weighty history. The documentation of the performance of Estibaliz Errazquin where she cherished the affinities and differences. Remembering and reimagining the past of a faraway country in connection to one of the few wild areas in our present.

The constant discourse between humans and non-humans is brought to us as it appears, in its complexity.

A necessary and open discussion will bring us into intricate relationships in our urban environment, to discover how a plant could trigger strong feelings and observe the deeper feeling behind that. Artists and scientists will come together with the community to tell their tales and look for yours.

The exhibition concludes with a hands-on enquiry on how to document nature at nature's pace.

These events are an invitation to understand, accept and bond with our fellow beings and rewire the concepts of what is natural and native.

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Events:

Friday 31st January 6-7pm 

Earthbound Talks

Artists and scientists will come together to understand the intricate relationship between the ecology of humans and non-humans in our urban environment and novel ecologies.

Karen Bowett, Dervla Clarke + Jamie Lemoine (POND Studio), Estibaliz Errazquin and Melissa O’Brien.

Special guests for our panels include Marcus Collier, Associate Professor of Sustainability Science - Trinity College Dublin and Noeleen Smyth Assistant Professor in Environmental Horticulture at the University College Dublin

Free event, tickets available here

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Sunday 2nd February 2-4 pm

Earthbound Tales: Pinhole Photography Workshop

Earthbound Tales explores the local ecology with different eyes.The artists Karen Browett and Melissa O’Brien will explain the basics of pinhole photography.

Details and tickets here

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Brigit: Dublin Celebrating Women honours the Celtic goddess Brigit, a powerful symbol of inspiration, healing, wisdom, poetry, magic, smithcraft, protection, fire, and earth. More than a celebration of nature’s reawakening, the celebrations represent a time of renewal, creativity, and growth.

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Biographies

Karen Bowett

Karen Browett is a multidisciplinary artist, often drawing from previous qualifications in horticulture and time spent working with plants. Her recent focus has been on eco photo processes. Areas of concern include understanding the trouble with photographic practices, and thinking with plants to find modes of harm reduction. Experimenting with plant based photo developers broadened into an understanding of image making as a multispecies collaboration.

Karen has completed a post graduate diploma in Art and Ecology at NCAD and an MA in Arts and Research Collaboration in IADT (both First Class Hons). Karen was awarded the Arts Council Bursary in 2022 and the Agility Award in 2021. She was chosen as a Dlr Baths studio resident in 2024/25, a Future Labs resident artist at DAS Belfast 2022/23 and as ‘Emerging Artist Residency’ recipient at The Darkroom, D7 in 2022.

karenbrowett.com | @karen_browett

Dervla Clarke + Jamie Lemoine (POND Studios)

Dervla Clarke

Dervla is very interested in the intersections between contemporary art, design and urban ecology. She has a long background in visual design and creative strategy. She holds a Bachelor of Design from NCAD and has worked as a professional design consultant for many years. Dervla led a design firm with a partner in New York for ten years, with a focus on sustainability. She has worked closely with emerging digital technologies in San Francisco and Berlin, and is very interested in multidisciplinary approaches to solving complex problems. She has a particular interest in collaborative research and works with urban ecological sites as “learnscapes” to experiment and discover better ways of living together and building sustainable futures. Dervla recently completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Art & Ecology in NCAD.

Jamie LemoineJamie has worked with music and sound his entire career. He ran a music production studio out of esteemed recording studio Different Fur in San Francisco. An album he produced won best rap album at the California Music Awards. Working mainly in electronic and hip-hop, he has had Albums, EPs and individual tracks released on labels like Sony U.K, Warner Brothers and Stray Records (DogDay, Oakland CA). Jamie is now focused on creating lofi and experimental electronic music and sound compositions and working with field recordings. Recent work includes a composition in the Berlin Month of Contemporary Music festival, sound installations at various Berlin galleries and project spaces and a music composition for a site-specific project with Dervla in the meadow at IMMA for Earth Rising 2024.

Dervla and Jamie work together as POND Studios.

pondstudios.com | @pond.studios

Estibaliz Errazquin

Estíbaliz has a BA in Fine Art, an MPhil in Ethnic and Racial Studies, a Postgraduate Diploma in Art & Ecology and a Postgraduate Diploma in Arts in Healthcare Settings. Estíbaliz is the Engagement & Participation Coordinator at The Ark where she leads the child participation processes that supports and delivers The Ark’s programming. Estíbaliz has years of experience in managing, planning and delivering person centred programmes. She was also an Artist Facilitator in CDVEC (CDETB) and in diverse community settings.

Melissa O’Brien

Originally trained in fine art printmaking, Melissa O'Brien’s artistic practice has evolved to encompass analogue photography, using low-tech cameras and home-developed film, alongside communal making and workshop-based projects.In 2024, she completed the Professional Diploma in Art and Ecology at NCAD with Creative Futures Academy, expanding her practice to anthotypes, pinhole photography, soundscapes, and archival research. Her recent work explores the closed Water House Complex at the National Botanic Gardens, documenting its unique novel ecology while investigating themes of the anthropogenic, time, materiality, and process.She has recently created work with artist Pamela Dunne for RISK/ REWARD Limerick Printmakers at 25 shown at Limerick City Gallery and exhibited in Stories from the Gardens at the National Botanic Gardens.

After earning a BA in Printmaking from the Limerick School of Art and Design, Melissa co-founded Limerick Printmakers with two fellow graduates, creating a much needed studio for printmaking facilities, exhibition space, and educational programs, which she managed for 14 years. To support this initiative, she also completed a Master’s in Cultural Management at Northumbria University. Throughout this time she worked as an arts educator for the Limerick Vocational Educational Committee and on various projects and workshops. Melissa now works as a Guide and Information Officer at the National Botanic Gardens, and as part of the education team is responsible for many of the art workshops, communal makings and art projects at the Gardens.

@melissa.obr

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Pallas Projects/Studios is funded by The Arts Council